Shawnee Upton

SHAWNEE IS A FABULOUS GIRL

The beautiful Shawnee is a young black Labrador who, now, lives in Durham and is owned and loved by Lesley and her family. She adores adults and children alike. Can you believe this beautiful girl was ever unwanted?

Here she is having fun on the beach.

MANY CONGRATULATIONS SHAWNEE.

Everybody is absolutely delighted and proud because, after a lot of dedicated training by Lesley, Shawnee has been officially accepted as a PAT dog.

FURTHER UPDATE on SHAWNEE

Isn’t she just the best! We are so proud of her.  It was Shawnees 1st gotcha day on Tuesday, 22 May. We sent her a rawhide birthday card through the post and she went crazy when the postman delivered it, I guess she could smell it.  She got a new leather bed and a raised feeding station from us, a beautiful tag from Ben and Lucy, a new toy pheasant from gran and a packet of her favourite treats, sea jerky, from my auntie (who also sent her a doggie easter egg at easter!).  I made her a liver birthday cake but she was only allowed one slice so she shared that with her friends!

Unfortunately we have had to get xrays and more treatment for her elbow.  We know she has arthritis and although it isnt the worst case the vet has seen, it is definitely cause for concern. We are gutted for her as the vet has advised us to keep her to 10 min lead walks only for the time being.    Thank goodness for clicker training otherwise she would be miserable, although we are cheating a little bit with the walks, we are driving to different places which are mainly grass or sand so it is a soft surface to protect her elbow from impact a bit and letting her play longer.  I know it a contentious decision but I really think her quality of life comes first and no off lead play would be just miserable.  We are watching her carefully and this seems to be working fine at the moment.

Of course it means I don’t want to ask her to go visiting at the moment, hence no photos.  Once we know she is pain free and up for it, we will start our visits again and send you some photos.  She really loves going to the home, she knows it is biscuit time!!  I clicker trained her to ‘say hello’, it means she goes and lays her head in the lap of whoever I am pointing at.  It was meant so the residents could stroke her easily but it turns out its the old dears favourite trick so it gets the most treats!!

I have attached some recent photos, isnt she beautiful?  I am having a cross stitch done of her, I will send you a photo when it is finished.

Take care and keep up the fab work.