November update

Hi,





I have been slacking badly and have missed an update completely for September and October, hangs head in shame !!





Jess is still doing very well and recovered well from being spayed. She did develop a slight infection in one of the stitches but this has now all healed.





One thing has made me laugh quietly, Jess has been used to my Bernese Billie sleeping on my second sofa (as far as Billie's concerned it is her sofa !) but Jess's face when Billie got up next to me for a cuddle was a picture. Jess then tentatively slithered up next to me after Billie got off, she looked like she was expecting to be turfed off very rapidly but when she realised it was ok and she even got cuddles she has now decided this is the space for her every night. Jess will wait until Billie has got off or if Billie is asleep on her own sofa then Jess will come and stand by the sofa and wait until I tell her she can get up.

As you can see from the photo she is very much at home with me on the sofa. If I lay on my side with my legs up she will snuggle down behind my legs with her head on my leg.


Jess seems really content now and I am thankful that I have discovered that Jess is not petrified of fireworks. She barks at the loud ones but other than that does not seem to be affected by them. I add rescue remedy to their water from a few days before bonfire night and if Billie is stressing a lot I use it directly in her mouth. I have not invested in a T shirt for her as she pants so much and gets so hot when fireworks go off I would worry that she would overheat.

I went to Paws in the Park again this year and there were even more interesting stalls. I was hoping to get to Discover Dogs in London as well next week but unexpected bills have put paid to this. Jess recently suffered with a bad sickness and diarrhoea bug but seems to be all ok again now.

This is a short note but I hope to do better next time and have more news for you all.

Bye for now

August update

Hi there,

Things are still going very well with Jess, I was a bit worried about her after her spay operation as it took a while for the swelling to go down and she had a slight infection with one of the stitches. This has all healed now.

I have yet to make it to Black Dog Tan training as my shifts have been all over the place recently and a new rota is due to come in on 14th Sept, hopefully then I can look at organising at trip to the dog training.

Not long now until Paws in the Park dog show, depending on the weather I may take Jess, Billie would not cope with a dog show all day. Last time we took Linda's border collie and discovered 'mekuti' harness, Jay was a consistant puller but after using the harness a few times changed to a more pleasant dog to walk. If you have a dog scared of fireworks or other stress I can recommend a Mekuti T Shirt - I picked one up for Linda while in Wales as my sister lives not far from where they are sold (you can get them online - http://www.mekuti.co.uk/about.htm - if I had not seen it with my own eyes I wouldnt believe it, Jay when noises are about (fireworks, guns, even doors banging) was petrified and would pace, pant and shake constantly. When we put the T shirt on him within half an hour he was laying down and fell asleep. He still gets stressed but with the t shirt on he is nowhere near as bad. Linda had previously used a mekuti wrap with worked but it is not advisable to leave them alone with one on whereas with the t shirt it is ok.

Will pop back and add a bit more on this and post some recent pics

July update

Hi There,

A lot has happened since my last update. On June 14th I attended a Companionship Dog Show in aid of Rottweiler Welfare in Crowhurst. I was so pleased with Jess she behaved herself beautifully and it was lovely to meet up with Roni Parish who's name I found in a Dog Magazine as a contact for breed advice on Rottweilers. I spoke with Roni in general about Rottweilers before I made the decision to take on Jess. It was nice to put a face to the name.

Jess excelled herself and as well as winning the Veteran class and Best Rescued Rottweiler ( see pic below of Jess with Judge when she won the Best Rescued Rottweiler)

She took part in her Bronze good citizen award and passed. I was so proud of her, she still has 'a thing' about small white terriers i.e. seems fascinated by them and if not watched will attempt to 'mouth' them, there is no sign of agression she seems to try to pick them up, almost like a bitch with a pup - sadly little dogs dont seem to appreciate this and it is very easy to nip in the bud as I have got to read Jess's body language and know when she is about to try this and a quick 'No' and she doesnt attempt it. Anyway - guess what dog I was in with for the good citizenship !! Yep you guessed it a white Jack Russell !!! well Jess was sooo good and ignored it beautifully and did the recall without diverting to the Jack. I wasn't sure that Jess would handle the minute down stay at the end of the lead but she did not move a muscle.

