Annie – Born Sept 2017

Annie - Born Sept 2017
Annie - Born Sept 2017

by kind fosterer, Sophie…

Cute, dinky, affectionate Annie is looking for her forever home. Overview of her from her foster:

Cute homeless hound, Annie, is blossoming on a foster home away from kennels.

Annie is a sweet girl, lovely temperament, fine with other dogs and has settled into a home like a fish to water. See her videos of how she has developed from weeks 1 to 3. She has gone from being nervous at kennels, stopping and not wanting walks in the first days, to wagging her tail and doing a mini jump now for walks, not having a problem most the time when people walk by and really enjoying her sniffs. She is such an amazing character. She also dragged the duvet from the lounge to her bed, as you will see in the week 1 video! So cute! Her personality will come out more and more in her forever home and will be a real treat to discover! 

She loves her food but has learnt to wait while my greyhound boy slowly eats his! She sleeps through the night with him. She doesn’t get scared of bangs and fireworks or household sounds. It’s people who have scared her in the past and so she would be best in a home in a relatively quiet area so you can walk from the door and not be straight into people and cars. She also loves woods and nature, where she sniffs away happily! Equally, she has learnt about suburban roads too and walks very nicely, not pulling.

This girl will in time adapt to most things with a mum or dad she can trust! I have such respect for how she has adapted from who she was into who she is now. She is a lovely, sweet girl.


Week 3 – Annie relaxing into her foster home

Annie is available for re-homing. Please contact the kennels for more information.

I have fostered Annie for 3 weeks now. You can see how she progressed in weeks 1 and 2 below.

At week 3, she is a totally different hound to who I first met. I am genuinely so impressed with this resilient, spirited girl. She was terrified when I first met her and didn’t want to walk. This morning, after 3 weeks in a home, she was jumping up and did a mini pirouette about going for a walk! The girl you would adopt as of now (19th Nov 2021 – will be outdated in a few days), is confident in the home, sleeps through the night, sleeps happily by day while I work and can be left with my boy grey for 1.5 hours.

Out on walks, she enjoys them, is most relaxed in woods and fields, but now fine on roads round houses. She will be more nervous in areas with lots of people and noise initially, but fine in suburban quieter areas and seeing how she adapts, will eventually be fine with anything! She just needs gradual introduction, as would we if we had been institutionalised all our lives. Fine with bangs of gun shots and fireworks, while I was also calm and ignored them, fine with general household sounds. Also now fine walking past people which she used to not be. Will occasionally do the greyhound stop and needs a firm pull to get her going, but does and then enjoys herself and she is nice to walk. My previous girl did this and over time it goes and already is less since she came. 

Her ideal home: Somewhere not in a city centre and not loads of people everywhere straight from your door. Ideally where you have access to fields and woods as that is more relaxing and less stimulus for settling in – even if it means hopping in the car for 5 minutes. Also good for us humans! We initially thought with another dog, but I honestly think this girl will adapt and bond with the human if they are around lots, so I’m not convinced she needs another, although that may be helpful as she won’t want to be left much alone – again initially – who knows once she is settled. Man or/and woman. Potentially not loud children, so relatively calm home.

With time, she will be fine with anything – I really believe that. But initially she seems quiet and needs encouragement and confident, calm owners. She will go from strength to strength and you will see a true character blossom! This girl is for the first time in 4 years, I believe truly enjoying life now – having seen the tail wagging, the accompaniment in the kitchen and she has just come up for a fuss as I type to check what I say!

Cute Homeless Hound, Annie, continues to flourish on her foster – Week 3

Week 2 of Annie’s foster

Nervous kennel hound, Annie, continues to flourish in her foster.

So, Annie has had 2 weeks in foster now. She was going to stay a week, but was doing so much better in a home than in kennels, that we hope to find her a home from here, rather than returning her to kennels. And she has done brilliantly! You can watch the first video to see what a character she is. This one shows her enjoying her walks and walking close by and behind a man who she took a treat from at the end of the walk. Annie has gone from not wanting to go on walks and stopping lots, to choosing to come, wagging her tail, trotting out the house or going in the car, with no encouragement needed and hardly stopping. What a girl!

