Betsy – 4 year old Irish Terrier X *HOMED*

Betsy – 4 year old Irish Terrier X *HOMED*

New Home Forums DID Dogs Our Dogs Happy Endings Betsy – 4 year old Irish Terrier X *HOMED*

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  • #79845
    justineemoe
    Member

    Betsy is a terrier who has an enthusiasm for life that is infectious. Betsy loves meeting people and would be suited to a home with older children or adults. She is brilliant in the car (quiet and intent on watching the world go by) and is great in social situations as she sits quietly and is happy just to be around people. She is not great with cats and is working on her social skills with other dogs. She is fully house trained.

    Betsy speak:
    stretching with front legs extended = may I have a walk?
    tennis ball dropped at your feet = may I have a walk immediately!
    head peeping over the back of the couch looking in your direction = please have a sit down with me (tummy rubs welcome)

    Here is Betsy pictured while on active neighbourhood watch duties (note the serious look in her eye :D )
    Betsy.jpg

    #117469

    She is a darling, Justine. Loving the new hairstyle and collar.

    Had she been down to Walshes recently? We’ve taken your lead and had a few of ours now in the snug!

    #117529
    justineemoe
    Member

    Well Christine, we haven’t had Betsy with us in the pub since her two trips to Walshe’s and Commiskey’s over the summer. She is overdue a visit! We go to Rooskey with her quite a lot – I’m sure she would be very welcome in Reynolds in the village. Although I would have to keep her on a tight leash beside the Shannon as I have no doubt she would fling herself into the water for a swim!

    #117545

    omigod, what a beautiful girl…she is the SPITTING image of our dog Dexter…oh how I wish i could take her….i hope she finds a good home soon.

    #117879
    justineemoe
    Member

    Betsy had a great session with Magali of Wonder Walkies on Sunday in the park. Betsy is nervous of other dogs but Magali did a fantastic job of training myself and John to help Betsy overcome her fears and associate other dogs with positive things (namely really tasty treats).
    Here’s another picture of Betsy who is a wonderful little dog!
    b.jpg

    #118037
    justineemoe
    Member

    The best little dog in Cabra deserves the best seat in the house!
    2013-11-11 23.22.06.jpg

    #118042

    Such a darling little girl. Betsy is spoilt rotten and deservingly so :)

    #118312
    justineemoe
    Member

    Betsy has been getting on so well with her training. She has made two more dog friends recently. Well not exactly friends – but acquaintances – who she doesn’t bat an eyelid at when she meets them. To help socialise her better with all dogs we have been on a regieme of treat delivery when another dog comes along. Now when Betsy sees another dog in the distance she looks around at us for a treat and doesn’t respond to the other dog at all.

    Betsy can have moments of extreme playfulness which are so cute. Sometimes she gets a little glint in her eye which I now recognise as "Play time please!" Betsy does a circuit around the bed room which involves running in under the bed – she then gets out the other side and zig zags around us. I would love to get it on video – but she won’t do it on command!

    #118407
    Stefk4
    Member

    First update from the new home..

    Yesterday was an exhausting day – so many new things to explore! Betsy hardly had enough time to eat or rest, she was a very busy dog yesterday! The night was very calm though, she looked kind of sad and confused in the evening, but then slept the whole night calmly in her new bed.

    Right now it seems that her days are divided into two main activities – going for a walk and waiting to go for a walk. :) We just returned from a 1 and 1/2 long tour of neighbouring parks and, 30 minutes later, she seems to be ready to go again :)
    As with her problem with other dogs, so far we keep it under control by distracting her when another dog appears on the horizon.
    Apart from the clicker and squeaky toy, another great distraction seems to be running. I noticed she likes to run yesterday, and even though non of us jog, I tried to use it as a distraction on our walks. And it works! The second she noticed other dogs in the park, I started running like crazy in another direction and making funny "wheeeeeeee" noise. (You should have seen me..) She enjoyed it so much that she completely forgot about the other dogs around her :) Granted, my whole neighbourhood probably thinks that we´re completely mad, but who cares, we´re happy :D