Once my shift pattern is settled (they are talking about changing my shifts yet again !!) I am looking at a dog training class not too far away from me that is aimed particularly at Rotties although does also offer training for other breeds. It is a club called Black Dog Tan. I would love to carry on with the good citizen and get to gold level. Jess's training is still ongoing on walks, her recall is getting better with dogs in the distance I no longer have to put her on a lead as soon as I see a dog in the distance, Jess is also meeting up with more dogs on walks. We have a regular gang we walk with (see pic below)

As if this wasnt enough going on for Jess, she went in to be spayed on Friday 10th July, was very groggy all night after and a lot of the day after. I stayed downstairs on the sofa overnight on Friday as Jess was very wobbly but slept soundly. If you have read earlier blogs you will see that I was unsure about having her spayed but wanted to be sure she would not suffer from Pymetria.

Before I sign off for this months update I just wanted to show you a few pictures of Jess with one of my cats Tabetha, taken in the garden - another testimony really to how it can work out when you take on an older dog.

That is all for now, will update again soon

June issue of the updates

Well here we are in June with the warmer weather upon us, Jess does not like the heat and will find shade wherever possible. In the other extreme if it is raining she likes it even less - has to be forced out in the rain. This morning we all went to Capstone at 07:30 in the pouring rain !! oh the joys of dog ownership lol. Please note that the pics shown were of course taken on a lovely sunny day, not this morning in the monsoon !!

On the plus side there were only a couple of cars at the park - I wonder why!!! so Jess was off lead all the way round and happily chasing Jay with his ball. I sometimes take Jess's chucker and ball but she is not really interested it is obviously not as good as taking Jay's off him. But then Jay is a bit dense as he walks up and puts his ball down right in front of Jess!!

I have taken a couple of pics from the park of the dogs together

I will update more this month as we are off on our hols in a couple of weeks time, we are going to stay with my brother Chris and sister in law Lyn in Wales, it will be the first time they have met Jess, and I normally stay with my sister Gerry at her and her partner John's kennels and cattery (we stay in the house I hasten to add they dont make me or the dogs sleep in the kennels) As I am taking Jess for the first time we thought it better for me to stay with Chris and Lyn as my sister Gerry has 3 Bernese (Billie's brother Merlin, her half sister Morgan and Morgan's son Luka) and 5 dogs in the house might be a bit too much. I am not sure how Jess will take the holiday but hopefully we will be able to find some nice 'sheep free' areas to walk her or she might try to round them up !!

Will keep you all posted !!

bye for now

3 months down the line

Sorry it has been so long since updating Jess's blog. Time has flown by...

Well it has now been 3 months and things are still going well. I am learning new things about Jess all the time, likes and dislikes. Still have some 'quirks' which are not all just her but I think are traits of the breed.

Having met up with a few Rotties on walks now some of Jess's behaviour - like the freezing when spotting another dog and looking like a 'gonna pounce on it' mode seems to be part of their makeup.

Jess has had a season while with me and was very clean, She has just finished and now the wait for 6 weeks before I can have her spayed. I did debate whether to or not at her age but it was hell not being able to walk her properly and I do worry about an older girl getting Pyometra especially after her being used for breeding. I have talked it over with my vet and her condition is much improved since she came home with me. She has put on 3 kg and has muscled up with being walked twice a day. It will cost £150 and although not something I was thinking would be done but that was mainly because I was expecting to have Jess for a month or two before her time had come, a nice comfortable home to end her days but she has come on so far, she looks younger than her given estimate of 8 yrs old, she bounces like a tigger out on walks bless her.

