Doberman Puppy
Doberman Foster
It is Sunday September 1st, 2024 and we are about to embark on a 4 hour round trip adventure to pick up our newest addition to our pack. This will be a “long term foster” who will be staying with us for at least 6 months, as such we will not start advertising her availability until it is closer to the time of her to find her ideal home.
Our purpose in adopting this puppy is to help her build her confidence, engagement, work on her obedience, and to eventually get her to a point in her training to find her an amazing home that is perfect for her needs.
This puppy is a 5 month old, female, blue and rust Doberman puppy. She is not spayed and has had minimal training with her former owners. She has had limited, if any, socialization and is nervous of people. She is more bonded to other dogs and has frequented the dog park. Previous owner has another dog who is 3 years old but purchased this puppy a month after their first child was born and were not prepared for the amount of work they were getting into. Previous owner was told that this puppy was potty trained at 8 weeks old, but they quickly learned that was not the case.
This puppy has its ears cropped but the previous owners gave up on posting the puppy’s ears after the puppy kept taking out the posts. It is Shalene’s decision to attempt to post the ears, since they are cropped and healed already, in an effort to get them to stand, but ultimately are not concerned with whether they stand or flop. Posting is not harmful and doesn’t typically bother a dog, all this does is trained the already cropped ear to stand properly.
Here is our initial assessment of this puppy:
General
Name: Bambi (this is the name she came with and will be changed)
Age: 5 months
Gender: Female
Spayed/Neutered: No. Intact
Ears: Cropped but flopped
Tail: Docked
Color: Blue/Rust
Initial temperament:
Alert barking at us upon approach. Stays on opposite side of the fenced area than owners, even prior to our entering the fenced area. Does not look to owners for support or reassurance. Body language and behavior appears based in fear and insecurity. After 5 minutes she eventually went to hide behind owners but stayed a couple feet behind them and still did not seek them for anything; it looked as if she were trying to hide behind an inanimate object. Would not approach us, but did not shy away from owners when they put the leash on her. When removed from fenced area on leash she was extremely hesitant to come with us, but wasn’t pulling back toward owners/home and was hypervigilant.
First car ride with us:
She rode in a crate on the ride home, and had to be lifted to be put into the car/crate as she was starting to shut down from the unfamiliarity of the situation and stress. She was stressed for the first 30 minutes of the care ride but was quiet and settled into the crate fairly quickly. She definitely wasn’t relaxed, and was still very stressed, but wasn’t frantic and appears familiar with crates.
Response to leash pressure:
She was fairly responsive to leash pressure. She was surrendered with an oversized prong collar on, it was fairly obvious she was used to pulling against it and had become conditioned to ignore the feeling so we switched her to a slip lead for safety during transport and to keep her from continuing to learn to ignore an inappropriately sized/used tool.
Accepting treats:
She did not accept treats.
Training:
It appears she has had minimal training. She does appear to have been crate trained and settles quickly in a crate. She supposedly knows “sit” but we have not tested or tried this yet as she is too stressed. She is said to not be house broken and to have some resource guarding around chews, high value toys but not around food.
Crate training:
Appears to have been crate trained. Settled well in the crate on the ride home.
Overall, basic body language break down:
Nervous, insecure, under socialized. Hypervigilant. Reactive to sounds and new people (or at least us at this point)
Condition
Eyes: Clear
Ears: Flopped and without posts in. Appear slightly dirty but nothing of concern.
Body: Good weight. Tense.
Nails: Black and well maintained but need to be cut. We will cut them in a week, after some decompressing.
Coat: Coat is patchy, appears to be clearing up from something. Vet records indicate shampoo and antibiotics had been given a few weeks prior.
Over the next few months we will be assessing, and working her through her insecurities, as she begins this new exciting path on her journey.