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| Her first week - wary and unsure |
We are fostering Lara
on behalf of Siberian Husky Club of Great Britain Welfare. Anyone interested in offering Lara a forever
home will need to apply through SHCGB and will be thoroughly vetted to ensure
that they can provide Lara with the home that she deserves.
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| Exploring the garden.... |
My ideal home for
Lara would be someone like me, twenty years ago…. She will bond strongly with someone that
gives her time and love. She will make a
brilliant running partner for an older child or adult. She will happily run in front or beside and
can run very quickly. She also runs very
well in a team, very focussed and not easily distracted. Being a husky, she is very pack oriented and
as such it would be best that she finds a family who already have another dog.
She is a husky in
looks and attitude. She will hunt small creatures,
she will question authority, she will leave fur all over your house and she
will be hard work. However she will also
show you love, teach you how to love running and to love life. She will show you just how amazing dogs can be
even if they have a terrible start in life.
Everyone deserves a second chance and this little girl is already making
the most of hers….
Description:
Lara is approximately 14 months old - we have given her the birth
date of 21st October 2011. She
is a Siberian Husky and is silver grey and white with blue eyes, weighing 18kg. Lara is a very small,
but perfectly proportioned female husky.
No obvious faults, she does run a little wide behind, but this may
change as her muscle development and fitness increase.
Her background
Lara spent the first year of her life on a puppy farm. She has had at least one litter of
puppies. Poorly socialised and unkempt
when rescued (she smelled terribly) she has overcome the issues associated with
poor socialisation very quickly. She has
shown no sign of physical abuse, just untrusting of humans and very unsure of
new experiences.
House living
Lara has had no “accidents” since she moved in. She happily used the dog door from day one and
went up and down stairs with no hesitation.
She liked to lie on window sills when she first arrived, but she has
stopped trying to do this in the past few weeks. Would happily sleep on the bed/ sofa – she is
not allowed to do this, and reluctantly accepts that rule!
Walking/ collar and
leads
The first few weeks involved lots of spinning and walking
with belly to the floor. Her collar is
always fitted very securely as she once escaped from it by spinning and running
backwards when it was a little loose!
She will now walk happily on her own and with the other huskies,
although she does pull a little when the whole pack is walked together. She prefers the left hand side when walking/
running. She will also mischievously
spin around and paw or grab her lead if we are not moving quickly enough, she
does respond when told “no”….
Harnesses
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| Add caption |
The first time a harness was fitted, she went into extreme “shut
down” mode, indicating that she had previously experienced trauma that she
associated with a harness. With a lot of
time and effort she has overcome this fear and will now happily wait while her
harness is fitted.
She once escaped from her harness when I tried to negotiate a
kissing gate with three huskies – the harness was a hand me down from the boys,
therefore did not fit perfectly. She
does not come when called and therefore I had no option other than sprint home
with the boy huskies and hope that she followed alongside. Fortunately she did, ignoring numerous potential
distractions during the run and choosing to run within feet of us at all
times. Her harness is now “padlocked” to
her until her own “lady husky sized” harness arrives…!
First trip to the vets
The first time Lara visited the vets she was very scared and hid behind Kroi for the entire
duration of the visit. In the car she
destroyed “stuff” during the journey and panicked when the door was opened.
Solo trip to the vets
6 weeks later and I took her to the vets on her own. She was impeccably behaved in the car and in
the vets. I even left her alone in the
car while I popped into a local shop – I could see her the whole time and all
she did was sit waiting patiently. She
wouldn’t look at the vet, but she happily stood while she treated her. Her heart rate remained very low the entire
time we were out – I kept checking it….
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| The love of her life... "Kroi" |
Other dogs
No aggression towards any dogs or bitches that she has
met. A little fearful of very large and
rude dogs, but she will tell them to back off and then ignore them if they
do. She is rather pushy with our boy
huskies, but they are very chilled dogs and tolerant. She does show respect when they have had
enough and tell her off.
Other animals
Lara is a husky and as such does have a very high prey
drive. She is very quick to spot rats in
trees, low flying and ground dwelling birds.
She is becoming desensitised to horses and cows as we encounter them daily.
People
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| Running her first parkrun |
Lara is affectionate towards Ian and me and is very
responsive to my voice. She is a little
nervous of adults when she first meets them.
However she has run amongst other human runners and run with people that
she has met for the first time prior to the run, all without any issues. She is very relaxed and friendly with children
of all ages.
Stealing things
For the first few weeks of Lara staying
with us, nothing was safe. She transported
tea towels, wooden spoons, clothes, and even watches outside and deposited them
in muddy holes. She was also spotted
trying to take a computer mouse outside, while still attached to the
computer! The only items that she has
actually destroyed were the Garmin watch and wooden spoons. Her stealing has become less of an issue and
in the past few weeks all that she has removed has been tea towels and dish
cloths, which tend to just get left on the kitchen floor.
Food
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| Running with the boys |
I have not yet found anything that Lara does not eat! She has a very tolerant stomach (unusual for
most huskies) and always eats everything that is placed in her bowl. She has been known to also try and eat her
bowl! She is very gentle when taking
food from my hand and has never shown any aggression when I have approached her
and touched her as she eats bones.
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| What Lara would love to do.. |
Running/ working
Lara loves running and working in harness with the other
huskies. She is not a strong puller, but
she does not stop unless told to. I have
been running her solo and she improves every time. Always stays in front of me and responds very
well to commands. We have been gradually
building up her fitness and she will now happily run for several hours at
trotting pace and will run at sub 5 minute mile pace with the other huskies and
me. Today we did achieve 4 minute mile
pace for ¼ of a mile on a rutted and grassy uphill trail. I slowed them down after that distance as I am
not yet ready to try running down hill at that pace while three huskies are attached
to me!!
Toys
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| Eaten by a snake... |
Lara loves toys, in particular she loves removing the
stuffing from toys. She likes to take
them outside, leaving them in the mud – Kroi then frantically rushes around
trying to save his favourite ones and bring them back inside.
Some more details of Lara’s time with us can be found here: http://sandrabowers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/kalibans-dream-lara.html
And from Lara’s perspective (with the help of human words
and interpretation….):
http://sandrabowers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/dear-nasty-man.html