Jess has also learnt all about how to play with a ball - has been out with Linda's dogs many times with Jay chasing the ball and then one day 'boom' she had to play with the ball and kept picking it up when Jay dropped it and running off with it. Jay is the cornish border collie and is so good with other dogs, no possessivness just leaves her to run around with it and then pinches it back when she drops it or I retrieve it from her. She now has her own ball and 'chucker' but I have found she cant chase it too much as her wonky front legs let her down and if she turns too fast she falls over. I tend to let her chase Jay for a while as she doesn't twist so much then and I throw her ball a little way for her so she feels she is getting her own ball.

Mine and Linda's friend Suzi with her husband James have been over this week from Tennessee and they have come walking with us too. Jay is smitten with James and follows him about and get the ball thrown in the garden. Jess is not fussed one way or another if Jay has his ball she just follows him about.

I have yet to take Jess with me to Linda's as her collie x spaniel Meg is quite frail and elderly but we are going to time it so that they have been for a lovely walk/run to Capstone the large country park and preferably on a warm day so they just want to flake out as they do when they get back and so it will be a calm visit - that is the plan anyway.

We got back this afternoon from a nice walk at Capstone and I thought I had better mow the lawn before I sat down or I wouldnt get up again !! I had help and supervision from Jess and Billie as you can see from the photo above ....

It is so lovely to see her in the evenings curled up in her bed sleeping so contentedly, snoring for England - stereo with Billie. They seem to be very happy together and will share the same bowl of water after a walk and lay side by side, they have even been seen to give each other kisses but never when I have a camera handy lol.

I did think long and hard before I took on Jess and am so glad I took the decision to take her, I cant say that every older dog will work out as well and there have been downs as well as the ups .... Like the time that Linda came over to let the dogs out for me while I was working and text me to call her - when I phoned her Linda let me know that Jess had decided that the VERY full kitchen bin (it was due to go out that night for bin day) would be much better if all the contents were spread throughout the downstairs in the house !! Linda never knew my bin held that much !! it took her 45 minutes to clear it up, I still had more to clear up when I got in bless her, she did have the decency to look shamefaced when I got home. the bin is now kept in the outside toilet lol. There have been teething problems with Jess in respect that she is the first full Rotty I have owned and I was wary of taking an older dog without knowing any history but she has such a sweet temperment and has not put a foot wrong when meeting people - apart from the incident with the Kennel owner and I feel there was good reason for her reaction and still blame myself for that incident (see earlier post re that)

That is all for now but will try not to leave it so long before the next update.

Just a word to anyone thinking of adopting an older Rotty - Please give an older dog a chance you may find that you gain so much.

It is definately something I would do again in a heartbeat, I would fully expect there would be adjustments to be made and I try very hard to adopt a Cesar Milan attitude of not feeling sorry for her for anything that may have happened in her past but being positive in outlook for her future. The look in Jess's eyes when she is laying beside me indoors and rests her head on me and gives a big sigh and snuggles into me is reward enough and when she is out with Billie and doing her funny crooked bunny hop when chasing the ball or Jay.

7 weeks of having Jess

Well as the title says, I have had Jess for 7 weeks as of today. See if you think there is an improvement in her body condition? I think so

A shinier, alert looking Jess (a dog had just appeared in the distance at the park)

There have been a lot of improvements in the time I have had Jess, a few set backs but not too many. The housetraining is much better, although there are still the occasions of her weeing by the front door when I am out, still a part of her separation anxiety but this is slowly improving. She does still sometimes seem to panic when she wakes from a deep sleep until she realises where she is and lets out a deep sigh and snuggles down in her bed for another snooze. I hope that she now feels safe and secure.



We are not at the point of her being off lead yet and we still have a long way to go with general training. There is still the very dominant body posture as soon as a dog is spotted in the distance, she mostly is good with them when she finally meets up with them although she seems to focus a lot on any kind of small white dog, she has mouthed at dogs if they attempt to play or move away from her quickly. Hopefully this will improve once she is told 'no' a few times when she does this, she will also mouth when she gets excited, Jess has been learning how to play, she fetches a squeaky ball and brings it back but does occasionally mouth when playing. There are no teeth used and she backs off immediately .



