Baxter has arrived

This is Baxter, a six-year old spanish podenco who we have just adopted (see my blip for 17.02.13 for fuller details). We met up with him a week ago and this is him not long after he arrived in our house yesterday. He looks a bit unsure of himself and anxious and with good reason. After living with his previous owner for four years, he was in foster care for four weeks with a roomful of greyhounds and a young podenco. One of the many traumas he has suffered in his lifetime was being involved in a car crash and this has left him with great anxiety about car travel, so the journey to our house which took about 30 minutes was very difficult for him. my wife drove and I sat in the back of the car with him to help to calm him down, constantly petting him and trying to reassure him but his anxiety was very palpable. At one point he jumped into my lap but still remained extremely fearful.

Settling down in the house was perhaps less traumatic for him as he has had to cope with a numberof changes in his life. When he wants affection, he prefers to back up to you and be stroked on his back or under his chin and is wary when approached from the front. However, after a bit of petting he will turn round and seek affection more openly. He likes getting up on the sofa and getting up on your lap. Our other dog, Zoe was a bit put out when he climbed up on my lap as normally she has been the only dog who has been allowed this priviledge.

Fortunately for us, however, he settled well in his bed alongside Zoe in the kitchen overnight unlike our previous greyhound who would sometimes bark during the night for attention or because she wanted to go out.