VIGGO is a Smooth Collie, a quite rare breed these days and
I’ll cover more about his breed in another post. Viggo is a dog who couldn’t do
stairs, narrow gaps, cars, run, walk on a lead and much more.
This is story of Viggo.
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| Here's the handsome devil himself! |
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| This is Viggo at 19 weeks, wasn't he cute? |
Claire and I had been looking at dogs for a long time. A
really, really long time. You know that some people are just dog people. That’s
us! Both sides of the family had dogs and it has always been something we have
both wanted.
Now, living in rented accommodation meant we needed the
landlord’s permission, which we thankfully got. We made the wise decision to
look at adopting an older dog as opposed to a pup to avoid chewing and
toileting accidents.
We were looking for a decent sized dog with a calm
temperament and so the search began.
I recalled the calm, intelligent nature of my grandparent’s
numerous Rough Collies but we didn’t at this point in time want all the hair.
This led to the Smooth Collie. From there I researched the Smooth and looked
for one in need of a home into the small hours of the morning.
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| He loves his bath time! |
Morning time. I greeted Claire with:
“I’ve found the perfect breed!”
That morning I looked online some more yet didn’t find
anything of interest.
Now Claire… Claire has the ability to get under the first
layers of the world wide web, track down sites and find results I’d not even
seen.
Claire’s perseverance led to her discovery of a small advert
on a small blog.
The post said: Sable Smooth Collie needs a home.
Claire contacted the breeder. She found out more about this
mystery sable Smooth. The breeder explained that this dog was overweight and to
not be shocked when we met him. The breeder checked all the regular things and
then eventually invited us over to see this dog.
Sunday 9th November 2014 – Colne
As an excited couple, we hopped in the car at around 9 am
and headed out of Holmfirth up towards Colne.
We arrived in a steep cotton mill town at the correct
address at around half past 10. We’d agreed 11 so we hung around a while and
then knocked on the door.
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| Hey, do you come here often? |
WOOF,
WOOF,
WOOF,
WOOF!
A really loud, deep bark was rattling around through the door and front windows of the house. As we were greeted by the breeder, the background was dominated by a flabby, round dog, leapfrogging sofas and sending cushions flying while woofing with almighty lungs.
Meet Nando.
Once appropriately greeted and inside, Nando settled down
and was inquisitive and happy to sniff us and check we were alright. From then,
Nando was content to sleep behind the breeder and occasionally potter round and
play with a ball.
At our time of visiting Cownbred, there were two more
smooths, both females and a couple of whippets.
As our conversation transpired, we found out a lot about the
breeder and the dogs.
The breeder’s health and mobility had deteriorated due to arthritis.
This resulted in Nando hardly ever being walked. He hadn’t been for at least a
year and a half. Now it was blatantly clear as to why he was carrying so much
timber.
Hours passed.
Information with regard to his diet came up later. This was
equally as insightful into his weight.
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| The three of us at the top of Bow Fell. |
Now, this diet, twinned with a total lack of exercise, had
produced a two year old dog with no muscle, no experiences and a lot of extra
fat on him.
It was clear that the breeder had liked us and gotten
Nando’s things bagged up and ready to go. Throughout our long conversation,
Claire and I felt a growing suspicion that we would be taking Nando with us
that day, although this was unexpected and we were unprepared.
The time now was around 4 pm. We had been there for around
five hours. Finally, we were taking him with us. The breeder put a lead on
Nando and said he wouldn’t leave the house through the front door as it was too
narrow!
Claire and I walked round to the rear of the house and met
the breeder there. We strolled up to the car and Nando didn’t want to get in.
Not because he didn’t like us; he’d been playing with me for the last two
hours, as far as he was concerned, I was his new best friend.
The problem was, he’d never been in a car.
The breeder said he would probably be travel sick, as he’d
never experienced the motion.
I lifted him in to the back of the car and Nando settled in
the foot wells, rather than on the back seats. From there, we got on our way.
With our dog in the back, here’s where it started to sink in
for me.
