A lot of people are wary of adopting a rescue dog, because they assume that the dog will have a lot of behavioural problems therefore will be hard to train. I have to tell you that all of my dogs have been rescues, bar one. The only dog that I did not adopt was a total nightmare all of his life.

He was extremely lovable and loyal but he would rarely do as he was told, unless HE felt like it. Jack was a yellow Labrador just like the Andrex puppy, little stumpy legs and a face that you could find on the lid of a chocolate box. He was trained to sit, stay lie down, walk to heel etc. and he would go for a couple of weeks doing just that. Then he would just decide that he would run off and that would be that. The problem was, he had this way of lulling you into a false sense of security, then he would look over his shoulder and just bolt. He would have this big grin on his floppy chops as he was doing it too. Eventually, we had to walk him on a leash which was a shame, but there was no alternative.

My other 3 dogs have been angels compared. My Shepherd X raided the bin a few times and had problems about coming back into the house once she was in the garden. This was because her previous owner used to let her outside before she went to work and then she would be left for about 8 hours. Sorcha worked it out that if she did not come in from outside then she wouldn't be left alone. It was an easily solved problem, I would call her and offer her a treat and if she didn't come I would shut the door for 5 minutes then open it and call her again. After a couple of weeks she would come straight in when called, but if you try this be warned, NEVER go straight out after or it will undo all of the hard work.