Meet Zuma

Zuma (Aard Het Mazurische Vallei)

Born: 15 July 2021

Breeder: Kennel Het Mazurische Vallei, Den Haag (father is a Dutch Champion; DutchDogData profile)

Size: approx. 13kg, height approx. 44cm at withers

Wersja polska / Nederlandse versie (Google Translate)

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST IN ZUMA HERE

Zuma’s story in a nutshell:

Zuma’s family wanted to relinquish her because of a biting incident with their youngest child (7 year old boy). A behaviourist subsequently wrote a report based on the former owner’s account of Zuma’s life with them and their experiences with her, and we are happy to disclose the report with those who are seriously interested in Zuma, because we want to be fully transparent.

The behaviourist has also told me that he is happy to speak with a potential new home to discuss what his report means in practice.

It should be noted that in later discussions it has emerged that Zuma’s life was very busy and many of the basics required for a young spaniel to thrive were missing in her circumstances:

  • Since she arrived to stay with us, we have seen significant changes in her health from digestion to coat quality by switching to high quality food (vs. supermarket food)
  • We increased the quantity and quality of her exercise from 40min a day on a grassy area to approximately 1.5-2h walks in forests and fields, as well as encouraged her to learn to swim
  • We have provided her with mental stimulation in the form of training, brain toys and sniffing games
  • She was often disturbed while sleeping, and did not get adequate rest or sleep in her former life due to, among other things, having continuous access to a garden (that included a rabbit hutch), lots of child visitors in the house playing games with her for several hours daily and lack of own space to retreat to in busy times

These changes in her circumstances immediately started a positive trajectory and we have seen significant changes in her behaviour, temperament and mood compared to the day she arrived which should be considered in conjunction with the original reason for her rehoming.

Health (all done on arrival from first home in July 2022):

  • Hip and knee x-rays done – all clear
  • Health checked by a vet (incl. standard bloodwork)
  • Checked by a physiotherapist – no major issues
  • Beef allergy – causes diarrhea
  • No other recurring health issues, but she had an accident at 9 weeks when she fell down the stairs and as a result some of her rib cartilage was slightly bent. A veterinary examination (incl. 3 chest x-rays) concluded that there is no impact to her health or exercise.
  • All documents available on request, including a full medical history from puppyhood from all vets she has been registered with.
  • Sterilised 1st June 2022 after 1 season/heat cycle.
  • All vaccinations up to date, including rabies

Coat: minimal shedding and minimal care needed on the body/tail/legs but ears need to be regularly brushed. Dries in less than 10min after swimming. Post-spay coat may be different, but most Polish Hunting Spaniels do not need to be groomed professionally as often as similar spaniels.

Please note that the below are based on our observations during the past 4 weeks. There are of course many situations we do not have experience of with her.

We have tried to convey what we know as openly and accurately as possible because it is not in Zuma’s best interest to find a forever home where she does not thrive or that the new family cannot cope with her.

We also have a lot of videos of Zuma in different situations so you can see for yourself how she behaves to complement our assessment. You can find some linked further down but we have many more privately, incl. encounters with dogs etc. Please ask if you are interested in something specific!

Zuma’s strengths:

