Sophie has put together a great video of Gavin.
Gavin is mischief on legs. He is a tall boy, with almost saluki-like ears. If you met him, he would be quite nervous of you and probably drag you back to the kennel gate. However, once he gets to know you (he will eye you suspiciously on a walk as if you are about to poison him!), and then once he is comfortable enough, will revert into a lovely little trot. However beware! Any tree or pee-stop is a magnet for this boy and he will suddenly veer off piste to christen it!
Gavin’s character is full of fun and mischief and he is a very loving boy. However, like all our sponsor hounds, he will likely be more difficult to home. This is because the Gavin you see when you first meet him is not the Gavin you see further down the line. It is difficult for a potential new owner to see his true personality when they first meet him, as he panics and becomes incredibly nervous when he is first introduced to someone new, especially men. In that mode, you feel his full power on the lead as he drags you back. Once he gets going (we have started him off on his walk to encourage him to go with people he considers’ strangers’!), he is a fabulous walker.
Once terrified of going outside the kennels when he first came into us – of children playing, sudden noises, too many people up the lane, noisy engines – with a confident approach and positive reassurance, he is now the happiest of boys and lives for his walks, In fact, he often flies up to the yard and runs away from kennel staff, instead of going back into his kennel, when he knows it is walk-time!
Underneath this shy exterior, is a mischievous imp, who loves to pounce out from behind a fence from the safety of our front paddock in the yard, at our regular postman – just to make him jump! Luckily, the postman thinks he is a hoot and we just love Gavin for who he is! We hope the right person will come along for him soon, as there is so much for Gavin to investigate in the big wide world he needs to become familiar with.