Emily Clarke with Bailey. 67002 Picture: Donna Oates
By Kog Ravindran
EMILY Clarke has only had her dog Bailey for eight months, but there’s no denying her Maltese Shih Tzu is one cheeky character.
“Yeah, we found that they are really easy to train, but Bailey is not like that at all,” Emily said
“They are prone to deafness, but I just think he has selective hearing.”
The 20-year-old nursing student said she and her partner had taken special measures to ensure his love for trouble making didn’t make him unsafe.
“When we leave the house, we’ll have to push things up to the gate so he doesn’t try and get out,” she said,
“The other day I went for a drive down the street and all of a sudden this little dog just ran in front of me, so he had to come with me for the day.”
Emily said that getting Bailey was an easy decision.
“My partner and I were thinking and talking about it for a while, we went to the shop and saw a couple of dogs and then we saw him jumping up on the glass being an absolute idiot and thought he would be perfect,” she said.
“I wanted a small cuddly dog and he is very fluffy, especially when we first got him.
“He has grown quite a lot, but I’m pretty sure that this is as big as he’s going to get.”
But some things hadn’t changed since she got Bailey.
“When I first bought him home he sat on my lap, and then after that, whenever we got in the car he’d climb up and sleep on your shoulders,” she said
“When he was little that wasn’t a problem, but he’s still doing that now and he’s a bit bigger.”
While having Bailey in her life has been amazing, Emily said it was important to make sure he was right for their lifestyle.
“Well we made sure that there would always be someone home so that he wasn’t lonely during the day,” she said.
“If we go out we always leave him with something to play with, so he’s entertained and has somewhere to sleep and something to eat.”
Emily said it had also been interesting to see how Bailey had got along with her cat Teddy.
“Teddy is used to being the top cat, she’s about five and she doesn’t like being chased and barked at,” she said. “Bailey loves people, Teddy doesn’t.”
Emily said Teddy was a lot different to Bailey.
“If she wants attention she’ll look for you, if she doesn’t she’ll just walk away,” she said
“But Bailey has to have the attention.”