Jess is slowly gaining weight still, have now cut her food down slightly. I will order her a bioflow collar to help with her stiffness in her legs, she is dragging her back legs a lot less, only the occasional time and is now up to 40-60 minutes walking a day. Billie and Jess visited the groomer this week and both look lovely. I use Lisa's Pride n Groom in Gillingham, Kent and have to say I am always pleased with the result, my Bernese Billie has a 'bikini trim' lol, clipping some of the fur from under her tail and also some from the inside of her legs, she is not shown and although they are not normally clipped it does help as she seems to make a beeline to any bushes !! Lisa is very patient with Billie as she rests a lot while at the groomers due to her age and stiffness, Jess was very good and behaved perfectly.

This is a picture taken in Capstone Park after their bath day.

All I have to sort out with Jess now is her penchant for dragging the cat beds out - hopefully not with the cats in them !! while I am out. She also jumps up onto the settee as soon as I leave and pushes it against the radiator. I have found incriminating scratch marks on my lovely pine dining table which is near the side window that she jumps up at. I have looked online but not been able to find a website where I can hire cameras. The sort you see used in tv programmes etc to watch what is happening when you are not there. Will keep looking online as this would be really good to see what she is up to while I am out.

Well that is all for now folks. Will update again in a weeks time. My sister will have visited from Wales by then with her Bernese - Luka.

Learning more about Jess

Well on Sunday will be a month since Jess came home. The above picture is from our last walk at Capstone Country Park. They are thankfully over their kennel cough now, not a single cough from them since Sunday.

Jess is still sometimes hard to understand and her body language is something I am getting used to. I think it will be a long time before I would be able to allow her off lead unless in an enclosed area with only dogs she knows. She focuses on any dog in the distance and runs back and forth on her lead and if there was no lead I do not think she would return to me and ignore whatever she sees in the distance.

Hopefully Jess will be enjoying her new home and companions as much as I (and hopefully her companions) are enjoying her company. There is no doubt more to learn on both sides.

Only a short update this time but will be back with more.

Light at the end of the tunnel

It is now three weeks and four days since I brought Jess home. The housetraining has come on in leaps and bounds and I am pleased to say that on my first full night shift away from home on Monday there was only one small puddle in the hall. Linda had been over to Jess twice, once at 10 pm and then again at 06:30 am to let the dogs out in the garden, I then got home at 09:20 and took both dogs to the park for a good run.

As I have said previously I may get some comments from people regarding my working full time but still taking on a rescue dog. Although I do work strange and sometimes long shifts, my work is mostly nights when the dogs would be sleeping anyway and they are always taken for a good walk both before I leave and when I get home. The exception has only been due to the kennel cough and not wanting to go to my normal parks where a lot of dogs go. There must be people out there who go to bed early - maybe 9-10 pm and get up later than 06:30 and if you think how long dogs are left in kennels - often fed about 4-5 pm and then kennel lights turned off and closed until the next morning.

Both my dogs have toys and bones to chew on/play with while I am away and as both dogs are older they do tend to sleep a lot anyway. There is a treat ball put out which is mostly rolled around by Jess - Billie, considering her love of food, is not too interested I guess it is too much effort for her she prefers her food to be hand delivered straight to her mouth !!

Billie is on her 3rd dose of anti biotics and there is a definate improvement, she is only giving the occasional cough indoors and I havent heard her cough outside for a couple of days now. The fresh air seems to help outside. While I was at the vets I had Jess weighed and she has put on almost 2 kg since I have had her, she weighed 34.8 kg when I got her and is now 36.2. The average weight I can find for a Rottie female is 38kg but Jess is I would say a smallish girl so feel no more than a kg for her to put on so I will start to cut her food back slightly now as I do not want her to put on too much as this would put strain on her hind legs. Billie is on a constant diet bless her it hasnt helped being so restricted with exercise so I can now hopefully build them back up.

