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Ollie's postponed meet and greet is this Saturday. His prospective family is so excited. The youngest daughter is dancing to his music videos, the five year old has been chatting about Ollie to her grandma and I've been trading emails with the mum about various introduction strategies. We really want it to work, but understand that it can be tricky to introduce a new dog into a family where a 9 year old cattle dog has ruled the roost.

Ollie is sanguine:

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He had a fabulous time at the dog park on the weekend. Photos and videos here.

He visited 3 pet stores in Belconnen and got LOTS of pats

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He has also learned how to rollover.

He has become resigned to his cankles

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He looks smart in his training patches

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He also has a new music video

We've received another very, very good application for him in case the first one doesn't work out. The family sound wonderful and they are sooooo keen to get him. Last week I felt very sad at the thought of losing him and this week I'm still sad, but I am kind of excited for him about the thought that he'll have a wonderful family of his own soon ...

ETA:

Off topic... Where do you get those dog bricks from? Never seen them before.

It's a Nina Ottosson Plastic Dog Brick. I bought ours from wagsalot.com.au. Very good brain exercise for the dogs :)

Edited by koalathebear
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That music video is brilliant!!!! :thumbsup:

Thank you! The videos have been very popular. It's so heartwarming to have applicants chatting to us all about the details of Ollie's blog, his development - they say they feel like they know him and when I talk to them, it really does sound like they've gone to the effort to read all the posts and watch all the videos. It makes me feel much more comfortable about them even though I'm going to be soooooo sad this weekend.

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Everything you have done for Ollie from the day he came into your home to the day he goes off into his new home has been truly wonderful. You are a wonderful asset to AWDRI I'm sure. I know you will be sad when Ollie leaves but try and think about the next adventure with your next foster dog :)

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The meet and greet went very well today. He got along beautifully with the kids - was very gentle. The 9 year old cattle dog was pretty good with him and they seemed civil. On-leash and off leash interactions were all fine - we met our front, then went for a walk around the block, then let them off leash for a run and then walked back to the house.

During the walk, two stray dogs rushed at him but he stood there calmly. He was ok around the alpacas although he ate a lot of alpaca poo. He was also very well-behaved inside the house. The husband liked him, too but is worried about the effect of a second dog on their current dog so the trial will be for two weeks to see how it goes ... It was very hard to say goodbye to him but the home is wonderful - the family is lovely, very dog savvy and very dog-friendly.

As it was Ollie's last night with us last night, so we let him sleep on the bed for the first (and last) time. He was a good boy.

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Edited by koalathebear
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Thanks to everyone for their support during our first fostering experience :) It's been a real eye-opening, learning experience and I knew it would be hard to leave Ollie behind - and it was. He looked for us after we left apparently and jumped up into the seat of a visitor's car as if he was going to go home :) But last night we received an awesomely detailed update from his new mum as well as a bunch of great photos. You can see them here. My fluffy Kelpie-Bear seems to be settling in nicely

Edited by koalathebear
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We got another lovely update from Ollie's new owners today - he got bed privileges on his second night there when the five year old daughter invited him up for the bed time story :)

In other news, while we wait to see how Ollie goes, we are helping a fellow foster carer out with this Kelpie:

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His name is Nova and he has been dumped twice. You can read all about him at his blog post here. He is very, very smart and trainable and has picked up heaps in just one day. It is very, very sad that neither of his previous owners bothered to spend any time to try training him at all when he is so smart and eager to please.

I love Kelpie intensity - they are so intense it is funny

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Edited by koalathebear
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Nova's settling in nicely with Elbie and Hoover

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In other news, we were given another update from Ollie's new family. Even though the first week of the two week trial adoption isn't up yet, they have already decided to keep him - he's already enrolled in obedience classes! He's settling in very well and getting lots of walks, lots of cuddles. I am going to miss him a lot but the family is wonderful.

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keetamouse - your practice of lending the adoptive family a crate is excellent. We let them borrow one of our soft crates and Ollie's new family have already ordered a new soft crate for him - albeit a pink one :)

Edited by koalathebear
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Nova is doing well. Even though he won't start a trial adoption until he's had a bit more training, we thought that the visit is a good chance to get Nova familiar with his potential family - he has an excellent application from a family who lives only 5 minutes away from us. So yesterday we took him out to their house for a longer meet and greet. They've met him briefly before. We walked through their house, their yard - set up his crate to sure he was comfortable and would go into it while in a strange place. He did. He was very well-behaved in the house. Then we went to a nearby oval to practise recalls with his prospective adopters and since one of his 'duties' is to be a jogging partner, they also practised jogging around the oval. He did that well as well, staying by the handler's side during the jog. So we let Nova stay with them for a sleepover and they're dropping him back today to continue his training with us - he had an exciting day. A long walk, a few errands and lots of human time. We also let them borrow a backseat buddy for driving him around.

He seems pretty happy :)

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They also texted me this morning to say that he slept quietly in his crate last night - all good news :)

Edited by koalathebear
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Ollie's new family sent us photos of his new crate - pink because they have two little girls :)

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His new car harness

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Nova goes on trial adoption on Saturday - I think his foster brothers Elbie and Hoover will miss him. We certainly will.

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Edited by koalathebear
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About to drive Nova off to his new family for his 2 week trial adoption. Nova's video for his last evening with us - he perfected his beg last night!

In his very short time with us he showed us how smart he is by learning how to drop, stay, spin, beg, speak on command and crawl and he was also crate trained. He also stopped barking when left along in the backyard. Best of all, he has put on some weight, got a nice, shiny coat and has learned to play nice with our doggies.

His new mum and dad texted me last night to say that they wouldn't need us to lend them a crate when we brought Nova today because they ordered a crate already and it arrived yesterday - along with a comfy dog futon. Just in time! Paws crossed that the adoption goes well. I'm of course feeling very sad - these dogs spend a lot of time with us - but also very happy for Nova.

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Nova last night:

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Nova on the way to be dropped off at his new home

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His new family were ecstatic to have him dropped off this morning. They were all ready for him. We live only 10 minutes away and they have our contact details in case they need to ask any questions. They texted to say that he was doing well - had gone on a walk, was squeaking madly on his toy. They told me that he's already a member of the family. I think that it helped that Nova had had the 'sleepover' last weekend :)

Today, we also saw Ollie again :) We went to pick up the crate we had loaned the family and we brought Elbie and Hoover for a playdate with Ollie and Pip. The dogs had a blast!!

They also gave Elbie and Hoover a present and a beautiful drawing. Ollie's doing really well and is clearly a much beloved member of the family.

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