In 2000 my biddable dog was 6 years old. I had decided we had room for one more dog. A labrador was the only choice of dog as OH believes there the best dogs with children and no one will convince him otherwise. I made contact with Miss Salmon from Scottish labrador rescue and went on a list. When she found out I worked in boarding kennels she gave me Jakes details. Jake was described as a hard to rehome dog because of his behaviour. Barking, stealing ,jumping and uncontrollable. Now obviously I am not a dog trainer but the rescue were after someone that wasn't a novice. The big day arrived and we drove with three children and Dawn in the boot to meet Jasper as he was then. Oh our expectations were so high. On arrival it was decidedl Dawn would wait in the car while we assessed Jasper. All I can remember of that introduction was a lady answering the door with a huge black thing on two legs that was the same height as me. ( I'm 5'1) she had him by the collar. She took us through to the sitting room where we were "greeted" by this huge black streak of energy. It was love at first sight. He was the most beautiful black labrador I had ever seen. He really had the most adorable face and his eyes! His eyes were the kindest most gentlest big dark dark muddy brown. Our children were all lined up on the ladys sofa with Jasper jumping all over the sofa and my children ducking to avoid being landed upon. When I say children they were teenagers. We listened while both owners shared the problems they had with Jasper. They had three children all under ten. The house they lived in was attached both sides and had thin walls. They both worked. Jasper was 18 months old. His bad behaviour consisted of barking. Barking when left alone. Barking for attention, basically he liked to bark. Stealing. He stole food all the time , the children can't leave anything lying around we were told. No recall. He won't come back but he does love his ball they informed us. Jumping up on everyone and knocking the children over. Pulling on the lead, so he can't be walked on a lead. The list seemed to be endless, but even then I knew that this was a gentle dog at heart and just needed guided in how to behave. Dawn was introduced to Jasper and found him to be a bit of a tearaway. She just played with him until he got too much and hid behind me. Decision made Jasper was coming home with us. We were all so confident that we could teach him manners. So he went in boot and Dawn sat in the back of the car with the kids. The first decision was to change his name to Jake as I felt Jasper had no idea his name was Jasper because he never paid any attention to it being used. So a two hour drive and Jake was in his new home. To be continued..........
Re: Jake comes home Oh it's bedtime here.....can't wait to hear what came next,I'm sensing a bit of a nail biting roller coaster .....
Re: Jake comes home Oh how lovely I can't wait to hear part 2 as our story about how we got Charlie our rescue dog sounds quite similar to Jake's xx
