18/09/2025
🤎
As we use foster homes us admin rarely get to actually meet our dogs so it is nice when we get the chance to do just that. This weekend I went to meet the lovely Blake who is in foster with the equally lovely Richard in Daventry Northants. Blake has had a couple of meet and greets but no one has chosen to adopt him yet. So I wanted to know why.
Lets start with the positives
Stunning looking liver and white 5 year old springer
Fabulous in the home - clean and settles well.
No aggression
Absolutely fine being handled
Extremely intelligent
Great personality
Good recall (in a secure field)
So what is the problem? He is horrendous on the lead! Not just springer bad, he is shocking. Nose down, weaving and pulling all the time. To know why we need to know a bit about his history. He was being left up to 7 hours a day alone and wasn't walked much nor had he seen a vet in over 3 years. So now in foster he is getting several walks a day and quite frankly its blowing his mind. Added to that a high prey drive and walks are a combination of free hunting and reacting to other dogs, people, cars and cyclists etc. You his handler on the other end of the lead does not exist. He has no idea you are even there. This is not helped by him being in an urban foster environment and all the distractions that brings. Not selling him much am I? 😄
So we changed his lead from a harness to a cani collar to get some control and after a while we had a sort of loose lead walk. But give him an inch and he was back to sniffing and weaving again. But we persevered and things got slightly better. We also managed a good long sit to just gently take in his environment. A big positive was a nice sit and then we played find the treat to encourage some interaction between us and on several occasions we did get eye contact. This was also used to distract him from people and other dogs and worked very well. This was all in an hour. It was hard work and I have to be honest only a slight improvement but just think what could be achieved with time ?
So Blake is now looking for a Foster with a view to adopt home. In his new home his needs are
Dog free
Child free
Cat and other animal free
Rural with a secure garden
Someone who has the time to train him (and yes he is very trainable)
Someone who likes a challenge ( I would have took this boy in a heartbeat if I matched the criteria!)
Someone physically strong as he is a strong fit lad
I know there is someone out there for this boy so if it is you follow the link below and fill in that application form :) I cannot tell you how lovely he is and what a fantastic companion he will be
https://spanielaid.co.uk/spaniel/blake-sa4664/
