Introducing Cleo the sweetest black and white girl, who at 6 years old has many happy years ahead of her with her forever family.
Cleo has had an unfortunate start to life, having come into CSRQ as a breeding dog where her job was to produce litter after litter of cute puppies. She came to us just before Easter in a terrible condition, not vaccinated, thin, skin infected, ears infected, covered in ticks and nervous – very nervous.
Her Foster Family (both human and Cocker) immediately began working lovingly and patiently with Cleo to gain her trust and to start teaching her ‘how to be a Cocker’. Firstly, they worked on her skin and ears – bathing every two days with all kinds of lotions and ear drops twice a day, plus of course plenty of good quality nutritious ‘tucker’. Once her skin and ears were looking a little better and she had put on a bit of weight CSRQ had her desexed and at the same time several teeth were removed, Now she was starting to feel really good!!
We have really had to start at the very beginning with Cleo, she is essentially a 6 year old puppy who just has to learn everything from scratch. We began with the very simple commands of ‘sit’ and ‘no’ and are making slow but steady progress. Cleo is not housetrained and although making progress, does continue to have ‘accidents’ but these are less frequent and so, again, she is making progress. Despite this, she remains an indoor Cocker and that is how we wish for her to remain. Cleo loves to chew – she’s happy to chew anything really, a spare piece of fabric, shoes, paper – this is not constant but it’s something that she happens to enjoy doing occasionally. She will also chew on your hand in play – see, we told you she was a 6 year old puppy!!
Cleo absolutely loves her humans, children and adults, and also her Cocker Brother and Sister – she loves to play with her Cocker Sister and they have a lot of fun together. Because of her love for everyone she is constantly nearby, often getting under her Foster Mum’s feet and tripping her. At meal times she will stand on her rear legs and beg unashamedly from the table, again this is an area that will require continued and consistent work from her forever family. Cleo is still learning about personal space, she is yet to realise that it’s okay to just sit beside her family on the lounge and not actually on top of them!
BUT…. Cleo is the sweetest, most cuddly and kissy girl. She loves nothing more than to snuggle up – giving and receiving cuddles. Apart from food, we’d say that’s her favourite thing. Yes, her forever family have some work to continue but they will be rewarded for their efforts ten-fold with Cleo’s love…. and she has a lot of love to give.
For CSRQ, the puppy farm dogs are always our more difficult cases and Cleo is no different. These cockers require very special homes – and we know there’s a very special family out there just waiting for Cleo to come along.
We are looking for a family with children but not toddlers (as she may accidentally knock them off their feet) and also with another dog(s) as she enjoys their companionship when home alone. She must be allowed access to inside the house, day and night, and very importantly she is looking for a family that has ‘raised’ puppies and is prepared to continue training Cleo, using compassion and kindness, so that she can become the very best Cocker Spaniel that she is able to be. If your family has dog training experience then even better.
Cleo has been cruelly debarked, so you will never hear her sweet voice. This means her new family will need to understand her other cues as she wont be able to tell you when she is hurt or scared, etc
If you are interested in Cleo, have a heart full of love and a bucket-full of patience and think you would be a perfect match for our sweet girl then please complete an adoption form.
Cleo is available for adoption to South East Qld and northern NSW. Her adoption fee is $495