The Weekend

Well the longer that we have Usko the more we realise how much of a steep learning curve it is for both us and him.

We have overcome some of our initial challenges for example Usko is now very much settled in with his eating now and we have given him some slight variations on his meals which are still mainly dry food but with some meals he has chopped carrot or tuna oil, and he has also tried some cod and yesterday much to his delight was given the left overs from our roast dinner. He scoffed it down and the bowl hardly needed washing up after! lol

Over the past week I have been trying his collar on for 5 to 10 mins at a time and he is slowly starting to accept it, but he seems find the lead much harder to get used to. On Sunday afternoon I thought I would try a new experiment to take his attention away and for a first attempt it seemed to work very well. I gathered some treats and put his collar and lead on making him sit while I did so, then after a couple of minutes getting him used to it I ventured out the front for a very brief walk up the road. There was so many new things to see that he totally forgot about the lead and walked very well. Even when I pulled on the lead to direct Usko he seemed fine with this. We walked just a few houses up and back twice but that was enough for his first taste of walks. I shall be continuing in this way over the next couple of weeks in the hope that when he can go for a longer walk the lead and collar will be second nature

We seem to be spending a lot of time in our crate the past few days to try and stop the biting but hopefully it will soon sink in that biting equals being alone and that will deter him from chewing anything other than the intended toys, instead of Vicky's handbag that he found and demolished the handle of......

The bond between scratchy and Usko slowly seems to be building too, they have even had a brief food sharing experience!!!

We cant imagine life without our newest family member, challenging as he can be at times.