PAWS'N'HOOVES

I just thought I'd give you an update on our gorgeous Ella Bella, who we met more than a year ago now! When we first met, she was in her 'terrible twos' and had been out of training for about 4 months. I think, locked up in the kennels as she was, she'd also developed a barking habit, a 'jumping' tendency and was in desperate need of some love and attention.
We had an interesting time getting aquainted and learning 'the rules' ... she peed almost every time she did something wrong, or had to do something she didn't want to... she was so submissive, and yet such a cheeky thing!
As a border collie x kelpie x blue heeler x anything else you can think of, she needs a lot of attention, exercise and learning and living on a property with lots of visitors who love to play we can give her everything she needs!
We only got up to grade two at school, as we found she learnt so much faster at home, and we could train her to do all sorts of things!!!

I've been chronically ill for some time now, and Ella has learnt to bring the phone when it's ringing, to find my husband if I've fallen, and to even let me know when it's time to take medicine!!!
She's a wonderful companion and only wants to please... she loves playing down in our lagoon and chasing the plovers, although I have no idea what she'd do if she ever caught one... I think she's decided it's her life's ambition to drive them all away!! Now she knows she's here to stay and that we love her, she's much less submissive...not hard when you become the centre of the universe!!!
She doesn't bark any more...we found out that she had even been through no more barking school, and it hadn't worked!!! - turns out all she needed was some more things to keep her occupied. she has settled in really well, and can interact with all people, young and old. She had her first experience of a toddler the other day and showed more patience than we thought she possessed... they got along brilliantly!
She has the right balance of excited puppy and relaxed on the couch cuddler. It seems all of her behavioural problems have vanished, simply with time, effort and the right environment. Thankyou for your wonderful organisation, if it hadn't have been for you, we wouldn't have met our gorgeous Ella-Bella, who has become a wonderful addition to our family,our companion and even my carer!!!
Best Regards
Kristi

"MUFFIN'S BREAK"

Hello,
I just thought I would send you a quick success story about an adorable little dog I adopted from your site.
Muffin (aka Sophie) was only a puppy when I came across her on your website. She was such a cutie and at the time.
I was looking for a companion for my other rescued dog so I had to enquire about her. It appeared that I wasn't the only one who was drawn to this little ball of fluff as someone had beaten me to it and I just missed out on her.
Of course I was disappointed but continued to look on your site for a few more weeks. Unfortunately nothing compared to this adorable little dog I had seen weeks prior. One day I happen to be searching through your available dogs again and was in absolute shock when I came across Muffin on your site again and she was available.
I knew I had no time to waste so I rang Rhonda straight away. I was so excited when Rhonda told me she was still available. I did not hesitate to put her on hold and arranged to meet her in the next few days. I just knew it was a sign that I was meant to give this little puppy her forever home.

A few days later, I took my other dog Nikki with me and we went to meet our new hopeful addition.
We both fell in love with this tiny ball of fluff straight away and didn't hesitate in taking her home that afternoon.
Nikki and Sophie (Muffin) became instant friends and follow each other around all the time. I did not hear a peep out of Sophie on her first night sleeping in her new home.
She has been such a dream dog. I took her to the dog park the next day and she was a big hit with all the dogs and their owners. I had to keep a close eye on her so that nobody ran off with her as she is such a cutie. She is now a regular at the dog park and everyone knows her and loves her. She is such a friendly and happy little dog it is like she was meant to live here.
To all the people at Paws n Hooves I just want to say a big thank you and keep up the great work that you all do.
Thanks again,
Rebecca.

"BELLA'S DESTINY"

This is Bella. She started life as Destiny and I knew she was my destiny the moment I laid eyes on her! I was looking for a new house to live in and had to wait until I'd moved before I could look for a 4-legged friend. A regular visitor to the Paws'n'Hooves, RSPCA & Death Row Dogs websites, I'd seen her a few weeks before I moved house.
I couldn't believe it when I checked back a number of times that she was still living with Eleanor. The day after I moved house, I called to speak to Eleanor and she also couldn't believe that Destiny still had not found a new home as her brothers Ronan & Kennedy had been rehomed much earlier. I knew she'd been waiting for me. I went to meet her on the Saturday morning & it was love at first sight! I spent an hour in Eleanor's back garden playing with her and was so sad that I had to leave her for 24 hours and come back. Eleanor's dad had to ask me to leave in the end because I kept going out the back for 'just one more cuddle'.

