dee136

Relatively new on here but thought I would join in this topic as I've had such good experiences taking mine into work. I work as a nurse doing night shift in a low-care nursing home and often take in one of my dogs. (have a 2.5yr old mal & 1.5yr old sibe) I find they actually make my job a lot easier! We have quite a few residents who suffer from anxiety &/or have dementia, as well as a number of other behavioral conditions. When I don't have a dog with me I spend an enormous amount of my night spending 1:1 time trying to calm residents and stop inappropriate behaviors, often with no luck so drug therapy is the next option. I find for a large majority, a visit from a dog works 10 times better than 1:1 time, and without the need to medicate. Residents who can be verbally aggressive and completely non-compliant with staff, meet the dog and there is a complete change in mood & behavior. One particular resident who I have never seen smile, met the mal and broke into a big smile then giggles. She loved shaking "hands" with him and when it was time for us to leave in the morning, kept coming back to the office asking "can I just say goodbye to Chilly again?". Other residents smile while they reminisce about their own past pets while giving mine pats. One evening when either dog hadn't been in for a week, I had one woman pull out a doggy calendar and say "that's just like yous dogs". This blew me away as she has Alzheimers and usually doesn't remember any of the staff, let alone the fact that she could connect me with the dogs. We have 70yr old man with severe depression, he has a shed out the back to potter around in, as well as make furniture. He loves to take the dog out with him in the morning for some "man time". It's wonderful to see one of my boys trotting along next to him & following his commands. I can't take a dog in as often as I would like to as I need my partner to be home the following morning to look after the sulky dog that has been left home. I also think having 2 would be a lot of work as their interactions with the residents have to be very closely supervised as some conditions can make people quite unpredictable.

I have friends who are looking into getting a dog and after some research they are leaning towards a cocker spaniel. They have looked at all the lists of facts and information, now I'm hoping there are people out there with experience with the breed that can let me know a bit more about them. Quirky traits, personal stories, the negatives, & anything else you feel like sharing. Thanks in advance.

Sorry, forgot to add, we are moving out at the moment, our lease runs up on Sunday and we found something closer to work.

Is Aberfeldie (Essendon) too far out? We are 1 house back from the Maribyrnong river, there is amazing walking tracks around here, including 1 which seems like it is bushland with no houses nearby. The house I'm living in allows dogs, we have a sibe and a mal and there was no issues keeping them here. The tenants before us had 2 rotties and before that a jack russell lived here. It's through Avion properties which is based in Ascot Vale. Our rent was $1474 a month, not sure if they are putting it up. There is 1 section near the car port that needs temporary fencing, it's about 2mt.