  • She is curious, inquisitive and playful – easily motivated by toys, will retrieve a ball (and work for it) but NOT obsessed with them and drops them easily. If desired for training, it will be easy to build more value into balls, dummies and toys as she also enjoys tugging.
  • She can also be motivated with food but ultimately these are additional bonuses – you must have a strong emotional connection with her as a baseline (this is typical to the Polish Hunting Spaniel breed)
  • She learns fast and responds to training well – however, she is not as sensitive to handler/human pressure as some spaniels can be (depending on your perspective, this can be positive or a negative).
  • As a spaniel she loves working with her nose – because she has only been with us for a short time, we have not done any formal training with her but we do blind searches for a ball in a range of environments and food searches in the house/garden. The day after she arrived I presented her with a lot of brain toys to see her reaction, and despite never seeing toys like that before she stuck her nose into them enthusiastically (video1 video2 – video3 here you can also see her enthusiasm for toys).
  • She is very agile and bouncy, which could make her suited for dog sports like agility or flyball when she matures. However, she needs a lot more fitness training to do these safely.
  • She is incredibly affectionate and cuddly – you won’t need a hot water bottle ever again and you might need to buy a bigger bed because she likes to be close to humans (if you prefer a more aloof dog, she’s definitely not right for you!). We also have LOTS of pictures and videos of this in case but they are more private and as such not uploaded into the public domain.
  • Thankfully, this desire for proximity does not mean she can’t be alone – we’ve left her in the car for brief periods of time and also in other rooms behind closed doors but due to our circumstances with another dog, we haven’t comprehensively tested how long she can be alone (former family said she can be home alone). Ask about this if it’s a concern – we’ll probably know more as we have more experience.
  • She appears to recover from stress quickly (e.g. novel situations) – i.e. it does not seem that she has underlying fearfulness or anxiety that would require significant behavioural modification. (Video of visiting a local shopping street 5 days after she arrived, visiting an outdoor dog show 4 days after she arrived)
  • She has also accompanied us to the local high street and behaved exceptionally well during a 1h lunch on on a terrace with cars and people passing by, as well as a garden centre. None of these are activities which she was used to previously or was specifically socialised for, so it is a positive surprise how well she handles these situations.
  • For anyone interested in agility, an additional observation that she recently walked across a wobbly hanging bridge at her own initiative and without any fear!
  • Travel does not appear to be a major issue as far as we have seen: we took her with us to a camping trip in the Ardennes only 3 weeks after she arrived and were positively surprised at how well she did, considering that she had no previous camping experience. For example, she was able to settle on the first night with no issues and even outdoors on the second day. We also included a short town visit which was not overly stressful (video).

Zuma’s challenges:

  • She is a young spaniel with young spaniel challenges which means that she will need to work on impulse control, self-regulation and emotional control. These are challenges for many spaniels, but due to being in the excitable teenage stage, they require a bit more effort and experience – as well as the standard patience required from any teenage dog guardian!
  • One major consequence of the above is that she has just discovered a passion for ducks that far exceeds her self-control and ability to swim. For this reason, she needs to be exercised on a long-leash until enough training and maturity give her the ability to handle that excitement.
  • Excluding this new passion for ducks, she has a (surprisingly) great recall in a wide range of situations – in new locations, from other dogs and people, and even the Highland cows we encountered unexpectedly in our local forest. Nevertheless, for the next few months at least it’s best to keep a long leash and a GPS tracker on her for own safety.
  • At the moment she can react to strange dogs while on leash due to frustration of not being able to approach the dog (which she does, if given the opportunity). We have been working with her on this since she arrived and seen significant improvement, so we would expect her to improve further before she goes to her forever home. (Please ask more questions about this if it’s something that concerns you – we can probably get examples on video. (Example encounters with off-leash dogs.)
  • Her forever home should be well versed in dog communication because for most of Zuma’s life she has not felt heard or understood, and she will initially need more encouragement to learn to communicate her needs with humans and learn to trust that her needs will be met (again, we have seen a lot of improvement in this already!)
  • You will also need to give Zuma a bit of space initially to gain her trust: Polish Hunting Spaniels are “meant” to be more reserved with strangers (but not aggressive) so this is to be expected, but otherwise you are likely to get into her Circle of Trust in a day or two, after which she will be your shadow
  • Polish Hunting Spaniels also tend to get strongly attached to one person in a household and it is crucially important that this attachment is not allowed to get excessive: the other members of the family need to spend time with Zuma individually by taking her for walks, training her and playing with her – failure to do this as soon as possible may result in e.g. resource guarding the main person from other family members or separation problems when the main person is not available. This is not a major problem IF handled very early on, but there have been examples of other dogs of this breed where the relationship has become problematic so it is best to take action preventatively.

If you have read this far, your reward is pictures of the beautiful Miss Zuma!