Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:13 pm Post subject: Darrian Terrier Lurcher 4-5 years Essex
His Story Darrian was found stray and unclaimed just before Christmas
Salient points: Darrian is a lurcher x terrier with keen sighthound focused vision and prey drive. For this reason he can not come off an extender lead. Initially nervous in the house but getting used to domesticity and respecting the house generally. Excellent dog skills but a little nervous of people initially. Food thief so kitchen surfaces and bin to be watched! Affectionate.
Advert Darrian is a stunner with his wire coat and distinct colouring. He is older than first thought and could be 4-6 years old. He clearly hasn't lived in a house before but trains really easily and already responding to his name, commands and expectations. Brilliant with dogs and clearly has lived possibly with many. He is newly neutered, tooth removed and vax'd. Fostered in with another lurcher and terrier males in Bracknell. Unassessed to live with very young children but should be fine supervised with visiting children.
Darrian is fast; lithe and alert. His intelligence applies well but over-riding all else is his keenness and kinaesthetic tenseness on sensing a cat or small furry. In fact living next to cats may prove a real problem unless 8' panel fencing with no stepping stones to aid Olympic feats! Exit security needs to be adhered to at all time including windows.
We may have living amongst us a champion hare chaser ...be he a newly retired one!
Please visit Darrian's individual thread, in Dogs needing homes in foster on our Forum to find out more about him and follow his progress.
If you are interested in re-homing please complete our homing questionnaire so we can ensure our dogs are matched and will suit your circumstances/lifestyle.
Darrian's thread below:
Being put to sleep as no rescue place available so we're going for bust and stepping up for him. No idea about him other than male JRT found stray and out of time. _________________ You can't train the terrier out of a terrier!
On meeting this lad he had to be Darrian. Overall impression is collie x terrier his head is terrier with a wonderful box face and little beard. He is about 17" to the shoulder so bigger than a Parson's Jack small collie size. Lovely gentle temperament coming through on initial meeting. Information that has come thru with him he can jump 6' fences! But maybe his intelligence played in - he felt to 'explore or escape' Within a settled home he "mightn't want to!"
Here he is with JulieM who visited the kennels for the first time today (past Croydon vol.)..so 2 newcomers together
_________________ You can't train the terrier out of a terrier!
Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:13 pm Post subject: Darrian
DARRIAN - He is rather handsome don't you think?
We met Darrian today and took him out for a walk. What a lovely gentle lad with a waggy tail. When I collected him from his kennel there were no difficulties in handling him and he tried to be helpful with his harness.
Darrian walked out with me, my husband and our jack russell. Darrian has lovely manners. He may not have much training as such but he has a gentle nature, is complaint and sociable without being in your face. Darrian got on well with our dog and they were happy in each others company.
Darrian enjoyed walking, wagging his tail a lot. He is a sight and scent dog. A couple of times he saw something and thought about chasing it but the second he remembered he was on a lead he stopped. He didn't pull.
I could see an intelligent and sporty dog like this chasing a ball up and down a beach all day, or maybe he could be an agility star.
Darrian accepted treats very gently. He was happy to be fussed and cuddled. This he really got into and enjoyed it and he was also happy with rough cuddles and pats. In fact when I put him back in the kennel it was so difficult to leave him because he was craving more cuddles and it broke my heart to have to go. Darrian is a really affectionate dog.
There are lots of gates to open and close when leaving the kennels for a walk and Darrian was very patient and waited for me, no pushing through. I think that he would love a good run, but when we were just standing around or trying to take photos he didn't get agitated or bored. He was happy just hanging around with us. He really got on well with our dog,friendly but respectful. Darrian seems like an easy going all rounder.
