Foxy is a five year-old female dog from Yerevan, Armenia. She came to B.C. in December 2022.
She was tested with Embark and her breed came out as a “West Asian Village Dog”, comprised of the following breeds: Anatolian shepherd, German shepherd, Armenian Gampr, Caucasian Ovcharka, Volpino Italiano, Prague Ratter. She is a medium-sized dog, solid, strong, and in excellent health. She is spayed, is up to date on all vaccines, and has had a rabies titre test completed in 2022 (to prepare her for travel to Canada).
Foxy has lived much of her life boarding with other families while the owner was overseas during the pandemic, and during long holidays. Given that she spent much of 2019-2022 boarding with two different families, she’s unfortunately not had consistent training or input from her owner, but she’s a good-natured dog without bad habits. She’s spent a lot of time with other dogs and a few other caregivers.
Foxy is affectionate, funny, VERY highly food motivated (to learn/train), clean (although she is double-coated, and therefore a significant shedder), pretty playful, not demanding, and for the most part, she listens well. She does, however have a loud bark and will “alarm bark”. It’s the guardian breed thing where the minute she is outside she wants to tell the world she is present, and I guess that “this is my yard”.
She loves other dogs and people; however, she greets in a very assertive way (pulling on leash, yelping, growling) which can be intimidating to strangers and some dogs. Once she meets, she’s happy and wants to play and/or have affection. She has never snapped or bitten. I would say she is “protective” but not aggressive, only intimidating. I feel she is better with confident people, or if you give her a treat or two, she is your best friend. She’s good on the leash, but needs to be managed when meeting other dogs, as described above, because she can pull quite strongly when she sees another dog or person she wants to meet. I feel confident that with consistent positive training, she could overcome this “reactive” greeting behaviour.
Here are some more character details, she is:
- great with being brushed and having her nails trimmed.
- short double-coated and definitely a shedder, regular brushing helps a lot.
- affectionate
- playful
- guardian behaviour (barks, approaches cautiously) with visitors, but then fine once introduced.
- fairly independent, not a shadow but likes to be aware of where her owner(s) is
- moderately active, she likes to go outside but prefers to lounge around either inside or outside
- talkative
- only occasionally uses her mouth in play with people, and only jumps up when she is nuts about treats.
- she understands: sit, stay, down, come, leave it, wait, heel, bang-bang (play dead), some side pivots
- She loves toys and short to medium walks, I don’t think she has the stamina for long hikes.
- She can be left alone, cries with separation for a short while then stops. She has never been destructive in the house.
- She currently has free roam of the house and yard, and is confined to a room at night. She has also been accustomed to being crated (when boarding) and is fine with that.
- She is not a big digger, nor is she an escape artist, she doesn’t jump fences or anything.
- She is not possessive, nor does she resource guard food.
- She likes toys, and will play a limited game of fetch.
- She has lived with dogs of all sizes and breeds. She likes to chase rabbits and squirrels. I do not know if she is cat proof; I believe she lived with a cat at one boarder’s place so could possibly learn to live with a cat.
- She would do well in a home with another dog or dogs. She likes to chase, wrestle, and hang out with other dogs.
- I do not think she should live with young children as she is not accustomed to them.
- She does not love water but will enter for wading.
- She does not like fireworks but it’s not an overwhelming reaction.
- She doesn’t love the vacuum but is okay with it.
- She is good in the car (no car sickness)
- She would eat non-stop but does not actually need a lot of food (she tends to add weight quickly).
** Foxy is not our dog and we have never met her. We are just assisting with finding her a home. if interested please fill out an application form and we will reach out to the family
