Tinkerbell

Maltese · Female · Adult · 5 years

I need an adult-only home with ex-breeder experience that can show me love. I need a resident dog to help me feel safe but I haven’t met cats yet so I'm not sure I would like a secure garden to spend time in. I am learning to walk on a harness but may need more time as I heal. Please be patient with me, I'm nervous and learning everything from scratch. I have been spayed and am ready for my forever home. Tinkerbell has come to us from a breeder and has now settling nicely into foster. She is an extremely hand-shy little girl who is still finding the world a very scary place and will run away and hide in the smallest of spaces when she feels worried. Her new family will need to be prepared to make adjustments around the home to ensure she stays safe while she learns to feel more comfortable. Although she still has a long way to go, Tinkerbell is beginning to show more interest in where her foster family are and what they are doing, which is a lovely little step forward for this precious girl. Tinkerbell loves her food and treats, although she isn't quite ready to take them from your hand just yet. She gets on wonderfully with the other dogs in her foster home and is also happy to share her space with cats. Having a kind and confident resident dog will be very important for Tinkerbell, as she will need a canine friend to help guide her and give her reassurance as she learns about home life. Tinkerbell has never lived in a home before, so everything is completely new to her. House training is still ongoing, and her adopters will need to be patient and understanding as she gradually learns all the usual household routines. She will need a very experienced, adult-only home with people who understand extremely worried ex-breeding dogs and appreciate that building trust will be a long journey. She is not yet a little dog who is ready to enjoy lots of handling and cuddles, so her family will need to let her settle at her own pace without putting pressure on her. Tinkerbell will also need regular grooming to keep her coat comfortable, and her adopters must be prepared to continue this patiently with an experienced and understanding groomer. She has already made progress during her time with us, and we hope that, with the right support, she will continue to discover that life can be a safe and happy place. Tinkerbell is a truly special little girl who deserves someone willing to see her potential and give her the time she needs to blossom. She will need a very special forever home, but with patience, understanding and a kind canine companion by her side, we hope she will gradually grow in confidence and become the wonderful companion we know she can be. Tinkerbell has a travel document. We've had this little girl with us for nearly a month now and it's clear to see that she's going to need a special forever home with someone who understands that it's going to be a long journey to get this little darling to become the dog we now she can become. At the moment she's still extremely handsome shy and will run away and hide in the smallest of places which will mean adjusting your house around for her safety. So far in foster Tinkerbell is starting to show interest in where you are and what your up to. She love her food and treats although she won't take them from your hand just yet she gets on great with all our other dogs and doesn't mind the cats either. Bearing in mind she's never been in a home before so everything is new to her so toilet training is ongoing. Potential adopters will also need to be aware of grooming needs In the past month I’ve seen more progress in Tinkerbell than ever, and it makes me sooooo happy and proud!!! A little while ago, out of nowhere, she jumped up onto the bench next to me and then quickly jumped back down. It was as if she was thinking “oh gosh, what did I just do!?” … but then she kept doing it again, and again. And now it’s like a little ritual that we have! I eat my lunch with her kennel in the yard nearly every day and because she’s so foodie, she jumps up next to me and waits to see what I have to share. It may or may not be the favourite part of my days! Another big step for Tinkerbell is that we’ve moved forward with her harness training. I’ve started attaching a lead to it when she’s in the play yard so it trails behind her. A lot of scared dogs get freaked out by this, but it doesn’t seem to bother Tinks at all. I have attempted to pick the lead up twice to essentially ‘walk’ her, and she did panic at the tension, so I’m going to have to ease into it slowly. With dogs as frightened as Tinks, harness training is a huge step, so in my opinion it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there. What matters is how we get there … slowly, gently, kindly.The last “win” in the past month came a couple of weeks ago. I picked her up in the back of the kennel to put her harness on (which she is not a fan of), and I put her down on my lap to make it easier for me to clip it up. For the first time ever, she just stayed put. She stayed sitting on my lap for about 2 or 3 minutes while I gently stroked her, not holding her in any way - she chose to stay. This made me SO happy and it was such a lovely moment to share with her.Tinks may still be against human touch, but the progress she’s made since her arrival is quite incredible. She really needs someone to take a chance on her now. She deserves it so much. This week at the rescue we’ve had a big heatwave which resulted in a lot of our dogs needing to be shaved, including my beautiful Tinkerbell as she started to struggle having quite a thick coat. She has the most beautiful fur and she keeps herself so clean and dry, but it had to come off for her comfort. She was taken into the vets to be sedated again, but only because the weather has been so warm.. it would have been too hot to put her through the stress of shaving her all off with no sedation. I have been taking her into the grooming room regularly to brush her and trim the hair around her eyes, and she does definitely get better and better each time, so this is a good sign!! The next time she’s due a shave, I will try again without taking her into the vets to see how she does. Even though Tinks is still a nervous girl, especially around people she doesn’t know, she is still progressing slowly and steadily. She’s still very reliant on other dogs and tends to copy them a lot of the time, so this has been good for her learning to trust me. She’s watched so many other dogs come up to me for a fuss, take treats from me, and just be comfortable in general being around me, and she is following suit.. just at her own pace. And that’s okay! She is SUCH a sweet girl who has clearly been through a lot, and it’s not her fault she has such a strong guard up. I absolutely adore working with her and I understand and accept her for who she is. Seeing her get excited over toys and treats, and greeting me with a waggy tail in the mornings really makes me smile, and it gives me hope for her future. She deserves adopters who will love and cherish her the way she always should have been, regardless of if the feelings are mutual.. but I do think she is capable of loving and trusting.. she just needs to find herself with the right people. Over the last few weeks, our lovely Tinks has reached a huge milestone. After seeing how well she has been progressing with her handling, we felt it was time to take the next step — harness training. For a dog who finds handling so worrying, we knew there was a strong chance she might not accept wearing a harness. But unless we try, we’ll never know. Tinks’ other kennel mummy and I took her into the grooming room, where we carefully introduced and fitted her harness. As expected, she was a little unsure and understandably a bit overwhelmed, but she made us both incredibly proud with how she coped. The next step was returning her to her kennel to see how she would manage wearing it throughout the day. Many of our more w

Listed 6 months ago