My name is: Dingo
I came from: Cyprus
Now I live in: Lindford, Hampshire
My favourite things are: Apart from cuddles from mum and granddaughter Evie, my favourite things are cakes, flans, pizzas and pastries!

Dingo’s story

We first heard about Dingo as he was being fostered by our daughter-in-law’s sister in the Greenwich area, and our son and daughter-in-law fell in love with him when they visited. They were not able to adopt Dingo themselves, but they felt that he would fit our family perfectly. They also wanted him to be able to go on the great walks we did in the Hampshire countryside and live in a family with other dogs, as he had become very fond of his foster brother. 

It was during lock down, and everything had to be organised via zoom meetings. The team at Underdog were brilliant and supportive. We couldn’t meet Dingo in person, but certainly fell in love ‘remotely’. We had a sixteen year old Irish Setter and a nine year old small cross breed at the time. Both were complete softies, but we had to take a chance on them accepting Dingo into the family. We are so glad we did as they were both very excited to see him and were welcoming and comforting, showing him the ropes and helping him get used to the routine.

Dingo had a very high prey drive and couldn’t be let off his lead. He was very cautious and nervous of being touched (particularly on his head) and he was quite skittish for a few months. But slowly and surely, he became more and more settled. We used an online dog training course as he was quite reactive towards dogs outside of the house, and this really helped all of us. We were then able to attend a few training sessions and he quickly got the hang of the basics. We were able to identify triggers that caused the skittishness and work with them. It sounds like this was all hard work, but it really wasn’t. He was eager to please and wanted to join in with family life, but to start with it was as if he didn’t know how to, or was afraid of being told off if he got in the way. It has been a very great pleasure to watch him grow in confidence and be the recipients of his unconditional love.

Sadly, we lost our Setter a few months later, but our positive experience with Dingo led us to foster, then adopt another rescue dog. We now have a complete family, and they all adore each other. 

One of our goals was for Dingo to be able to run free on a lovely local common, and for his recall to be such that this was safe and good fun for everyone. We achieved this relatively quickly and soon the long line wasn’t necessary at all. He has learnt to run for fun – rather than away from something bad …..and knows that coming back usually gets a high value treat! He is an adorable and loving boy - no longer skittish but relaxed and friendly and we believe he knows how much he is loved (we tell him often enough!)

- Sophie