Please say hello to Oscar, our first Rescue Tails recruit.

Here is some background on him and how he is settling into his new forever home.

“My name is Oscar and I’m aged one and three quarters. Officially I’m a Springer Spaniel but most humans seem to think that there’s a little bit of Collie in my heritage too because I’ve got such long legs.

The people at North West Springer Rescue think it might be a good idea to let you know what happens once a dog is adopted – so every few weeks I’ll be updating this blog with news of what’s happening to me!

In the beginning I was looked after by a family but I do get quite nervous about some loud noises and when I’m scared I tend to do what a dog can do and try to protect myself with my teeth.

This made them very nervous to be around me and so I was put up for adoption but unfortunately the next people to look after me didn’t quite understand that I don’t like to be grabbed by my collar and so I ended up using my teeth again.

I spent a week in the kennels being looked after and watched by people who really understand just how us Springers can behave – and they thought I was a lovely dog who just needed some boundaries about how to behave.

Along came my new family – a couple of humans who already had a cockerpoo and a Springer (so they knew how giddy we get about balls and birds and sheep and running and just about everything else!). I gave them my best “please take me home with you!” eyes and they fell for it – and a few days later I was on my way to my new home!

It’s been a very busy few weeks – the other two dogs kind of ignored me to start with so it helped that the new humans gave me lots of cuddles. I’ve been watching what the other two dogs do – we’re not allowed on the sofa but can sit happily on the floor, we travel in the back of the car when we go out for walks and we get a ‘night night’ biscuit when the humans go to bed at night.

My new owners wanted to make sure that I knew they would look after me so for the first few days they fed me directly from their hands rather than the food appearing in a bowl. On walks when I could run freely in the park they would give me a treat when I came back to them.

The best bit is that they know I’m not quite like their other two dogs. For some reason I get very upset when I see a shadow on the floor or the wall – I try to catch it but it always seems to move away and that makes me even more worried and I get really obsessed with trying to stop it. So at the moment they make sure that the lights in a room aren’t too bright and they try to distract me with something more fun.

They have bought me a little soft toy that I like to suck on when I’m feeling scared – it makes me feel better. They’ve also decided not to put a collar on me so that no-one can accidentally grab me and I don’t feel threatened enough to use my teeth again.

Two weeks ago the other two dogs started to play with me in the garden and now we do everything together – barking at visitors, splashing in mud and snuggling together when we sleep.

And they like the fact that I’m a bit taller than them because I can reach up in the kitchen and get human food that they can’t – yesterday it was a cupcake and half an apple pie – but I’m not sharing with them!”