(added 7/7/12)

MADDIE is a gorgeous young medium-sized red girl... either a Nova Scotia Tolling Retriever ora setter/spaniel x (no one is sure!)

She is, as you can see, really lovely - and she’s a great character: alternating, puppy-like, between racing around like a lunatic and flopping in your arms for a cuddle.  She’s bright, too - quick and eager to learn and keen to do the right thing (if not always quite managing it..)

Maddie, who is 7-8 months old, loves everyone and has just about learned to not jump up in her enthusiasm to say hello.  She gets on very well with all the dogs here, playing for hours in the garden with Feeby and Wrigley in particular.

She was a bit of a hoolathug when she arrived, but she’s learned a lot of social skills here, courtesy of the BRX resident four-legged tutors... (Big Jake? Respect...)

We think she is trainable re cats as she has a soft mouth (caught and dropped a rabbit none the worse for wear the other day).  But it will need to be a confident/dog-savvy cat as she’ll definitely want to play.

Maddie is housetrained, loves the car, is pretty good on a lead (although so enthusiastic about everything still needs reminding that the purpose is to walk nicely alongside you on a loose lead, not to hurtle towards the next exciting something). Off-lead, she runs and explores, but sticks pretty close. And even if my own wayward nomads draw her off to explore copses and rabbit holes, she doesn’t like you to be out of her sight for very long. Her recall is improving - helped by her being a real foodie (chopped up frankfurter sausages being the killer recall treat..).

Maddie’s biggest love, apart from people and other dogs, is water... she leaps in with great gusto and will swim up and down trying to catch the splashes for ages - very funny to watch.  Adding to the evidence that she is a Toller, she has very webbed feet.

Her only fault, really, is that before she came to us, she learned to obsess about traffic - I suspect by being kept somewhere where passing cars became the only entertainment.  She is improving with de-sensitisation (trips on foot down Marlborough High Street) but this will need some ongoing work.

We are looking for a home that will celebrate Maddie’s spirit and find a focus for her energy.  She would benefit hugely from formal training to complete the transition from wild-child to model canine citizen. She definitely needs to live with another dog or dogs - to help burn off some of that energy. (I don’t want to overstate this, as she’s not hyper - just brimming with zest for life.)

Maddie is fully-vaccinated, wormed and flea-treated. She is just finishing her first season and we will expect her new home to spay her in three months’ time.  She is being fostered with us in Wiltshire.

The rehoming fee for Maddie is £150 plus VAT (£180 in total.) If you are interested in this fab girl, please email info@blackretrieverx.co.uk asap!

Above: showing off a  perfect sit with foster-sister Feeby. Below: rough and tumble with Feeby and Wrigley.