advertisement


Lu's Thread

Dear George - I hate to have to be the first to tell you, but if that dog happens to wander off lead anywhere there's other people around, you do know you'll be going round shouting 'Flirty - hey Flirty, come here to me you little rascal.." :)

Luna is a great name. Flirty is not, I am not sure it is appropriate for an old man to shout "flirty" when calling their dog in a public place. It could attract unwanted attention.
 
My first rescue Cocker was named Rana when we got her but changed that to Breagha without any issues.

Breagha's other name was "GetyerfeckinarseoverherenNOW!!"

I miss her dreadfully.
 
George make sure you get the dog insured, dogs are high maintenance, well mine is, we're never away from the vet.

I'm currently paying £63 a month, Rocco's six and a half years old now and a wonderful dog but we must have claimed about £5000-£6000 in vet bills in that time for him.
 
George make sure you get the dog insured, dogs are high maintenance, well mine is, we're never away from the vet.

I'm currently paying £63 a month, Rocco's six and a half years old now and a wonderful dog but we must have claimed about £5000-£6000 in vet bills in that time for him.

Alternative to insurance is to create a separate online savings account with a monthly standing order; save the money instead and if your dog doesn't need anything big then you get to keep hold of most of your cash. Of course if they need a big op then this approach doesn't work so well, but it's what we do and luckily ours has only needed minor stuff over the years so it's worked ok for us (so far).
 
We gave up on insurance. When the spaniels got to 6 years old the premiums were getting ridiculous.

However, we joined the Dogs' Trust and as part of the annual membership you get £1m public liability. So if the dog causes and accident then we are still covered.
 
No insurance here
Very unimpressed when I had to claim for Billy's back op, Wire Haired Dachs many years ago
Various excesses made it 50/50 on premiums paid. Then exclusions were added, premium went up substantially
Cheaper to be without
 
Our first Labrador developed a tumour on her leg at the age of 11. Investigations, scans, treatments, etc, all paid for without quibble by PetPlan. The vet was happy to find our insurance was with PetPlan because she said there'd be no problem with settlement, so she didn't have to worry about ordering expensive tests, or treatments, but could get on with doing what was needed, when it was needed. It provided considerable peace of mind at what was a very difficult time, we definitely wouldn't have wanted the extra stress of worrying about big bills, nor the guilt or withholding something that might have helped, had we been able to afford it. The eventual cost of the treatments exceeded the total lifetime premiums, so it was definitely worth it in that case.
 
Dear George,

As per Sue P-T’s note above, pet plan insurance is very good and they don’t quibble over your animals needs.

We also have a rescue dog, a chihuahua / Jack Russell cross named Jax. Ideally we would have changed his name, but he was quite neurotic, nervous and stressed when we first got him, so we opted not to.
As others have said above, any behaviour already learned will be hard to change. Jax was only a year old when we got him, but he’d clearly had an unpleasant life with his original owners. He is 9 now, but remains terrified of rolled up newspapers, magazines and also large books.
On the plus side, they had never walked him properly, only letting him out in the garden, so he hadn’t encountered other dogs or the great outdoors, and he gets on famously with both now.

I wish you and Luna / Flirty all the best, they make great company, memories and fun.
 
Thanks again for so many helpful and kind replies.

I don't think that there is any vice in the little dog. She is brilliant with children [as encountered on Tuesday evening's walk round the Bromyard playing fields and children's playground], is perfect with other dogs, and properly polite with adults. I suspect that the lady who is letting me have the dog has been given the job of rehoming her for the lazy owner. And I rather suspect that my friend has had quite a bit to do with the very good socialisation.

I have a feeling that given proper exercise and a bit of positivity from me training her to pee outside is not going to be particularly difficult. My carpets are not posh!

She is not nervous, and typical for a happy terrier she certainly is sprightly and trots like a real swank! Like a horse doing a high trot, which can be almost as fast as a canter. Really extending her front legs forward. Tail straight up. Happy as happy could be!

She has been tail docked, and that might put some people off. But I am not responsible for what happened, and really it makes no difference by now.

