Josie arrived from Chrishchurch GAP to her new home in Kapiti last November with a Trainer who was transporting racing hounds. As advised I left her outside to explore while I kept an eye on her. Within minutes I realised she wasn't around, she had busted through our flimsy barrier! With my heart in my mouth I grabbed her lead and raced down the drive on to the road to see a zooming hound a good hundred metres away IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. I tore after her, calling and ready to stop traffic. Amazingly she came back despite only having spent about 15minutes in my company. What a good girl!
Lesson One. Sturdy gate installed within days.
She quickly endeared herself to us and those early days were filled with lots of discoveries for us as new houndie parents. Baby gates meant she quickly learnt that the kitchen was out of bounds, we got confident and took them down and she seemed to respect that.
Come Christmas we had glazed and cooked a huge ham on the bone on Christmas Eve. Leaving it to cool, we went out for a couple of hours. On our arrival home at first we couldnt see where she was....then this rather bloated guilty looking dog came slinking up the hall from the bedroom, what was she doing down there? Another out of bounds area. As we went into the kitchen we could see a big greasy mess on the floor and a huge knawed bone. She had gorged the lot! A $60 ham. Josie looked like a cartoon dog. The vet was rung who told us she could "blow up like a Christmas cracker". A vigilent night...and a trip to Pak n Sav for another ham! She was ok, but just before Christmas lunch she threw most of it up, suffice to say, we didn't feel like eating any ham that day.
Lesson Two. Food is not left unattended.
The early days were good fun as we delighted in her being able to happily jog 3-4km with us along the beach, realising she has good recall and working hard to help her overcome her fear of all dogs. Even the cats have come around but it's the God that is FIRE that has enabled that. Oh its just that once we started having fires that brought the cat into the living area/dog area. It was only then that we could see how safe Josie was with them!We also learnt that stamina is not a trait, when we took her up a hill ridge that ended up being nearly a 3 hour walk as she just refused to carry on and we had to let her rest and slowly coax her down. Carrying was an option but with rest and treats and water she managed.
Lesson Three. Don't go for hill hikes in the middle of a hot day with a black dog.
So, 10 months in we are totally smitten and cant imagine life without our girl. She is so well behaved now, is loving, quirky and knows exactly what she wants and how to tell us. She has a morning walk, breakfast and bone then spends the day with Tim in his garden office complete with futon sofa bed just for her. Evenings are a walk or jog and sharing the fire with us and the Bism cat.
We are about to get another hound...a "foster to adopt" scenario, after all, any new hound will have to get along with our "first-born"!