Torr is a 5 year old male English Cocker Spaniel. He has bitten in both his foster home and his adoptive home. I firmly believe Torr was just not listened too and put in a position that he could not cope with. I have not had worries about Torr biting me during his time in foster with me. We have been careful to provide him with the space he needs, I reflect on this in my write up.
This is Torr, Torr is yet to find his perfect forever home and after being returned twice I think it is safe to say he is getting a bit fed up of looking! If you sat there and went aaaaaggghhhh furbaby, he probably isn’t the dog for you. Torr is never going to want to be picked up, dressed up, taken to the pub or made to socialise with your friends, he is just not that type of dog. Torr strives for a quiet and simple life, so if you think you can provide that please read on.
Torr is 5 years old and has been with us in foster since the beginning of January. Fostering is always a rollercoaster but getting to know this boy has been both a pleasure and a challenge. He challenges the traditional notions of dog ownership but is lovely company in the right environment. This is my warts and all assessment of the type of home Torr needs, and just before I completed this write up, I read this – I did not ask you to fix me, I only asked you to love me, I think this sums up Torr.
Torr is an anxious boy, who finds many parts of being a dog quite over whelming, he struggles to allow himself to settle and needs an owner who will listen to him. Space is really important to Torr and this has a number of implications for him:
1. He doesn’t cope well with dogs that come into his space without an invite, especially if he is on a lead.
2. He is nervous of strangers approaching him, again especially when he is on a lead.
3. He needs a space where he can go and be left alone, and he needs his new owners to respect that space (in our house he lays in front of the TV on a night and we just leave him be).
When Torr first arrived we took him on daily walks with our spaniel but he couldn’t cope with this, so we stopped walking him, instead we played with him in our garden. We researched enrichment activities and had blue peter moments. We got creative with snuffle mats, toilet roll inners, old tea towels, scentworks, treasure hunts and hiding his ball around the garden.
He needs a home with a much larger garden than we can offer him, a large secure garden with an owner that is going to play and engage with him in that space. Don’t get me wrong, he loves the opportunity to run, and we take him to a secure field to allow him time to run around in a much bigger space. I think Torr has been happy here and I have stopped feeling guilty for not walking him.
We think Torr would love to live with people who like to garden, perhaps have a garden allotment and a garden shed that they spend a lot of time in. He would happily spend his day fetching you his toys and dropping them for you (we have been working on a drop to protect his space). He likes open access to the garden and will happily sit and have the wind in his ears and watch the world go by.
Torr does need someone that provides structure to his day, he does get grumpy if he doesn’t sleep, so we ensure that he has time indoors spending some quiet time curled up on the sofa. He has some very endearing features, on his terms he loves a cuddle, he has a good level of basic training and will sit and wait for his food.
Torr sleeps through the night, he has not shown any destructive behaviours and as we have given time and space to settle we managed the occasional grumpiness without any issues, he is also very easily persuaded by food and loves a licki mat or a disgusting smelling buffalo ear or cow tendon. He loves his toys and will insist on greeting you with santapaws, burger or one of my slippers (gifted to him as he loved them so much).
Torr might benefit from some work with a behaviourist but we very much think this depends on the environment. Torr is a home dog, a boy that needs to feel safe in a small bubble. A boy that loves his humans, is very affectionate on his own terms and will play with you all day. So if you can offer this boy a quiet life and small world please do consider him. We will be extending the meet and greet process and we are happy to do multiple meet and greets to give this boy the chance at finding his forever home.