Here’s Pepè’s story in the words of Julie, his adopter:
After living in Canada for the last 19 years, I finally moved back to the UK in April 2024.
I have always had working gundogs and had a wonderful Pointer. I love the working relationship with a dog.
I had thought about adopting a Pointer and knew that it would come with some challenges but when I saw Pepè on the Pointers In Need website, I read his profile and saw some videos, I was hooked. I had to wait a little longer however as I had to get the back garden fenced first!
Pepè, who was around a year old, finally arrived on 2nd August.
We drove straight back to Devon after his collection from the transporter, he was so good in the car.
We got back to my home on Dartmoor after midnight and after a quick garden trip I settled him on his bed in the kitchen and made friends with him before going to bed myself. I only heard him jump up at the kitchen door once. Not a squeak out of him all night. When I came down at 6am he was still relaxed on his bed and the floor was clean and he hadn’t chewed anything! What a little superstar he was! ❤️
Three months on, and he has been really good in the house. I was even able to leave him at home while I did the shopping.
He’s very good with other dogs. He has a very playful nature and loves toys, especially anything that squeaks! He also is very good at retrieving, which my UK bred Pointer would never do. In his mind, that was a job for the retrievers. His job was finding and pointing birds!
Pepè’s training started from day one with basic manners and boundaries. Upstairs was out of bounds and he learned extremely quickly. He soon learnt sit, stay and recall. I still had my old dog whistle and it didn’t take Pepè long to learn the drop whistle too.
I had hoped to get rid of some of his boundless energy by cycling with him. Just my luck that his biggest fear happens to be bikes! He is terrified of them. I’m working on that with him but realistically I probably won’t be cycling with him.
He’s so much better at meeting new people now. We visit family and friends, and the local pet store where we can choose a favourite treat. Sometimes we go for a pub lunch. There is usually another dog or two in there and I’m sure he’d love to play. But I think tables and chairs, plates and glasses would fly. I have to be the spoilsport and make him lie down and contain himself. I even told him to sit and wait while I went up to the bar to pay the bill. He started to creep, so I took him back to the table and sat him again and he waited patiently.
Everybody loves him and remarks on what a handsome boy he is and I have to completely agree of course. He’s quite a small boy, only around 20kg but he’s very well put together and very athletic looking.
My brother is especially smitten with Pepè and after initial nervousness he quickly realized he would be spoilt with treats and have fun and games of tag in the back garden. He now loves our visits and greets my brother exuberantly!
He really enjoys hide and seek with a favourite toy. He is very good at sitting and waiting patiently while I go and hide his toy. He always finds it and I have to make it more challenging for him. It really gets him to use his nose and he seems to really enjoy the game and is so pleased with himself. I’ve recently started scent training with him, using cloves in a small container with holes in the lid and giving him a treat when he finds it and he seems to have a knack for this so maybe that’s going to be our thing together going forward.
Given time, hopefully his confidence will grow and he will learn to relax and lose some of his anxieties in our modern mad world. We are lucky to live in a quiet rural village in a beautiful part of the country.
He really is an exceptional boy and so inherently good. It is such early days but our bond is growing stronger every day.
Thanks to all at Pointers In Need for all the incredible work you do at giving these wonderful dogs the life they deserve. Also, special thanks to all the people who selflessly foster these dogs. It must be hard giving them up sometimes.
Good luck to anyone thinking of adopting. You will have some frustrating days but to gradually see a timid or fearful dog grow in confidence makes everything well worth while.
Adopter: Miss Julie Knowles