My sister is due to visit from Wales in April and will have Billie's half nephew - think that is right Luka's mother Morgan is Billie's half sister - same Dam different Sires. This could be interesting !! my sister will be staying with me for a couple of days so will see how they get on. I am still finding it a learning curve to decipher Jess's body language when out. She gives off a very dominant body posture when she first sees a dog in the distance but has not shown any aggression. She does seem to have a high chase drive and I think if a dog ran she would chase. I am in no rush to allow her off lead and will see how things develop it will be much easier when this pesky kennel cough is well and truly over and I can socialise her more.

Jess seems to becoming more settled and is learning a few more commands, she now knows sit, come and we are working on the down ! she knows off and no. It feels like she has been with us a lot longer. I have found one of her most endearing traits is when she wakes up during the day or evening and this head slowly lifts from the bed with her tongue always sticking out and a bleary eyed look when she looks around as if to check she is still here in the warm in her bed and then snuggles down again for another snooze.

More to come on another day no doubt!!

Cost of a rescue dog

This is a listing of the costs involved in taking on my first older rescue dog Jess. I could have not spent out on vet treatment for Billie or included it here but I have been concerned for her being an older dog and the vet fees would not have been spent if I had not brought Jess home.

Lead .............................................................£3.50
Collar & Name Tag ...................................£12.00
Dog Bed.......................................................£25.00
Vacc, mite, wormer...................................£39.00
Homoeopathic Kennel cough nosode.......£10.27
Anti Biotics for Billie.................................£25.00
Nasal swab & 2nd anti biotic for Billie....£78.00
2nd Vacc & 2nd wormer/mite................£29.00
Public Liability Insurance - 1 yr.............£60.00
Anti Biotics for Billie..................................£25.00

TOTAL.....................................................£306.77

A not so good day!

Jess in the bed I bought for her but she takes turns on the other bed I had put out in case she prefers a flat bed. Billie prefers the settee !!

Well today I have had Jess for 3 weeks, in some ways it seems like yesterday and in other ways it feels that she has been here a lot longer.

I took her back to the kennels yesterday to have her microchip put in and I feel I let her down somewhat. I spoke to the owner of the kennels who does the micro chipping and said I didn't want to bring her back into the kennel area due to the kennel cough, he said he would come out to the car, I went to get her out of the car and he said he would do it inside the car - I felt it would be cramped but felt he knew best - well I should have stuck with my instincts...

The owner is not a small man and I guess the combination of him trying to inject the chip in a confined space - having me in front of her as well - well she snapped at him and bit him on his side. Jess backed away immediately. it was a snap and not what I would call an attack. He was fine about it, I think he realised why she had done it.

I wont hold this against her, she has shown no sign of aggression towards myself or others so far apart from this incident. Having seen the way she often flinches or cowers away if I make any sudden moves I wouldn't be surprised if she had not been hit in the past.

Really I suppose this is the worst side of rescuing a dog whose history you have no clue about. I could speculate until the cows come home - I wish I could know what she has been through in her life, it could be an awful lot if she is as old as we think. On talking with friends we have speculated that she has been kennelled and used for breeding. The hard patches of skin on her elbows and hind legs make me think she has lived outside, she also seems unsure of things indoors but I think has settled well so far.

On another note I have taken Billie back to the vets as the cough seemed worse, her nasal swab came back negative, the vet has put her on another course of anti-biotic so hopefully this will help. I feel so bad in not being able to take them for what I call proper walks - I have two lovely country parks near me that I use that have many different paths and fields. I don't want to take my dogs there at the moment and risk infecting other dogs. It will be lovely when the cough has gone though, all the places that Jess can explore with Billie and with Linda's three dogs.

Having taken the plunge and frightened myself I have also got a blog on here called 'the cost of a rescue dog' with the expenses so far with Jess, I have included the anti-biotic for Billie as they are a result of bringing Jess home. I don't regret for a single minute bringing Jess into our little family and it was wonderful for the first time yesterday when Jess had a go at playing - she does not seem to know what a ball or a toy is but when I was playing the fool (not unusual sadly !!) with Billie, Jess started to join in and to see her eyes brighter and her tail wagging was a joy to see. It is also so endearing when she wakes up all sleepy eyed in one of her beds !! her tongue is always sticking out slightly and she looks around if she has to check where she is.

well as they say in the cartoons :- that's all for now folks !!

