My name is Amy!

Amy is still very much a puppy and is approximately 8 months old. She is a sweet girl who loves attention and is eager to please but is just learning house and social manners. She loves people and is good with other dogs but can be too much for an older dog. She would be a great family pet but needs someone who is willing to continue her training and socialization. She currently weighs approximately 50 lbs.

Here is what her foster family had to say:

Amy is a super-affectionate puppy who is still learning all about the world around her and what she is expected to do and be. She is happy doing anything that the rest of us are doing; she just likes to be near everyone. She loves going for walks and is a big fan of chew toys and the chew toys that hide treats are the best of all. Her biggest motivator though, is affection. Amy is very quiet overall. She will occasionally play-bark inside, and she will bark outside at people walking by but not incessantly, just to say she’s there. Anything you want to do to/with her, you can do. She will often play very happily by herself, with her stuffy or one of her chew toys, tossing it around or just chewing. She loves to chase balls but hasn’t quite yet learned to bring them back reliably. Amy often will stand up like a meerkat to get a better look at things.

Amy is a very intelligent girl who has the potential to grow up into an absolutely amazing dog, if she is properly trained so she knows what is expected of her. She wants very much to please, but she is also independent. Affection is her biggest motivator, and she will walk away from a high value treat to get it. She needs not only physical exercise but also mental stimulation, to keep her busy. She even gets bored of toys quickly and we have to keep switching them up. It is great fun to watch her explore new things and to watch her confidence growing each day.

Amy is timid on seeing or hearing anything new but quickly becomes curious. The first day or two she was cowering at anything new, but quickly developed confidence. The only thing we are still working on is parked cars – she is terrified of them and skitters past with as wide a berth as possible. Moving cars have no affect on her.

We have not introduced her to any children. She does bark at people she sees on our walks and at people who walk by the house when she is on our porch however, if approached by people she is quite excited and more than happy to greet them. . She has shown no aggression whatsoever and she is not a bit timid with anyone she has met.

Amy is still very puppyish, with high-energy play periods followed by complete crashes. She also chews a fair amount and may be having her last teething stage. When she has to spend the day in her crate with only a half-hour break at lunch, she is moderately high energy for about four hours at the end of the day. However, on the weekends when we are home she is fairly low-key. Her shedding at present is fairly low but she is double-coated so may have a good shed each spring and fall.

Amy is currently living in the home with my two older dogs and although she does love to play with them she seems to not understand when they are telling her they have had enough. As she is still a puppy she would do well with someone willing to take her for obedience training where she could meet and learn to be more respective with other dogs. We have not introduced her to cats but she does seem to have a high prey drive, given her reactions to bunnies and birds in the yard.

She is quite clever, but does have an independent streak – “sit,” for example, is sometimes met with “what’s in it for me?” (Which is a very Husky trait!) It’s been rainy and muddy since we got her and she’s been great with stopping at the back door when coming in and having all her feet cleaned, and getting the harness on and off. Amy knows come but if she is in the middle of playtime then it becomes a drive-by rather than come directly to me. She is learning ‘down.’ She is very familiar with ‘no’ and does respond immediately when told no. She is learning that coming to us quietly and sitting down is rewarded with affection, whereas jumping and bouncing is not. She will steal anything she can get that is remotely edible. She is learning not to counter/table surf but that is a work in progress and at this point I would be very, very careful about what you leave within reach – she’s also very fast! She does love to chew but given appropriate chew toys she has yet to chew anything in the house that she should not.

She has now mastered “crate!”, her “sit” is at about a 75% success rate (unless you have food), her “down” is about 50%, and we have just started on “stay.” She is also learning “quiet time” and “bedtime” and “wait,” mostly just because that’s what our dogs know and not because we are trying to overwhelm her!

She is crate trained and is clean and quiet in the crate. She spends the night in her crate and has no problems with that. She will go into her crate for a nap, or if she has what she feels is a high value toy she will take it into her crate to play with, or will just place it in her crate (away from the other dogs). She is house trained but is not yet 100% sure how to indicate that she needs to go outside so you have to watch her very carefully for the first sign of pacing. She has started to ring the bells on the door to go out but she does it very gently so you can’t really hear them. Amy loves being outside so she will often just ask to go outside so she can wander around and sniff things, not because she has to go to the bathroom.

Amy is coming along very well on a leash. She does not pull very hard or often. She is quite reactive to dogs that she sees while out on a walk and she has a very high prey drive so you need to have a good grip on the leash, but she does respond well to corrections. We are using a harness but not a no-pull. She has not tried to escape but she does like to go stand by the gate; I think she just wants to go on a walk. Amy is fine in the car and just lays quietly.

Amy may take a few weeks to settle into life with her new family because she spent so long in a shelter and she still has so much to learn about trust, love, and the world in general. She is eager to learn, eager to please, and draws a lot of confidence from her people. I truly believe that with the proper guidance and training (and enough exercise) she will grow up into someone’s ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ dog.

If you have room in your home and your heart for this young girl and would like to make her part of your family, please go to our main website at uglymuttsdogrescue.com and submit an application for consideration.