Originally Posted by LinznMilly

I've just replied to the thread What Would Your Dogs Have to Do and thought it about time to properly introduce my dogs and, by extension, myself. (This is also on another forum, in case it sounds familiar to anyone).

First of all we have Max, an 8 year old Mongrel/Bitza/Heinz-57 ... whatever you want to call him. He came to us after being returned to the pound twice because his family were moving and couldn't take him with them (I have my own thoughts about that) and then by his next family because he was too boisterous. Shouldn't have got a 10 month old puppy then, should they? Although generally quiet in the house, he's fairly fond of his own voice and a bit of a growler when playing.

Then we have Milly. Another rescue, and a cruelty case, brought in by a woman who'd witnessed two ... ahem ... blokes (I use the term very loosely) kicking her The pound called her Mandy and described her as "very nervous". I now describe Mandy as "broken" because Mandy and Milly are two very, very different dogs. Mandy's body language screamed "ignore me. Forget I'm here". Milly will push her nose under your arm for a cuddle. She was frightened to come into the house, and just as frightened to leave, but she got over that fear after the first day and started enjoying her walks.

Mandy didn't answer to her name, so I changed it within 24h. She responded to Milly immediately. She'd had no form of training at all, didn't know how to behave in a house, couldn't walk on a lead and her overreaction to a simple name tag being attached to her collar made me wonder if she'd ever known love and affection

For the first 4 days she didn't know what it was to play. Then, on a whim, I took the ball thrower and a ball out with me one morning, let her off the lead and threw the ball for her. Seeing her run after that ball was a fantastic and beautiful sight ... Now my only problem is getting her back as the little madam perfected the art of staying just out of reach

The first 2 months or so felt like all work/training and no play. As well as her house-training she had SA so I had to work with her on that as well as her house-training and after being fine for around 2 months, she redeveloped her fear of stairs and/or the garden. For those of you who haven't read my posts on other threads, I live in an upstairs flat, so she simply had to get over the fear or it wouldn't have been fair for me to keep her. I'd tried playing tuggy with her but she dropped the toy, so apart from playing her idea of fetch (ergo, chase the ball and lie down further up the field chewing the living daylights out of it ) I didn't have any interactive games I could play with her. She tried my patience every day and I constantly wondered how much more I could deal with, and if she'd be better off in another home. It took her getting spayed for me to realise the bond had crept up on me without me knowing

Now she's just about house-trained, knows Sit, Down, Leave it (outside - she'll still nick my dinner if I leave it unattended ), and her recall's got to the point where I can usually get her back from other dogs. Videoing her when left reveals she's fine for half an hour (neighbour says she cries within 10 mins) and I can't video her for longer until I get a webcam or figure out how to use sound on my camera's webcam. She's started playing Tuggy with me now, and together we're working on LLW, Heal (which she's better at than LLW because she's been watching and learning from Max), Stay and Leave it inside the house.

I know there are dogs who have worse stories than hers, and who have far more difficult problems than Milly's, but she's taught me a lot about myself, and just what I can and can't deal with.

Some pics:
I Believe I can Fly (yes, all 4 paws off the ground)


One of my favourites:


And another:




My flat is rarely tidy because of Milly

And this is Max:






Together:




Thanks for reading.