A good day

Latest pic of Jess, I think there is a slight improvement

Today and yesterday have been good days, no little accidents. Gave both dogs a good brush - it is quite strange having a short haired dog after my hairy Bernese. My last short haired dog was Bess a Rotty x Lab - a beautiful girl who I sadly lost at the young age of 8 yrs due to paralysis after a spine infection.

I have noticed with Jess that when she wakes from a deep sleep her tongue is sticking out slightly - see photo on previous post. She always looks so groggy bless her but it is nice to see as when she first came she only catnapped so hopefully she now feels safer and more settled.

Jess is still doing well with the cats, I have to watch her with them in the garden as if they play chase with each other I can see that Jess would like to join in but I don't quite trust her enough for that to happen yet. She is happy to be next to the cats when they are on my lap but is still wary as Dudley the male has been known to swipe at her if he feels she is too close. This has made her wary with Tabetha and Whizzy but she has nudged then and given a sloppy kiss - or was that a way of tenderising them before the chomp !!

Jess with Tabetha

I went along to a training class this evening that one of my friends attends. I chatted to the trainer about taking Jess along in a few weeks time, this will I hope be a good way of allowing her to socialise and although I will be doing a lot of training with her myself it will be good to do some training with other dogs in close proximity.

I hope that in a few weeks time Jess will be a lot more settled and feel safer that she wont be going anywhere else. I am due to take her back to the kennels this Saturday for her microchip to be fitted.

That's all for now folks !!!

Next chapter in the ups and downs of Jess's new home

Excuse the glowing eyes - am not good with photo editing !!

Well I am off for a week at the moment and am hoping to make progress with Jess. I am a great follower of both Jan Fennell and Cesar Milan's style of training and I feel that a lot of their training makes perfect sense. I have used this method a lot with my dogs and feel the results warrant the continued use.

I use a lot of praise and reward for good behaviour and do my best to react to any problems - especially the lack of housetraining - with calm and not saying anything, taking Jess into the garden and praising her when she 'performs' as she should and I am pleased that I was actually here at one point when she went to wee in the hall so could catch her in time with a 'NO' and take her outside immediately and praise her and reward with a biscuit for going in the correct place. It is like having a puppy again lol

Unfortunately I cant walk them at the moment in the local parks because of the kennel cough, Billie is still very badly affected by it, well I say badly - I have not had a dog with kennel cough before but I just hate seeing her coughing and with green mucus coming from her nose now and then. Jess doesnt seem to have it very bad at all and only the occasional cough. It worried me enough to take Billie into my vet who put her on anti biotics and then later took a nasal swab which has thankfully come back with no nasty surprises and he has advised that I just need to let it play itself out.

Any training at the moment is taking place at home in the house and garden, I have taken them out occasionally to a local off road area to stretch their legs but keep well away from any dogs. Jess knows 'come' and although she pulls slightly - especially if she sees a dog in the distance - she is easy to distract with a change of direction or 'tsch' noise to get her to focus on me. I use a flexi lead on her so she can sniff about.

I have been very wary of adding up any costs involved in taking Jess on but have decided to keep a tally just out of interest. Will maybe put this on here seperately, or maybe I wont want to frighten myself lol

There seems to be slight improvement in Jess's weight but I am very wary or rushing it, the condition of the coat I think will take a while as well, I had to give in and bath her on her second day here though - I have hardly any sense of smell and she smelt ripe to me so must have been bad. she was so good, I lifted her into the bath and luckily it has the metal grabrails inset in the bath (previous owner of the house was an elderly lady) and I clipped her lead to this but needn't have bothered she never moved around at all. In one way it is lucky she is underweight at the moment, any heavier and I wouldnt be able to lift her in and out.

