I mentioned me my last post considering hound number 2! Well we phoned Hall Green RGT and let them know we were interested in Noddy and then I swapped a shift at work so we could go and see him and most importantly do the important Nikki-Noddy introduction!
It was just me, the boys and the dog as Mr P was working. We arrived at about 10.30am and were all really excited to see Noddy, it was also exciting to be back at Hall Green RGT as its a lovely place and it has happy memories from getting Nikki :D. When Noddy came out I had to laugh as next to Nikki he is so stocky, a really muscular boy! He seemed pleased to see us and eager to go for a walk so we set off around the field.
Firstly two dogs takes a bit of co-ordination, which for the first five minutes I seemed to be totally missing, I managed to get myself the dogs and the boys wrapped up on a few occasions! However, once we had all got over our initial excitement we got the hang of it and had a lovely walk.
Noddy was very excited at having his photo take and wanted me to get a close up!
Nikki and Noddy walked very well together and seemed glued to each other all the way, every time we stopped Nikki leaned against Noddy and they were sniffing around together in the undergrowth, I can imagine they will get into lots of mischief together!
After a few laps of the field I phoned Mr P who was finishing work and on his way to see us 😀 we went back to the office and asked if we could let Nikki and Noddy in one of the fenced off paddocks together, so I could see them off the lead together to check they were friendly! Noddy at this stage became a bit pre-occupied as it was 11.50am and they get fed at 1pm he wanted food! They seemed to be getting all of the dogs back into the kennels and Noddy must have thought he was missing out. They were fine together though off the lead and we took Noddy’s muzzle off (Nikki doesn’t really wear hers much now) and they seemed to act as if they were used to each other and just played with a toy together and showed no sign of any problems with each other. I mentioned before they had the same owner/trainer and wonder if they were ever kenneled together? I have no idea how it works being a racing dog and do not know if they would mix together?
Anyway I was eager for Mr P to see him, but the kennel staff were putting all the dogs back for lunch, it was only midday though so we were able to keep him out a little bit longer as long as he was settled back in his kennel before 1pm 😀
We went for another walk and they were lovely together, although Mr P did have a concern as he felt Noddy pulled a lot, he didn’t pull at all for me though? On his website ‘cv’ he is described a gentle on a lead so Mr P was a bit concerned (he is being much more sensible than me haha!). I just put it down to him being hungry, Nikki pulls when she wants to get home – in fact if its cold I usually find I have to drag her a bit for the first half of the walk and then when she knows we are on our way home she pulls me!!
I think they look lovely together :
We have reserved him although I must say we have come away with mixed feelings and will be going back a couple more times before our planned collection date of 27th October (we have Dylan dog again and feel it would be unfair to bring Noddy back home while he is here as it may confuse him!). I think the difference was when we picked Nikki it was an open day, they were open all the day and not rushing to get the back in kennels for food and they were really promoting the dogs on that day. I think we are the kind of people who need to be reassured and no one really said much to us about Noddy. With Nikki they were all saying how fantastic she was and she would be perfect for us and they were so pleased she had found a home, she was a lovely dog and she seemed to interact well with the boys etc. I think this left part of us were thinking, is he really a nice dog? is there something they are not saying? Should we be having another one so soon, do they think its wrong but don’t want to say? I don’t know how to explain it really, it was just a very different experience to when we had Nikki. I’m sure Noddy is lovely and he got on with Nikki which would be our number one concern. We did fall in love with him so I think we just need to stop over analysing the situation and use the next few weeks to get preparing for him coming home!:D
Boys and Chickens 