We can walk past people walking and jogging and round the roads with houses now and keep walking. Stop and chat to people and after a couple of minutes she relaxes with them. In woods and nature, she doesn’t have a stressed or high energy about her – she sniffs and clearly enjoys it – we walked an hour round a woods yesterday for example, with clay pigeon shooting etc and kept walking the whole time – the bangs don’t scare her. She was fine being left alone with my boy – a few times now for about an hour each. Sleeps through the night. Not had an accident in nearly a week. I think she would be a snuggly companion to another hound – of any breed as she is fine with all we have met, including small fluffies. She is wonderfully tempered, wags her tail when I come up to her, is a real treasure and incredibly cute.

I think she’d suit a home in a quiet area rather than a city or town centre, with access to nature even if that’s in the car – for settling her in (I’m in a town for example which works, but not town centre so it’s built up, but 5 mins walk to countryside). And already, she’s fine round the roads and gradually she will get more confident in different scenarios – I have to send this to Carol at the last minute, as what I write quickly can get out of date, she’s doing so well! I can’t find much to fault her with! She even has a good appetite which is great. Happy to answer any questions through WGW if you have them and are looking for a lovely girl to join your home.

Homeless Hound, Annie, continues to flourish on her foster.

Fosterer’s journal – week 1…..

Dinky Doo Annie! I have had the privilege of fostering this sweet, adorable little girl for a week. And I was and am so impressed. Who you see at kennels has clearly been an exceptionally nervous hound in kennel life, but this is not the girl that you see in the home – and her mum/dad to be will see a real little character come out over time. It will be so rewarding. She took to a home like a fish to water. She is cute, a little poppet, lovely temperament, no aggression, good with other dogs. She will need her little safe spot to start with but after a few days came out of that, and each morning came to greet me and is very affectionate and loves a fuss. I didn’t react to fireworks and nor did she – she slept through it. She wasn’t bothered by household sounds like the microwave and dishwasher etc. She loves her food. She seems to know in the main to do her business outside. And on the second night, I had the real glimpse of the Annie-to-be. Her bed was in the kitchen and another in the lounge. See the video… she came into the lounge and took a blanket into her kitchen bed… Then came back and pulled the whole enoormous duvet into her bed in the kitchen! Had me in fits as I have never seen that and such a character!

As you will discover when you walk her, she gets scared and can freeze on walks, particularly when men are nearby, who she is more scared of – though I had a male friend over who didn’t look at her in the house and kept a distance and she was fine in her corner – so she will learn to trust if someone is kind and gives her space. I learnt a way to encourage her on walks when such things happened and when she gets past that, she loves her sniffs and meeting other dogs. Today she was amazing and even better – so improves daily! She was totally fine with other breeds, even a small fluffy one or two barking at her! Just a lovely temperament. She just needs love, time and patience to work her through her fears on walks – and ideally a quiet location where you can walk say in the morning when less people and cars are around. Loved woods, fields and nature, so having that nearby would be ideal. She has already come a long way in the week here, away from kennels so with time I think she will. And once she can trust her owner as a confident person who knows the world that she doesn’t, she will go from strength to strength. I really feel she is a little treasure just waiting to be discovered by someone who will give her time and love. You’ll be rewarded as I was, every time she makes a step forward and in seeing her blossoming into the beautiful girl she has inside and is meant to be. I would home her, except that I have a dog who is happy alone and a bit older. I think she will benefit from either another dog of any breed, but if not, someone who is around a lot and happy to have her nearby with her in the house. And a quiet, calm home for her. That’s one for WGW to decide. Have a watch of the video of this treasure and consider if you have the right home to be the one who lets Annie blossom into who she will be. I just couldn’t help calling her Dinky Doo and poppet all the time – she is just sooo cute!

Homeless Hound, Annie, blossoming on a foster away from the kennels.