My sister drove me to pick her up the next day (because I was too excited to drive - not that she was much better!). We tried calling her Destiny for a couple of days and then changed it to Bella - which she responded to almost immediately.
In the 8 weeks since she first came home to live with my cousin & I, she's become such an amazing part of my life and our family. She is the source of constant amusement and amazement. She's such a joy to come home to and looks after me when I'm down. And I no longer have puppy envy when we pass other dogs in the street! We're doing lessons at puppy school on Sundays (and I'm getting better behaved!) and she's loving hanging out with the other dogs at the park.
The Princess of our house, I'll be forever grateful to Eleanor for rescuing her and looking after her until our destiny was fulfilled!

"BOYD GOES BUSH"

It is now 9 weeks since Boyd came home with us.
Since then he has grown to over 30kg.
He learnt to run, then jump, then scramble up banks and over rocks. He learnt to bark ( a tedious week that was) then talk/cry. However all the learning has not been without incident. Boyd has numerous scrapes and divots of fur missing as he learns to race through the bush.
He and Polar tried to be hunters -two ventures resulted in first Polar and then Boyd getting a beating - Wombat 2 & dogs nil - I hope they have learnt to leave well alone now. The wombat, as we think it was, took a chunk out of the pate of his head, he would not let us dress it, so a squirt of antiseptic powder had to suffice, he lost another patch of fur, but it is now growing back. We thought we might have a big problem but it seems they are more homebodies now. Until Boyd came, Polar never left the house area at night except to meet us coming up the hill on our way to the house.
After the wombat incident we fenced them in to the machinery shed when we next went out for the evening. They escaped but that removed the fur from Boyd's chest as he squirmed over concrete to get under the wire mesh. His short fur seems to give less protection than longer haired dogs such as Polar.
He has also had a rush trip to the vet after he ate a plastic bag. Brian was away at a bushfire so I loaded him into the vehicle and drove to Cessnock. We were even less impressive in the vet's surgery than we had been for the routine vaccination - Brian had then pushed him across the floor on his bum as he did not want to go into the consulting room. This time the vet and I, took an end each and carried him in much to the amusement of the people waiting to pick up their pets after operations. He vomited up the plastic bag after the injection - then vomitted on the consulting room floor, waiting room floor and the back of my car. I was impressed.
However his tail wags, his confdidence grows, his demons from ill-treatment appear less often and he is learning to trust us. He still has 2 meals a day as his ribs are still visible but he has developed thunder thighs. He loves to run but is also a bit of a couch potato - we moved a sofa onto the verandah for the dogs - which is where the photo of him reclining was taken. However today being a bit damp and rainy he has spent the morning lying in front of the slow combustion stove.
He is no longer scared to go into a room that has only one door, is getting better about ropes, straps and chains in one's hand, but remains wary with women. He has constantly been really relaxed about boots near him. We suspect it was a woman who beat him - but we shall never know.

"A BIG TRIP FOR A LITTLE PUP"

At the end of February this year I made the decision to adopt a dog from Paws'n'Hooves. It was a big decision for me as I live in Adelaide and Paws is in Sydney, so the dog I got would be a permanent addition. I had been searching since before Christmas for a new companion, but unable to find what I wanted at the local shelter, I turned to the internet. After much umming and ahhing, I decided on a little female cattledog x that had caught my eye. She was very young, and according to the carer, good inside the house, smart and affectionate. That was just what I was looking for. I was a little worried though, what if I shipped her over and she didn't like me? How would the trip in the plane affect her? I needn't have worried, Kassie was the perfect choice, she weathered the trip well, and took to us all straight away. After a settling in period I began taking her to the beach and letting her off lead, gradually building up her recall (smoked kangaroo tail is a marvellous thing) and building a great rapport with her. We would amble along for up to two hours, and both of us loved it. Then about two months ago, I ran into another dog owner who invited me over to the local dog club where a group of dog owners gather after work daily and let their dogs run offlead together. We have only been to the beach about three times since. Kassie loves going to the park, playing rough and tumble with all the other dogs (sometimes up to 15 of them). Everyone there loves her, too, and people are always saying how pretty and how unusual her colouring is. This Sunday is graduation at the dog club, and if she passes she will be in class 4. As for me, I had the best winter I have had in many years, getting out even on the coldest of days, and I have started making friends again. I had forgotten just how many people you interact with when you have a dog! To those who think that only problem dogs end up at the pound, it just isn't true. Kass was only 8 weeks old when she was rescued from the pound, and she is one of the best dogs I have had. She is responsive, does not bark excessively, does not dig apart from stashing treasures, does not chew stuff (well, except very occasionally, but I don't have to watch her constantly), is good with cats, kids, other dogs and people. I want to thank Lynne of Paws'n'Hooves for rescuing her so that I could find her and bring her home.

