Milly, as he is a rescue dog, what happened to him that he had to be rehomed? How old is he?
Ah. Well this one is only being rescued from my son and his family. All the rest of the dogs I've owned were rescued from the usual various situations that rescue dogs find themselves in.
What happened in this case was that, against my advice (as is the norm on practically everything), they took him on as a puppy when my daughter-in-law was expecting. Never a good idea. Babies and dogs don't mix. There's the hygiene problem for a start. I didn't have dogs during a 5-year gap till my children started school. Anyway, till the baby was born he was the best thing since sliced bread but of course afterwards his nose was well and truly pushed out. He's spent a lot of time being shut out. He wasn't allowed on the grass in the back garden either because of the toddler.
My son has been brought up with them and knows the breed well, how much exercise they need and of course how to treat them. Unfortunately though, he's out at work all day and does quite a bit of overtime. He did think that his stepson (now 17...he married an older woman, just like the other son -they both have 17 year old stepsons!) would take him out regularly and that he would be taken out with the baby in the pram/pushchair. Sadly it hasn't been the case. When my son became aware of the situation he was horrified and asked me to take the dog on long before now, but I refused as I have a child to look after and also had an alpha male boxer myself who wouldn't have taken kindly to a young usurper. My son didn't feel he could rehome him to anyone other than myself as he's very fond of him so it's been a dicey situation for quite some time. My other son had a Dogue de Bordeaux which when the marriage broke up, he had to find a home for. All very upsetting, but I couldn't take him on either for obvious reasons, although I did help out for part of the week for a while.
When I first lost Alfie, I decided I couldn't go through it all again, but as my other son, my grandson's father, is moving out this weekend and setting up home with his new love, (aged 18 this time! - this one's 10 years younger!!!), I felt it would solve more problems than it would cause if I took Dudley on after all. It would be something for the child to look forward to for a start. He's had far too many goodbyes and not nearly enough hellos. Also, I feel safer if there's just the two of us and we have a good guard dog. It would also give the dog the home it deserves. All dogs need company, exercise and to be looked after to the best standard. All the same, I need more hassle and grief like a hole in the head.
All that extra exercise will either kill me or make me fitter. Hey ho.
