Long dog story / finger crossing required

[Sergeant Pluck]

I came back yesterday after a few days in County Down with my parents. My father was leaving me to Belfast city airport yesterday morning. As we came through east Belfast, I saw a dog walking fast along the pavement ahead of us, unaccompanied. He was trotting along at high speed, not quite at a run. He looked like a lurcher cross with a brindle medium length coat, maybe a bit of wolfhound. Not starving, good coat, not injured, and had a collar on with something attached.

I could see the dog was in a total panic - you know how dogs look when they are totally lost and just searching. He did a heart stopping jink to the right along the pavement just ahead of us, and at the last minute realised there was a car coming along - it's a very busy road.

I remarked to my dad (driving) that the dog was obviously lost. As we passed, my dad said, "you know what, I saw that dog yesterday near Malone (South Belfast, a good few miles away), and I remember him because he ran out into the road and luckily the lorry in front of me stopped".

The dog went up a side street, fast. I said we should maybe try to grab him before he got knocked down or caused an accident, but time did not permit it, and the dog was really shifting through a dense busy built up area. Now my family have a history of rescuing dogs, and indeed our current dog came to us as my dad returned from the same airport, after dropping me off: the dog ran out in front of the car and my dad rescued her from busy traffic. Long story but after much driving around the area in the next couple of days to see if the owner lived nearby, scouring the papers and contacting the local dog resue places, she came to us.

Anyway, I'm not a religious person but occasionally when things are a bit dire I am given to the odd failsafe prayer, and I added this latest dog to my prayer last night and tried to put him out of mind.

Got a call a couple of hours ago from my dad. He'd been up east Belfast today, and guess who was trotting along the Newtownards Road? So my dad parked the car and tried to follow and call the dog. He was having none of it and ran into the grounds of Stormont. After about an hour of failed attempts, my dad was chatting to another dog walker and told him the story, and the man was thus enlisted. Another concerned party joined in... after about 3 hours, the dog was eventually corned in the garden of a house. He was extremely distressed. One of the people with my dad had the number someone who worked for one of the dog rescue charities. She was on leave but came up to join them. The dog bit two of the people involved, one twice, but was restrained eventually, but understandably in a frightened state.

He was taken to the vet that the dog rescue centre uses. He was in good health, probably owned by someone using him to hunt, not a pet as such; his pads were worn away almost completely and his nails were nearly gone. He must have covered so many miles. He also attacked the vet.  :-( Sadly the thing attached to his collar contained no information.

Due to his tendency to bite, the shelter could not take him at present so the girl that worked at the shelter has taken him home to see how he does. If he settles ok he can go to the shelter. He won't come into the house but is happy to lie on a blanket in the shed. He is obviously unused to tinned dog food, doesn't know what it is (most working dogs I know of eat stuff that has water added, sometimes proper meat).

As of an hour ago he has taken a little food from the hand of the rescue shelter girl. He is settling a bit. He's a lovely looking animal, probably only 9 months old or so, but has obviously had a difficult life. There are no reports of anyone looking for him.
I'm hoping he will settle down when the stress of being lost, starving, with sore feet, and being caught by strangers dwindles. Otherwise I fear he has an uncertain future.
So there you are - fingers crossed, please, all.
 

[TimO]

Poor pooch, sounds like he's had a rotten time.

Well done to them all for catching him, and I hope the story ends well, eventually.  Faced with a dog like that, I think I'd be rather useless, so major brownie points for all those involved in trapping him, although it doesn't sound like he appreciated it.

[Sergeant Pluck]

In general it's probably not a good idea to jump the gun in these circumstances, but in this situation he was clearly distressed and had been seen running loose in different areas over 3 days. I think he would eventually have been in an accident at some point, maybe as he began to tire. Or he may just have become exhausted and curled up somewhere and starved or succumbed to stress.

I hope something works out - I am concerned about his inclination to bite - he can't be blamed for this really at the moment, under such stress over the last few days, but if he persists with that then it'll be difficult to get him a home.

[Pingu]

I'm hoping he will settle down when the stress of being lost, starving, with sore feet, and being caught by strangers dwindles.

Fingers are crossed.

[little miss mac]

Just seen this. Poor thing. Any news?

[Sergeant Pluck]

Update.

Well, this is a very fortunate dog in many ways.

He stayed with the dog-sanctuary lady for a day. She found him difficult to handle - although he began to settle, and indeed is very affectionate, he became very possessive of her even after a day. She spoke to my dad and to the other man who helped out on the day as mentioned above. My mum and dad simply do not have the space and energy to keep a dog of this size, age and temperament (so far) and this other chap, Martin, has gladly taken him on. Martin has 2 dogs, horses, and plenty of space and is very used to handling and training all kinds of dogs, so is ideal. He is also a no nonsense character who is well versed in the psychology of all this.

The dog is very "male", potentially quite aggressive to other dogs, but is now settling down with Martin's other dogs and they are sleeping all together etc. He is a great dog, a good watchdog and is already very protective of Martin's home. He is affectionate with people and has not bitten anyone since the day he was found.

He has been to the vet twice for check ups and goes back tomorrow. His feet are healing well - the vet things he could have been on the run for days given the condition of his feet. Also although he did not appear very malnourished, now that he has been eating properly he is filling out well. The vet thinks he might only be 6 to 8 months old and that he'll probably get a good bit larger - while there is definitely some lurcher there, he probably has something larger in him too, Great Dane perhaps or wolfhound.

So he has potentially found an ideal home. I think he is very lucky as if he had been found by a Northern Ireland style dog warden he probably would have been put down due to his initially aggressive state. If not killed on the road.

The papers and dog sanctuaries have been checked and no owner has been looking for him.

Edit: you must be psychic, LMM - I've only got off the phone with my dad a few minutes ago!

Edit #2: probably the biggest stroke of luck, apart from my dad spotting him 3 days in a row, was that this guy Martin was the one, out of all the dozens of walkers and dog owners in the park that day, my dad bumped into.

Ta all for finger-crossing.

[little miss mac]

What a lovely happy ending (and new beginning) for this dog. Well done all of you!

[juliet]

Oh, that's really great news.  Well done to all concerned.

[TimO]

All sounds good.

Although after reading this:

... The vet thinks he might only be 6 to 8 months old and that he'll probably get a good bit larger - while there is definitely some lurcher there, he probably has something larger in him too, Great Dane perhaps or wolfhound.

I hope he does have plenty of room!