I am not one for insurance. I'd rather save the money, which is my natural way in any case. The last five years has been tough, but I worked right through Covid in a petrol station. And of course I actually did get it early on in March 2020, before the mask-mandate. Twelve months ago I went self-employed and have gradually built myself up a little money-wise in the mean time.

Terriers are not overly bred dogs and this one originated from Gypsies, so unlikely to be highly bred. I am not sure Patterdales are really a breed as such, but more a type. Like Welsh Collies, and these are not even recognised as a breed by Crufts. The breed standard for Welsh Collies is amusingly said to be "Good brain, Good working dog ... Breed it!" Consequently there is no standard colour and the eyes may be those odd nearly white or grey ones or the normal dark brown. The coats may be short or long [but they are all double coated - grooming nightmare] liver-brown, or black, usually with white markings, but also tricolour, as black, white and tan. They all have longish legs and broad heads though. Patterdales seem to vary almost as much.

I considered the caution about naming her after my Grandfather's last bitch Welsh Collie, who outlived him. Flirty. To me Flirty was a nice kindly, if rather shy, dog, not some kind of girl! So depending how we get on, I'll name her after a Jack Russell from my childhood! Midge ... or possibly after another terrier that adored me owned by musical friends. Juno.

Which do you think is best Midge, Juno or Loo?

Only a day and a half to go!

Best wishes from George
 
Pet plan here too they’ve been brilliant with our dog and the vet just invoices them.

We’ve an ongoing claim for joint issues which I pay £100 every year but we get back about £500 of treatment and joint supplements and Moloxicom and usually in 100ml bottles when we need it.

We pay the first £100 of a new claim and pay the vet that amount sometimes the claim doesn’t go forward so the vet charges us for the treatment and the balance of the £100 is credited to our account.

The insurance costs aren’t too bad they started at £28 a month when he was a puppy rising to £63 a month now but they don’t charge more like house insurance if you have a claim it’s just rises in line with inflation and the risk a six year old sprocker poses ie they’re high maintenance but with the insurance I don’t have to worry if he cuts his paw or injures himself or gets sick I just take him to the vet and it gets sorted by us paying the bill or initiating a new claim.

My dog has had keyhole surgery, X-rays, CT scans and loads of other treatments all paid for by the insurance except for the excess as I said above it’s probably about £6000 over the course of his life so far and we’ve paid a fair bit too in terms of excess and stuff that hasn’t gone through the insurance but I’d never be without it now.
 
Last edited:
We always wear our oldest clothes when visiting the vet…

We get invites to the vet Christmas party :D

Only kidding but we are on exceedingly good terms with them I can phone for an appointment at, say ten am, and see a vet within four hours or less.
 
Juno was a lovely little nondescript terrier, gingery brown short coarse hair, who simply decided I was a good bet! I used to rehearse in the large front room of her massive Georgian house at Shelsey Beauchamp [next to Shelsey Walsh where the Hill-climb for cars is], and she used to sit right by my right foot more or less under my double bass! Heavy metal terrier then. Big name, little dog. Massive character!

Best wishes from George
 
Rather like Midge myself. Small buzzy sort of dog. Juno sounds long of limb and too laid back for a ratting terrier.
 
Midge was a cracker of a Jack Russell. She was a muscular variant, surprisingly heavy for a little dog [but almost no fat, so you could feel muscles and ribs!], and a ferocious ratter. At six months old she was run over by a tractor on the yard and I remember the rush to Hereford to the vet. Me couching her on the front seat of the Morris Thousand - blood everywhere, car doing a good fifty miles and hour. The expensive option was used. A proper plaster of Paris splint rather than a pin on her back leg. She made a full recovery. Young dogs can do that.

Easter 1970 and my mother left home [divorce two years later], and out of spite my father forced her to take Midge, even though she was effectively my dog. I fed her, groomed her [a bit], and certainly she was my shadow. She was only two when I last saw her, as my mother gave her to a farmer near Weobley where she was living. Apparently she thrived and lived to be very old.

Sadly no photo of Midge, but I remember her as such a gentle creature [she loved licking hands], when not hunting rats! That was a spectacle.

Best wishes from George
 


advertisement


Back
Top