Thread: New dog, Pandemonium.

After Alice died I saw an ad on gumtree for a 4.5year old pomeranian for $800. The woman brought Panda around and spent the afternoon talking to us about Panda, saying she no longer had time to look after him. Poor little bugger was kept in a crate all day while she was at work, otherwise he lived outside so was not house trained. The woman claimed he was vaccinated and checked for patella luxation, all clear. I think her heart was in the right place, she had a number of enquiries but settled on us due to my extensive experience with training and handling RAAF police dogs.

We paid the $800 and he settled right in, piddling everywhere. We renamed him Pandamonium, such is his energy level. Unfortunately, the woman wasn't very truthfull and hadn't looked after him very well: Panda's hair was matted so badly it was like a felt coat under his outer coat. We also checked with her Vet and discovered ho hadn't seen a Vet since he was a pup in 2019.

So, we took him to the Vet and had him shaved, desexed, vaccinated and had his nails clipped, all for another $600. He is now housetrained and I've been doing some training with him, he will stand on his hind legs, walk on them, sit, stand, spin, speak, beg and stay, sort of unles he gets bored or distracted.. I've also been taking him to the local park which has some obstacles for dogs. Panda loves this, jumps all the hurdles, negotiates the tunnel and scaling board and walk across thingy. Absolutely loves being told 'good boy'. He is. Well suited to Dog Olympics, but I can't run anymore with only one lung, so he has to slow down to let me catch up.

Unfortunately, he's a little on the timid side, likes other dogs and people but not more than one at a time. I take him down the beach or the park in a bike trailer behind my ebike, he howls and barks with excitement all the way. He also loves drives in the car. He now sleeps in the bed between us, taking himself outside for toileting as the need arises. He thrives on attention, just say his name and he's there wagging his tail, loves attention and belonging to a pack, something new for him I think.

Panda is a fox faced, tricolour, parti, Pomeranian, what a mouthful! We didn't get his papers as I'm not interested in that soort of crap. We think the previous owner may have been hiring him out for mating purposes. Despite the PO saying he had been checked for patella luxation, he obviously hasn't: He tends to skip on his right rear leg when walking. I checked his knee by manipulating it and sure enough it's loose. Not giving him any pain at the moment, but some time in the future he'll have to undergo surgery. We've taken out pet insurance for little Panda, so that'll be a load off.

Waking hours he alternates between me and wife, wrestles with me and lies on my lap or sits next to the wife and helps her with the crosswords. Panda suffers terribly from separation anxiety, all our dogs have, but Panda takes it to a new level. panda loves chasing his ball, so much so I bought him a basketball sized ball which he very quickly learned how to steer, chasing it around the yard. He got a little too excited though and wore his nails down until they bled, so I've retired that big ball, he now just plays with a tennis ball or a squeeky toy.

Here's some pics of Pamdamonium before and after. He had a good load of hair when we first saw him, the silly PO had no idea how to groom him, apparently she was scared of hurting him, so, only brushed the outer coat lightly, hence the dreadlocks and felt coat underneath when we adopted him. We had no choice other than to shave him down to the skin to remove the matting. We'll be keeping his hair at the length in the last two pics.