Nellie is the perfect house guest, you don’t even know she’s there. She is perfectly behaved all the time and is happy to be left alone for several hours. She loves to cuddle up to you and curl up on your lap for a snooze. If she’s not there she’ll be in her ‘den’ laying on the back with all her legs in the air- she loves sleeping in little hidie holes like under the sofa, under tables or in cupboards.

She’s completely house trained, always waiting to quickly run out in to the garden and return to your side as soon as she can. She worries when phones ring and starts to cry a little bit, and her perfect hearing means she always had a bark when someone’s at the front door.

Nellie loves to sleep in the bed – literally under the covers! If not she has a habit of laying next to you, with the head on the pillow, legs in the air and body tucked beneath the covers! Obviously this isn’t to everyone’s taste – Nellie will stay on her own bed on the floor if told to.

Next to being cuddled, Nellie’s second greatest love in life is her toys, squeaky balls in particular. She would happily chase it all day long, bringing it back to you and dropping it in to your lap every time. It’s nice to see Nellie enjoying herself but she does become rather obsessed, to the point where you have to take the ball away and put it on top of the fridge. Nellie is not happy about this at all, she watches the top of the fridge for the next 30 minutes just in case it falls off…

In the Lakes Nellie has proved she’s happy to walk for 5 hours (this was a surprise as she often refuses to walk by freezing, if she doesn’t want to go then she won’t be forced!) and is also happy to be left alone in a strange hotel room. She most certainly doesn’t like sheep, she thinks they are there just be chased! Nellie had another surprise in store – she loves the water, showing no fear and loving it even more if she was given something to chase.

Nellie is very settled in the car, she is happy to be behind a dog guard but prefers your knee. She will sit and watch the world go by before going off to find a little space under the seat to sleep.

So, does Nellie have a down side? Well, yes, but only one! Nellie doesn’t like other dogs at all. Mostly people seem to think she’s amusing – a feisty little terrier taking on any shape, size, colour dog she sees. She means business though so she needs to be steered clear of all dogs. Nellie sometimes ’stalks’ dogs like a sheep dog would, ending up flat on her belly. She doesn’t seem to mind so much if dogs are ahead of her and walking away. Sometimes she won’t notice dogs on the other side of the road and sometimes she just gives a little cry. Most of the time she pulls to get at them, showing her teeth. It’s all forgotten pretty quickly, as soon as they’ve past she’s perfectly relaxed again, and she’ll never be able to pull someone over because she’s so small. Her issues with dogs has to be seriously considered though. We occasionally rehome dogs who then adjust and become sociable with other dogs, but this is not always the case. Nellie would have to be homed on the understanding that she was not good and that was the case forever.