Today I have not been a good girl, have not been out much and left her, will remedy that tomorrow and be out a bit longer. Dont want her to think I am here all the time this week or will be harder when I go back to work. I have used any and all training I can think of as Jess suffers a lot with separation anxiety, this seems to be the main time she messes and jumps up at the windows. Have been leaving by different doors, for different times. Sometimes I go out in the car and come back quickly, wearing wellies sometimes which usually signals to my dogs that it is their walk. Have gone out with my work bag and only been out a short while. I also stick to the idea of not greeting them when I come home, I walk in and do something - anything - like put the kettle on, sit down and wait til they settle and then call them to me for a big fuss and cuddle. This seems to have worked well with my existing dog and seems to be working for Jess. There is no jumping about when I come in, she is nicely calm and is getting to know the routine. I make sure I prepare their food but I eat first. She has learnt that when I sit down to eat it is her time to rest on her bed. Any sitting too near or looking like begging a quick 'OFF' and she will go and lay down until her meal time. I cant believe really (apart from the toilet training) how well she is settling in and she just has such a sweet temperment.

Well that is enough for now - more to follow

The story of my first Rotty rescue

Jess on her first outing from the kennels to properly meet Billie

Well here goes with my first ever blog!! I am not sure if anyone will even look at this, will wait and see

I have owned dogs for most of my years from the age of 1o, these have been mostly pups or taking in dogs from 'friends' who have either grown tired of them or had problems

I lost my 2nd German Shepherd Ven in July 2007 1 week after his 13th birthday. Ven was my 2nd German Shepherd.
Ven 2007 aged 13 years

This left me with my beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog lady called Billie (yes she is a girl) - see picture - who is now the grand age of 9 and will be 10 in June. I have kept it from her that the average age for her breed is 7-8 yrs. Billie was bred by my sister who still has Billie's brother Merlin, his half sister Morgan and one of Morgan's pups Luka. (makes for a very full house at Christmas !)

Billie aged 7 yrs

Anyway getting back to the main topic of this blog - Jess.

I made the mistake of visiting the local council pound with a friend Linda which we have done now and then in the past - I moved to live opposite Linda in June 2007, she has been my best friend for approx 28 years !! and we are more like sisters.

oh my god am I that old !!!

Linda has 3 dogs already and was not really looking and I have tentatively looked as have missed having two dogs.

So anyway there I am looking in the pens at the kennels - giving it the AAH factor, in the first row of kennels the ever present staffy that you find at rescue kennels. In the end pen there were a pair of brown eyes looking out through the entrance door - then appeared a little bit more of the head. A smallish Rotty head emerged, followed by an underweight body with an obvious problem of some kind to her back legs, having had at least one litter of pups possibly a lot more. Wanting to say hello but very unsure. I crouched down by the pen fence and talked quietly to her she came over and leaned against me through the mesh with those beautiful brown eyes I stroked her wrinkly nose.

Jess's ribs when I first walked her

We continued looking around the kennels seeing all the many staffies there and a gorgeous cross bred that was approx 8 months old and looked like a wolfhound terrier cross or something !! a very thin black greyhound (another regular inhabitant of rescue centres!!!) but I was drawn back to the kennel with Jess in. The kennel maid brought her out to me and she sat beside me and looked up at me !!

We walked her a bit outside the kennel but didn't go far, Jess obviously has a problem with her back legs/spine and sometimes drags her back feet (I thought maybe muscular atrophy as my shepherd had suffered from this and similar gait) Enquired if I would be able to bring my dog to meet her which was agreed.

Next day I returned with Billie and they seemed fine, not gambling about but then it is a long time since Billie has done that - she is more a gentle stroll type of girl - but they ambled about happy to walk beside each other. I then asked if they would be happy for me to take Jess into my vet for him to check her over. Which they agreed to.

