please find below the latest escapades of Oscar, one of our rehomed springers featured in Rescue Tails.
“I have to say that learning to leave sheep alone has had a few unwanted side effects, but I’m so grateful to my human mum and dad who are being really understanding about how I’m thinking at the moment.
As you know, I spent some time in a field with lovely sheep in and every time I ran over to play with them, a lady threw a very noisy plastic bottle towards me and shouted loudly that I should leave them. It only took a couple of times of this before I decided that it wasn’t worth the fun of chasing them over the fells anymore. I know my new human family were really pleased with me about this as it meant that going out for walks on the hills was much more fun for them.
Unfortunately, over the following weeks, I seemed to get a bit more upset every time we went out – for some reason, I seem to have become frightened not of just sheep but also grass and fields and open spaces. A couple of months ago they realised that I wasn’t just being lazy when I protested about going out, I was actually terrified and it just seemed to get worse each time we went out.
My new family are wonderful and don’t force me to go out at all – sometimes they take the other two dogs out and leave me at home for an hour or so, which is fine with me although when they come home I have a good sniff of them because they smell of outside and part of me really misses the fun they have.
Last month they took me to the vet, who checked me over and said I was clearly very anxious and has referred me to another vet who apparently specialises in dogs like me who have behavioural issues. Whilst we are waiting to see her, my mum takes me out on very short walks along paths that don’t really have much grass on them or aren’t open spaces, and I’ve started to really enjoy them. I think she knows this because my tail is now wagging loads rather than tucked firmly down between my hind legs! And she always makes sure we go somewhere that has water so I can have a bit of a swim at the end, which is one of my favourite things to do!
Everyone seems very patient with me, which I love. My human family say that this is all the fun of adopting a rescue dog because they get the chance to really make a difference. And I know that it won’t be too long before I’m happy enough to go exploring in fields again.”