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UPDATE: Dottie has been getting training with hand signals and she is responding so well! Dottie is a happy, busy, loving, energetic girl who likes to play and explore. She is smart and will happily investigate everything and everyone, then come snuggle with her person when her curiosity is satisfied. She is probably 6-8 months old (as of mid February 2015). She's a great size -- right around 20 pounds, with beautiful tiger brindle and white markings. Her ancestry is a mystery, but her indomitable spirit says terrier is in the mix and she has a spitz-type appearance (think husky, Akita, shiba Inu, but scaled down).
So what is her special need? Dottie is deaf, and it doesn't slow her down a bit. What it does mean is that she needs a very secure home and an adopter willing and able to continue to train her to respond to visual cues. She learns quickly! It also means that she does not always respond appropriately to other dogs, especially when they tell her to back off. Since she is an exuberant young thing, this leads to misunderstandings, and Dottie's ideal home is probably one where she is an only dog, or where the other dog has a similar energy level, without a tendency to escalate aggression. She has been fine with the (very patient) cat in her foster home, though he often has to remove himself from her insistence to engage. The Good Samaritans who found her loved her dearly, but their dog was less enthusiastic.
Dottie is crate trained and mostly housebroken. She is also spayed, microchipped, and up to date on vaccinations.
We adopt dogs from Memphis Animal Shelter when we can. The shelter has an 83% euthanasia rate, one of the highest in the country. Unfortunately, any dog coming from Memphis Animal Shelter, and most other shelters for that matter, will have been in contact with contagious illness. Even though the dogs have been in foster care and appear to be in good health, they may become stressed when changing environments and exhibit signs and symptoms of illness. If you have other pets, they need to be up to date on vaccines before bringing a shelter dog into your home. We will take the adopted animal back, but we are not responsible for your other animal's vet care. We always disclose where the dogs have come from. Please ask for any information about the dogs and exercise due caution if you have immunocompromised animals.