Next day everywhere was covered by snow and roads horrendous so had to leave it another day before returning. Took Jess into my vet who knowing I live on my own and aware that I do not have unlimited funds - advised that 'if you are sensible you will return her to the kennels and walk away' in a tone of voice that shows he knows (having been my vet for nearly 30 years) that I am far from sensible !! Without a full exam using x rays etc he was unable to give an exact diagnosis but has said she is likely suffering from degeneration of the spine - more or less the spinal muscular atrophy I had thought of. She also has front legs that click outwards at the wrist joint when walking, underweight and slight discharge from eyes. After examining her the vet feels she is in no pain and the spine will eventually give out and she will be paralysed on her rear end (the same as my shepherd Ven bless him) so I decided to return her to the kennel for the night (was very tempted just to take her home then !) and think very carefully about this as I would not be able to insure her due to age and pre existing conditions. I returned Jess to the kennels and hated walking away from her, I passed on the verdict of my vet to the kennel staff and advised I would go home and would think about it overnight. I also had to consider my 3 cats at home !!

Well !!! to say I didn't sleep much would be an understatement !! I returned to the kennels and asked if I could take her home to see how she was with the cats and if all OK I would keep her overnight to see how things progressed. I have to say here that the kennel owner and staff were always helpful, never pushy and happy to fit in with me taking Jess out to vets etc.

Just look at those eyes !!!
On Sunday 8th of February Jess came home and is still here !!


Jess is my 7th dog but she is my first adult dog from a pound with absolutely no history so I guess we will both have a lot of adapting to do !!

When I picked Jess up from the kennels I had my girl Billie on the back seat and put Jess in the estate part. We then went to our local park to walk them before coming home so they both came in together. Billie rarely has a lead on except for late night walks (mainly because she will scavenge on roadsides - you can probably tell from the picture that she is obviously starved !!) so I put the flexi lead on Jess. She seemed pleased to be out in the open and walked along quite happily if a bit wobbly.


We returned home - luckily my cats have lived with dogs all their lives and been used to friends and my sister's dogs visiting so when a new dog is in the house they move around very slowly. Jess was very interested in the cats but was very good when told NO and backed away from them, the cats are not afraid to tell off strange dogs and let them know who is boss. All seemed good so far, I phoned the kennels and let them know that Jess would be staying here overnight.


Jess spent the evening choosing between a high sided square bed or a thick duvet type bed although a lot of the evening was spent with her head on my leg trying not to fall asleep. Billie was so good with her and no jealousy at all and they spent a lot of time with both their heads next to each other on my lap. I had a fright at one time I had forgotten to pick up Billie's bones I heard crunching and came in from the kitchen to find the dogs both lying on the rug together chewing the bones . We went back to the park in the afternoon with one of Linda's dogs Jay - a border collie from Cornwall. Jess was OK with Jay although at one time she showed dominant behaviour of trying to put her head over his neck and the beginnings of trying to mount him which Jay objected to - no surprise, Jess mouthed him but no teeth involved and it was all very quick.


I settled Jess overnight in the kitchen with the square bed, she started to bark about 01:40 but on opening the door saying NO and retreating she was quiet the rest of the night, the same the next night but have had no mid- night barking since. The house training is a totally different matter though, and non existant. I cant obviously say for sure that she was an outside kennel dog but there are definitely no restraints in that department lol

Unfortunately two days after she was home I discovered that she has kennel cough and has passed it to Billie who has become quite severe with it, has progressed with green gunge coming from her nose. I am hoping it will not have any long lasting effects, I have just found out that her brother has been diagnosed with a heart murmur.

It seems very hard to realise that Jess has been here two weeks now. Jess has now had both her vaccinations and has had one lot of treatment for mites and wormer and one more in a week.

I may come in for a lot of criticism here when I say that I work full time with long and mostly night shifts, I did think things over but felt that I could still offer another dog a good home and I am very lucky in moving just over a year ago to live opposite my best friend as it works out so well for both of us, Linda works days so I walk two of her dogs the Cornish Border Collie and rescue Greyhound (the old girl - Collie x Spaniel, goes into the garden or stays in her bed upstairs) at lunchtime and Linda walks Billie for me. Linda is a godsend when I work days at weekends as she will pop across and let the dogs out for me and feed them. The shift pattern I work doesn't lend to a steady routine for toilet training but I am hoping that it will help Jess to follow Billie's lead.