Good Boy Henry

Being a Saluki cross, Henry is not to be expected to be super well behaved. Fergus (also a Saluki cross) was typical of the breed, very aloof and only ever did what he wanted, even if he layed down when you told him to, he was actually going to lay down at that moment anyway.. Ferg would also spend allot of time upstairs on his own, even when visitors came he would say hello and give them a sniff, check out any luggage they might have (you never know if they had food) and then shoot up the stairs to lounge about one of the bedrooms.

Henry is much more sociable. He's never gone to lay in another room away from me, apart from at night when he sleeps in the living room and that took serious tenacity to acheive. He's also really affectionate, liking to cuddle up on the sofa with you, managing to get all four legs across your lap and his head buried in your stomach. He's very different from Fergus who the closest he really came to that was to lay down the side of the armchair.

The biggest problem with Ferg was recall. He just refused to come back. Sometimes it was like he was just having a laugh with you. In the early days I tried. I took a bar of chocolate on walks with me .I know, I know, you shouldn't feed dogs chocolate but it was the one thing that Ferg would do just about anything for, except come back. He did come back for the first bit of chocolate, then for the second he snatched it so fast I didn't even see it go and by the third he was two fields away and ignoring me. After a year of panics, thinking he would never be seen again I gave up and bought a long extending lead and got 13 years of stress about people leaving doors and gates open.

Consequently I have become paranoid about Henry. All in all he is much more responsive than Ferg. He comes back in the garden every time (Fergus would just look or simply move an ear and ignore me). He even came back the couple of times he escaped, but I just haven't got the bottle to let him off the lead.

So imagine my suprise when the day after we had the log burner installed I realised that the garden gate had been left open and for one night and a day Henry had been at liberty to run abuot on the track and yet he didn't run away, never to be seen again!

I still can't pluck up the courage to actually let him off yet but I do feel much more positive about it. Well done Henry my boy!