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What our Volunteers say: Ruth
Clyde's Day Out
Clyde and I went for a trip out today, and he was excellent 😊.
I think he's been used to travelling in the boot, but I asked him to go in the back seat. He figured it out with no problem, though. He jumped in with his front legs and waited for me to lift his bottom in. He preferred to travel sitting up most of the time and enjoyed quietly looking through the window. He travelled well and was no trouble.
We went to the park first, where he saw lots of dogs! When he saw them, he was very interested but wasn't silly, and there was no barking or hard pulling. On a couple of occasions, he wanted to turn around to watch them but was easily encouraged to keep moving. He even stood quietly near a little fluffball of a dog while its owner asked me questions about Clyde and Home Run Hounds 😊.
Clyde saw children playing on swings and climbing frames, and he marched past without showing much interest. He was happy to be made a fuss of by one little girl, though.
Next, we got back in the car and drove to the pub! Purely so that Clyde could experience it, you understand 😁.
Again, he was the perfect gentleman. There was another dog there, a young Rottweiler. We walked past and sat at the other side of the room. Clyde decided that the oche for the darts looked like a good place to lie down, which was great. He then lay flat and ended up half on and half off it. It didn't look very comfortable, but Clyde seemed happy and even had a little snooze, bless him 😊.
When we were ready to leave, I wasn't at all convinced he'd want to get up, but he did! Off we went to my house to get him a drink of water, which he didn't want 🙄.
We had another little walk across a playing field and down a country lane before getting back to the car and heading home for Clyde.
He was a pleasure to take out, and I've had a lovely day. I think Clyde enjoyed it too 😊.
What our Volunteers say: Eve
We took Clyde out on Monday to see how he got on outside of the kennels.
He did very well, considering we were in a quite dog-populated area with a group of friends, their children, and a Golden Retriever. When we slowly introduced the dogs, Clyde wasn’t vocally reactive, but he did lunge toward the retriever a couple of times. By the end of the walk (they were walked slightly apart), they ended up sitting in the pub with no issues.
Clyde does feel stronger on the lead than other greys we’ve walked, but he didn’t seem reactive toward dogs; he’d just pull toward them a bit. He was on his feet for most of the afternoon and seemed happy to do so.
He was a great passenger in the car (as someone has previously said, he gets himself partway into the car but needs his back legs lifting to get in). He was well-behaved in the beer garden, even with the retriever and a smaller dog barking at one another 🤭, showing them how to be a gentleman.
We think he’d benefit from some more time out of the kennels, which will help him start to get more and more used to the outside world.