Tala

Seven month old Tala is the newest addition to our ever growing family. We are fostering Tala as her owners were unable to keep her in their current home due to landlord difficulties. They had put themselves on the local housing list and being that they had four children it was expected that their wait to be rehomed was going to be aproximately four to six months. As slight as Tala is she has unexpectedly bonded with our largest dog Bongo and they will play for hours in the garden with Tala not giving Bongo any peace when he has tired himself out.They both really enjoy very rough chasing and tumbling. She has started training sessions and is responding very well. She has a lot to learn but I am sure that it won't be too long before she can walk on the lead with the other dogs without jumping all over them. It makes a very interesting walk as we end up being tied up in knots unable to move very far untill I have untangled us all. Typical puppy because she is into everything but when asked to LEAVE something alone she does with no hesitation at all. ( My wicker chairs are breathing a sigh of relief ). With two exceptions, the first being her habit of eating her own pooh, her second is when she manages to get her nose into one of the other dogs dinner bowls.

She has still got to learn that she won't come to any harm when I leave her in the house. We have managed to reduce her howling from 45 minutes down to about 3 minutes. (Thankfully I have very understanding neighbours). I now put a food cube down for her to distract her and that seems to be working very well.

The other dogs have accepted her quite readily, all apparently seeing her as the youngster of the pack and no obvious threat to their own positions in the pack as a whole. She is giving the younger members a run for their money and has livened up the older ones to such an extent that couch potato Alfie will actually play with her for at least twenty minutes before he has to go and lie down again.

Her uncanny resemblance to Bonnie is most noticeable when they are playing or lying either side of the pond trying to drink it dry. She loves her cuddles but finds it difficult to let the others come in for a fuss as well, as she seems to want me for herself. Coming from a household with two adults and four children she is used to getting all the attention. She is gradually learning to share affection. Her tendancy to mouth has greatly reduced over the last couple of weeks as this is something that I will not tolerate from any of my dogs.

As of 29 July 2007 Tala has become a permanent member of our pack. Her owners have decided that it would be in Tala's best interests to stay with us. They have separated and it is unlikely that reconciliation is on the cards.

Tala has now had her first season so in three months time she will be booked in to be spayed. I am in the process of doing a micro-chipping course and Tala has the honour of being my first victim. I hope this will not destroy the trust that we have built up between us. She is finishing her first course of training tomorrow evening and I am hoping that we will pass the test with flying colours.

We have now passed our training test so she has got her first rosette. Yippee!! :-)