We've been out socializing her the past few days to see where any hang-ups might lie and what hurdles we might have to get her over before she's adoptable. Suffice to say... I don't see any hang-ups whatsoever. Day one she jumped on our laps, day two she went hiking and walked nicely on her leash and day three she passed by a group of dogs with one little nasty weiner dog mix and she neither hid or did anything about it, just followed her pack on their way. Yesterday -Day 4- we went out to Dallas Rd which is a busy dog park environment with lots of people and dogs and distractions. There's also beach and lots of rocks to climb. To make sure we were seeing Suzie as "Suzie" and not as a dog under the guidance of my pack, we only took Beckett along with us and despite his dislike of it, I had him under a heel pretty much the whole time. If he's out in front of us he can easily be influencing Suzie to follow his lead.
Beckett did find a couple of girl huskies that outranked "Mum's Rules" near the middle of our walk, but besides that he was pretty good, though a little miffed. "Whatdya mean go to the dog park and not pee on everything and say hi to everybody and end up walking into about a dozen people because I can't see." Ha! I think there's a reason we stick to the trails with him. Not because he doesn't have a good recall or is bad offleash in big open areas, just that he always seems to walk into people and has a tendency to trip up joggers. Anyway, back to Suzie.
For being a "Shy" dog, I didn't see it yesterday either, even in the busier area. What I saw was a very social, very POLITE dog who moved away from space when another dog or person wanted it. She doesn't go running away, doesn't tuck her tail, doesn't flatten her ears and hunker down. She just very nicely and calmly moves out of the way and says: "Here you go, plenty of trail for you to walk on. Have a nice day."
She goes to sniff people in a very polite way -even people without dogs- and is generally interested in everything. She walks by dogs like a pro. Whatever pack of dogs she grew up with, they gave her really good manners and communication skills. Maybe that's why she too isn't particularly fond of Momo ;) We hiked on the rocks and although she was a little scared of all the wobbly stairs leading down to the ocean I just picked her up and brought her down and she was fine (the kind of stairs that a dog can get it's foot stuck between the stairs if they don't know how to navigate them well). At parts of the hike along the rocks I had to drop her leash so she could make her own way around but she followed like a pro. I wouldn't take her off-leash yet (absolutely no recall, or understanding of what a recall even is) but she's got the makings of being a very loyal, 'follow-you' kind of dog once she's got some training to go with it.
So, I see a VERY adoptable dog. Her only smaller hang-up that has nothing to do with her temperment is that she isn't fully housebroken, but she's coming along. Suzie has a homecheck this weekend with an applicant who applied for Kahlua. Hopefully it goes well :) If not, we will post her on the networking sites locally. She's cute, a great size, very silly and affectionate, and bonds quickly. If I owned my own place and could have as many dogs as I wanted without feeling the pressure that we ever might have to move somewhere else, I'd consider keeping her myself.
But... there should be another one coming just for me :) Update on the border collie pup soon.
For now, some pictures of Suzie Q:
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| Bellyrubs on the Beach |
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| Two collars: 1 for play at home, and the martingale for walking. |
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| A shot to show her size. |
Emily Out
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