‘​Poster boy’ Ralph finds his forever home at last

Ralph came to us with quite a bite history and had been passed around an awful lot. The first thing that we did was allow him the time to decompress.

A dog that is full of anxiety and/or feeling overwhelmed is far more likely to react so we gave him the space he needed. We never had an issue with him biting staff or volunteers.

Once our assessment began, it became apparent very quickly that though Ralph may look like a lurcher, but underneath he had so many collie traits, including being highly intelligent.

On walks, he wouldn't react to other dogs and he became the dog we would walk new dogs with, to judge their reactivity. We could literally take him anywhere and we knew he would behave impeccably.

We even made him poster boy for our own beer 'Scooby Brew' as we knew Ralph would happily visit the Inn Collection pubs selling it.

We thought making him more visible would help to find him a home – but nothing seemed to work. Each of our dogs has a volunteer buddy and Ralph's enjoyed doing activities, such as mantrailing, with him to use that big brain of his.

His volunteer soon saw in Ralph what we all saw in him and she found it harder and harder each week to leave him to the kennels. So we were absolutely over the moon when she asked if she could take him home forever. Happy life, Ralph.

*This is the weekly column in the Northumberland Gazette and sister papers by the Northumberland Dog Rescue. The charity rehomes dogs to residents between Newcastle and Berwick. Visit its website https://www.northumberlandogrescue.co.uk/ or email [email protected]