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 9:14 am Post subject: more about Darrian
....and another thing. I forgot to mention that when we were walking Darrian yesterday a lovely young couple were also at the kennel looking at fostering. (We later heard that they took one home, luckydog!) Darrian was aware that they were walking a handsome male Staffie around the field at the same time as us but he wasn't bothered. When our paths crossed Darrian waited patiently while the Staffie met our dog and then Darrian met him too. Darrian behaved nicely, they sniffed each other and then Darrian didn't take any more notice of the other dog. No issues. Can you tell that I think this dog is wonderful?
Darrian is having the snip, chip and 1st Vax today. I have to agree now having him on the front seat of my car for the journey -sighthound x terrier is more descriptive of his genetics and behavioural traits. We are having his teeth done, he is older, will get a better sense of age from our vets this evening _________________ You can't train the terrier out of a terrier!
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:27 pm Post subject: Darrian
Took Darrian out with Samson and Rhianna today for a walk around the field. In the photo he looks quite terrier but in the fur he is very lurcher in feel. We had him on the extender lead and this boy wants to run. He is soooo fast! Lovely, lovely nature. We had a little bit of a game in the paddock while we were waiting for Seb to pick his dog to walk and I reckon he would really like a proper game of ball. He just wants to run!!
He isn't strong on the lead but does have sprints as he is going along.
Cant imagine he will be hanging about for long!
Well, what can I say, this lad knows all about sofas! It will take a while for him to relax properly. Its not surprising, considering what he's been through in the last couple of weeks, that he's still a bit worried and tense! He's only been here six hours, after all!
Indoors he's my shadow, - or on the sofa! He is a bit of a cuddle monster, and fortunately is happy to sit next to you, because he's just that bit too big to be a lap dog. Seen here his head is really terrier like, and he pulls some true JRT faces, but his body, and especially his back half is the shape of a (currently overly skinny) sighthound, with beautifully muscled haunches.
Outdoors he's on a mission - he accurately scented every house on our walk with a resident cat, and was on the alert for anything chaseable. But he was easy to distract, and very responsive. I think he'll be quite trainable.
Altogether he's going to make someone a great companion. He'd make a super agility dog too.
And yes, that's Seamus the growler, sitting at the other end of the sofa. He's accepted Darrian without a murmur. I suspect that if Darri stays here long enough to be allowed off-lead these two will be great hunting buddies.
This is an absolute darling of a dog, and apart from typical lurcher counter surfing, and his mission to rid the world of cats and furries, he is 100% perfect. He's much more relaxed than when he arrived 10 days ago, although still very sensitive to loud voices and often worried that we might be cross with him.
Darri likes nothing better than to cuddle up with you on the sofa, or your bed if you let him (we do in the mornings!). He's learned his name, and to sit for his food and treats, and we are working on the begging(which is closer to looking for an opportunity to snatch, quite honestly!). We are nearly there with the house training, I think he sort of understands now, but still hasn't quite got the fact that it really is essential to wait and go outside, and that marking in the house is bad manners! He is living peacefully with a large terrier and a small lurcher, was the perfect host to a visiting collie girlie yesterday, is fine with dogs outside, in fact generally he has perfect dog manners. However, be warned, this dog is NOT CAT FRIENDLY and never will be. He's light on his feet, fast and agile, can jump quite high fences (but hasn't tried with ours) and would make a great agility dog. His ability to stand on his back legs means that nothing on your worktops is safe.
With the cold weather, we've bought him a little coat and he's now much happier going out. He has absolutely no fat on him (we are working on that, and he is helping by stealing anything I am silly enough to leave in reach!) and his harsh coat is dense, but has no undercoat, so its not surprising he feels the cold.
Darrian has proved himself to be a good all round little dog over Christmas. He welcomed guests politely (both dog and human). He only showed interest in the babies when they had food in their hands, but then didn't take liberties, which surprised me, to be honest. He did sample the blue cheese tart when no-one was looking, though. My fault, I was short of worktop space and I left it within reach.
House training is coming on steadily. Darri is a great one for holding on and doesn't do much of that boy stuff scent marking, so I have relatively few opportunities to reward him for doing it in the right place. I think its dawning on him now, what its about, and am fairly confident that we'll be fully there soon.