    Our garden seems to be the favourite place. You know how other people try to keep dogs in the garden and prevent them from going inside? We have the opposite problem – once in the garden, how do we get her back in? :) She definitively cannot be left there unattended – she would be able to dig a tunnel to the neighbour´s garden in a matter of minutes.. (yes, the neighbour has a dog outside). She also tried to dismantle the fence. So we had to put some rules in place – visits to the garden are only permitted during the day and under close supervision. It also is the only place where she barks, she´s obviously got a lot of things to say to all the dogs in the neighbourhood. :)

    Here are some pictures from yesterday and today:
    IMG_1042.JPG
    IMG_1040.JPG
    IMG_1035.JPG

    #118408
    justineemoe
    Member

    Jana and Marcus…Thanks for sharing the lovely photos of Betsy – she seems to be settling in very well so far – and I’m delighted to see that she is using her lovely new bed too. The photo of her on sentry duty at the fence is very funny. You will have to build her a tower – like the type they have at boarder crossings – so she can oversee the entire neighbourhood!

    You must be natural dog trainers because one of the other things Betsy’s trainer advised us to do to distract her when another dog comes along is to run along in the opposite direction with the squeaky toy and sing along encouragingly to let her know we are all having great fun times in the park. This works very well – but as you say – is not great for your street cred – but as you also say – who cares…it works wonderfully.

    #118409
    Jenny
    Member

    Well Betsy what a wonderful forever home – well worth waiting for :D and what about that wonderful "BED"!!! where can I get one like that?

    #118417
    Stefk4
    Member

    Hi Jenny, we were indeed very lucky with the bed! :)
    We bought it in Woodies for just €25! They have halfprice for all "Woofie´s" dog beds, so it was originally €50. But looking at their website now, at it seems that the offer still stands!

    http://www.woodiesdiy.com/Product/Woofi … qjrteLpxes

    Justine, I absolutely love the tower idea!! :D

    #118420
    PatC
    Member

    Hi Jana,

    Great photos and update they have made my morning :D :D , I am so happy that Betsy has found such a thoughtful and loving forever home. Best of luck to you all.

    Pat, Harry and Siog.

    #118422
    Jenny
    Member

    Hi Stef,

    Many thanks on the info about "THE BED" ;)

    Betsy has been waiting for you for some time – delighted for you and the lovely Betsy.

    #118460
    Stefk4
    Member

    Hi everybody,
    Thanks very much for you kind comments!

    It has been 1 week and 1 day since we brought Betsy home so I thought I´m gonna give you another update.

    What a great week it has been! So many new things to explore and people to meet!

    Our grandpa arrived for Christmas and him and Betsy fell in love with each other instantly. Grandpa apparently makes the best couch-buddy!

    We have been on many walks and visited too many new places to name them all. But one example for many – it seemed that Betsy loves shopping as she wants to go into every shop we pass. So we went for a long walk to Blanchardstown and visited THE PET SHOP! :) She was so excited that she could go in and walk through the aisles picking her new toys! ;)
    That is, until she noticed the budgies in the cage at the end of the shop… After that there was no more shopping, just staring at the birds for ages and dragging her out of the shop – not even nice shopping assistants with tasty treats and squeaky toys were able to distract her :D

    Another great experience was bringing her to work for the first time. She loved it of course. The garden is filled with smells of various wild animals (rabbits, pheasants, mice…), so she was busy sniffing everything and was soo tired when we got back home. It´s gonna take some getting used to, but I think she will make a great companion for outdoor work in spring :)

    Our home garden is still the favourite place and we play a new game – she digs a tunnel, I come in, cover it up and she digs it again. She should be hired to dig holes for living – she would work faster than any machine on the market! :D

    All in all, it´s great fun to have Betsy around and she settled in very well. She seems to enjoy everybody´s company and is always excited to go out some place new or welcome new visitors.
    Hard to believe it has been only a week, can´t imagine not having her in our lives. What did we even do before we had her?

    Attached are some pictures from Betsy´s new life.
    Will update again soon

    Jana
    grandpa.JPG
    garden.JPG
    zaluzie.JPG

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