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| Having a family howling session! |
About half an hour into the journey, we pulled into a
McDonalds. Bearing in mind, we had not had anything to eat or drink, nor gone
to the loo since leaving ours at 9 in the morning. We nipped in to use the loos and pick up some
grub.
When we got back into the car, someone perked up due to the
smell of the food!
Claire and I had already agreed on a name, and had already
been using it fully from the moment we left the breeders.
Meet Viggo!
We had always loved the Lord Of The Rings books and films,
and our favourite character was Aragorn, played by Viggo Mortensen. Various
names had been banded around, but this one stood out to me, and after a few
days of persuading, I had got Claire on side as well.
About 10 minutes from home, at a local walking area, the
three of us hopped out of the car and went for a walk. Viggo didn’t pull or
seem worried about being out of his comfort zone. I dropped the lead and let him potter around
next to us while we exhausted his name on him.
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| A blisteringly cold walk in the snow. |
After about 40 minutes, we were back at the car. Claire
drove home to try and prepare for our new arrival, bear in mind; we had nothing
ready for him.
As the light started to drop, Viggo and I walked back to
make sure he was tired and would settle that night.
On arrival, we had a slight struggle to get him through the
door and then as we are up a set of stairs, we had to coax him halfway up
before he would start to try and take them on his own. He was one scared pup!
Viggo was happy then to start smelling around his new home,
although avoiding changing rooms as he didn’t like going through doors. He was
big, but he wasn’t that big!
After watching us from a different room for 10 minutes or so,
we thought it time to help him through, as it was apparent that he would not do
this alone. Claire put his lead back on him and gently brought him through,
with some loving words and treats.
Once he was in the lounge, he was happy to explore, and soon
enough, he understood doors were not his enemy. And he proceeded to explore his
home.
Bedtime came around, and on his makeshift bed of a pile of
towels, Viggo settled down and slept well. This was impressive, as at the
breeders, he was crate-kept, so this was his first night without it.
From here, Viggo made improvements from day to day. Within a
week, stairs and doors were a non-issue. Getting in cars was improving slowly,
his fear of narrow spaces was diminishing and his walking on the lead was getting
better.
Off the lead he was no problem, although at the sight of
another fellow canine, he would leg it and develop an acute form of selective
hearing in order to say hello to his new fury friend. Some dogs don’t want to
be friends with Viggo. Some dogs growl and snarl. Viggo thinks this is fun.
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| Here's Viggo sporting his Ruffwear harness and collar. |
We’ve been training him with lots of treats, lots of praise and lots of practice to improve his recall around other dogs. We have made progress but this is the only thing we are still working on to this day. All other bad habits…gone!
The breeder had supplied us with a week’s worth of raw
foods. But we wanted to phase him off it, onto a Burns complete food. We
started that in the second half of that first week, cautiously.
We visited the vets for his check up and vaccinations and
while there, checked his weight and discussed his diet.
His weight was around 40kg, yet a tall, male smooth collie
should weigh around 30kg.
Prior to Christmas, we had got his weight down to 32.5kg,
using the Burns weight control food and a good exercise routine, building his
muscle up gradually.
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| Dog Club was great for Viggo's training. |
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| Doing what he loves best: howling. |
From knowing nothing, to picking up as many tricks as any
dog, he proved what a smart breed the Smooth Collie is.
Viggo has a beautiful, friendly personality and continues to
surprise us with his quirky habits, one of which is his howling. He loves to
howl like a wolf if we sing or howl along with him, a genuine surprise to
Claire when she was playing with him one day early on and sang to him.
In our trip to Lakeland in February, Viggo achieved his
first mountains in the Langdale Pikes. The achievement proved how fit he had
become and epitomised his development into the perfect, well-behaved,
intelligent dog that we have today.
Viggo is now accustomed to our way of life, our camping
escapades and our mountain hikes through rain or shine.
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| A packed car, ready for another camping trip to the Lakes. |
His placid temperament takes everything in his stride and he
now has a huge extended family that absolutely adore him.
If you’ve got all the way through to this point, congratulations!
As a reward for your commitment and perseverance, we invite you to join his fan
base on twitter @ViggoTheSmooth.
Cheers,
#TeamFell
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