He IS a terrible thief - lurcher owners will know all about this. I don't think that he will change, so you need to be prepared for a lifetime of keeping edibles out of reach. We are getting used to it!
Although Darrian is fine to be left (we crate him at the moment) he really loves to be close to his person, currently that is usually at my feet in the office, or on the sofa with me. When I'm busy he watches me almost all the time. So ideally he'd have someone around most of the time. He isn't all that bothered about the other dogs and doesn't take his lead from them, so I think he would be perfectly happy as an only dog, but equally has fitted into the pack here without any difficulty. He's welcomed many doggy visitors, and the only time he took against someone I think it was my fault. I'd trudged through the snow to rescue a customer's Yorkie pup(owners were stranded in the snow) and arrived at home with the pup without any warning. If we'd had the usual quick walk round the block together first there would have been no problem, and I currently have him and two visiting JRTs at my feet as I type!
Darrian has been twice to the vets recently, once for his vax boosters, and once when he stole a box of chocolates (We think it slipped, or was helped, off a high shelf). On both occasions he was calm and co-operative and didn't even attempt to go for the cats and bunnies in crates. Nadia the vet was very taken with him, but says she has too many at home already!
I'm pleased to report that (??famous last words!) Darrian has got the housetraining thing!
He now rushes to the door first thing, and I have learned that if he stands around looking confused, its because he needs to go! He still needs his human in the garden with him but at least once we are out there he doesn't take too long to do his business. I am very grateful to him since its now a bit cold for standing around outside.
We really do have the housetraining thing licked now. The only accidents have been when I was ill and failed to take him to the garden! I am convinced that poor Darrian has spent a lot of time locked out, and he is still very reluctant to go outside if I don't go with him [imagine if you dare, that mad woman next door, out in the garden in snow and rain in her dressing gown, boots and rain hat! And then the praise she heaps on that dog if it pees, well, honestly!!!] But he will sometimes now go out if I stand in the doorway, so I think in time we'll have a brave little boy who will go out of his own accord. He is also almost at the point of weeing on command!
Lead walking is coming on steadily. He just gets so excited at the prospect of 'prey', or the sight of other dogs. Again I suspect that he was never walked in what passed for a home! He is learning gradually that pulling gets you nowhere, but there is still more work to be done. He just took OH out for a walk for the first time in a few days and Les came back saying how much he's improved. Because I'm out with him every day, I had't noticed the progess as much.
He's still my loving little velcro dog. Always by my side, or on my lap on the sofa. He is too big to fit on completely, so lies across my lap, bum on one side, head hanging off the other! I must get a picture of that! Elsewhere in the house he's nearly always at my feet. And gosh! its terrible! I have to stop every so often to give him a cuddle. Its a hard life being a fosterer!
Although he likes to be close when I'm there, Darrian is fine to be left for a couple of hours (in his crate, with his ball) and we don't hear a peep out of him at night. He's a lovely little dog, and a great companion.
Teet Teety Teet the Squirrels of Bracknell just put the signal out "all clear... Darri's been homed far away no need to please the tease anymore" _________________ You can't train the terrier out of a terrier!
Its true, early this morning Darri packed up his knapsack (cunningly disguised as a couple of carrier bags) and especially his Best Ball. He then directed his driver to head East. We duly arrived at the new palace fully 125 miles away in the Anglian lands. Sir inspected the grounds, annointed them, then tested the catering facilities. Heroically, the human catering was sniffed, but not snatched.
Once satisfied with that, the furniture and entertainment had to be assessed.
Drivers departure was hardly noticed - he was too busy playing ball with Tim!
Thanks for a lovely welcome, not to mention tea and sarnies, Bev. We hope the rest of your birthday was really great. I am sure that Darri will happily rise to the challenge of filling that dog shaped hole in your world!
Be a good boy, Darri! We miss you but know you will be happy in your new home.
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What lovely photos and write up 
