Teddy

Adopt Teddy from Spirit of the Dog
Adopt Teddy from Spirit of the Dog
Teddy
Teddy’s story is a lesson and an inspiration for us all ❤
An increasing number of families are buying French bulldog puppies from breeders without  researching their breed, learning to train them or how to communicate with them… Teddy was one of those puppies. He wasn’t abused and he wasn’t unloved but love alone isn’t enough and when the communication breaks down so does the dog, and often their loving owner too.
When the whole family reached breaking point they reached out to surrender him to a rescue but were turned away over and over again because of lack of space and the severity the situation had reached, it was going to be a long road to gain his trust and turn his life around and his owners didn’t want to have to take a last vet trip. He came in to the kennels with our other residents, away from his family for the first time at just a year old and his whole life fell apart.
Before long his confidence was growing, his challenging learned behaviours and breed traits began to show and the work began. His designated behaviourist Lucy and her partner Glen put in a whole new regime for him and slowly but surely he overcame a huge number of hurdles, eventually beginning home integration training with our volunteer Adam who has been there for him since day 1. It was clear from the start that the home environment was triggering and he found it much more difficult to cope than in his kennel routine but he now manages 5 days a week in his foster home!
His long term rehabilitation process is nowhere near an end and we always knew his future adopter needed to be sure they had the patience and dedication to earn his full trust, help him continue to progress and allow him to integrate into their home at his own pace.
Teddy has had to start over in new surroundings already and although he tried so hard and shone with the right handler he still struggles to cope with many aspects of the human world. We have known from early on that it would be no easy task finding his perfect match and that when they came along, the process had to be slow and consistent for it to become a lifelong partnership.
Recently a lot of big discussions happened over a lot of application forms and even though so many were outstanding and we would love to find them all amazing dogs to match, the option that was best for Teddy couldn’t have been more clear.
So for him life won’t change, he is still a Spirit dog and he is still in part time foster but now we know that the goal he has in his own mind is full time foster, and then to one day be able to fully integrate without his 2 days a week in kennels and be fully adopted.. by Adam ? and after a lot of conversations with us about how he could change his career and circumstances to make things work forever, Adam has agreed! And we all cried. A lot.
Dogs always choose their owners in the end, and now he has found someone who will spend as long as it takes making it happen.
We would like to express our deepest gratitude to every applicant who we called to explain this outcome, each of you were so kind in saying that your disappointment was overshadowed by happiness for Ted and that made a difficult job much easier.
Thank you for your continued support, we hope you will join us in raising a glass to a happy ending ?? and carry on cheering him on as he works towards his end goal of a forever home.

After seeking the support of qualified behaviourists they learned that every family member needed to follow the rules consistently to help turn things around and improve his quality of life and they knew that their busy household and lifestyle would never allow for it especially with young children at home. They had to make the brave decision to let him find a new dedicated forever home and got in touch to ask for a rehabilitation space.

Teddy is enjoying life here and making huge leaps in progress with behaviourist support, we are putting a brand new training plan together to help him overcome fearfulness and lack of understanding surrounding boundaries ??

Teddy works really hard in class, he is a loving soul who has become fearful of what he doesnt understand but he is well on his way to building the perfect foundation for his transition to a forever home ❤

What else can we tell you about Teddy??

?He is a 1 year old Frenchie puppy with a big heart and a lot of spirit!

?He has lived with a cat and he can be seen pictured playing with and cuddling up to them contentedly, he could potentially live with a confident one again

?He has behaved nicely on lead when looking at livestock through fences on his off site walks, he also spent time in foster on site of a stables and was pleased to greet horses whilst he was there

?We think he could live with the right dog, he has shown very nice body language in a temporary foster environment with 4 other Frenchies

?He can be nervous of strangers at first, usually men but he is making great progress and adores his male kennel carer. We have found that he feels most comfortable with meeting new people in his own time, in a calm and controlled manner. He likes to get a feel for people before they interact with him and then hes ready to play!

?Even though they spent many happy times together, we know that the young children were often a source of stress for Teddy in his previous home so we will be looking for an adult only home

?‍♂️As mentioned above he arrived with huge anxieties around his equipment, it took us a number of days to get his collar on and it was around a week before he was able to confidently get dressed for his first walk here. He is now excited and enthusiastic when the lead comes out and is learning to change his fearful reaction when the lead is moved in a way that would have lead to something unpleasant before.

Teddy is able to walk nicely on his harness and loves his walks in  nature and on the local high street.

?Teddy would like an experienced owner who will offer him a calm leader to rely on, someone who is enthusiastic to continue all of the great work hes doing here and wants to help him continue to smash his goals and live life to the full

?He loves learn new tricks and to practice using different strategy treat games, hes working his way up the levels fast!

?He has never been left long in a home environment, he would prefer an owner who has a lifestyle that allows him to be involved each day and to build up time left alone at his own pace

?Teddy is already neutered and in very good health