"THE UGLY DUCKLING"

"SKEETA" was picked up from Renbury Farm Shelter, in February 2004.
When she first came to Paws n Hooves, she was in a terrible condition. She was terribly under weight and had been "fly struck" from head to tail. Her frail little body was covered in sores many of which were open and bleeding. At first, her carers Narelle and Paul, were concerned that her condition was so bad that she may not even survive.
She soon settled in and was getting along really well but then suddenly for no apparent reason she became very ill and wasn't able to eat or drink, she was rushed to one of our vets and as she was so badly dehydrated the vet put her straight on to a drip.
After spending just over a week in hospital, she came home to her carers' place and her miracle recovery finally began.
She soon started to put on some weight and when she was fit and healthy, she went back to the vet's to be desexed and have her dew claws removed.
Again, all seemed to be going well but then this poor little baby developed a really bad infection in the wounds from her dew claws so back to the vets she went for a course of strong antibiotics.
Finally, "Skeeta" turned the corner and became one of the most loving,beautiful, and terribly cheeky little puppies you could ever meet.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Amanda was searching the internet looking for a new canine companion. She stumbled on to the Paws n Hooves website and spotted "Skeeta" and her brother "Skoota".
It must have been love at first sight ! Several phone calls and e-mails later, Amanda arrived at the carer's home with her mum and dad in tow. It didn't take very long for Amanda and "Skeeta" to hit it off, so off to her new home she went.
As well as a new loving home and family on Sydney's northern beaches, "Skeeta" was renamed "Maverick".
"Maverick" soon became a common sight walking around the northern beaches with her new "mum" and "grandparents". She was enrolled in obedience classes and soon started to top the class in everything. She also made Amanda really proud by mastering all the agility eqipment as soon as she was introduced to it.
"Maverick" is now a common sight with her mum Amanda every weekend at the Bayview doggy park and she also spends a lot of her time as a constant companion for Amanda laying under the tables at a lot of the sidewalk cafes and coffee shops around the northern beaches.
From a skinny,scabby and sickly little girl, Maverick has truly grown up to become a really beautiful young lady.
This is truly a case of "PATHETIC POUNDIE TO PAMPERED POOCH"

"FROM THE ROADSIDE TO THE BEACHSIDE"

"ZAC'S STORY" While on her way to work one Friday Morning a lady was driving on Erskine Park Road at St Marys and she saw a cardboard box sitting on the road.
As she was concerned that the box may cause an accident, she parked her car and walked back to move the box to a safer location.
When she went to pick the box up, you can imagine her surprise when she found not only one, but nine pups had been dumped on the road and left to die.
The box was taken immediately to a local vet who estimated that the nine pups were just over a week old as their eyes weren't even open.
Two vet nurses that work at the veterinary practice agreed to take two pups each to hand raise and it looked as though the other five were going to be euthanased.
When Paws n Hooves heard about the plight of these puppies, one of our carers decided that she would like to play "mummy" for these gorgeous little helpless "bags of bones".
After many late nights (and nights with no sleep at all,)these 5 little pups started to grow and adapt well to their new "foster family". The six other foster dogs in the family were always there as well keeping an eye on the babies to ensure thay grew up into well adjusted puppies.

While all this was happening, Kate and Tim were talking about getting a themselves a canine companion, mainly so that Kate would have some company when Tim was away on business.
Kate then decided that she just had to come to Sydney to meet some puppies after seeing them on the Paws n Hooves website.
For the rest of Zac's story, here is what Kate had to say:
"We called Paws & Hooves to enquire about a few puppies we had seen on the website and then we saw two we loved called Zac and Wags. We went and met them both at their carers house and knew we had to take one home. The hardest thing was choosing. After deciding we couldn't take both, we chose Zac, he was just so adorable! He had obviously been so well cared for and loved, which was really comforting to know. We got him at four months old and he had already started training and had all his shots etc. He is a wonderful dog and we are really lucky to have him. Thanks to Paws & Hooves - we can't recommend getting a pet from them highly enough!"