My name is Zoey!

Zoey is beautiful and super sweet with people. She is light on her feet and agile as an Aussie but has the temperament of the Chow Chow with an instant distrust of other dogs. Unlike the Chow Chow however, she loves to be cuddled which is a plus for a teddy bear of a dog. Her loyalty to her person knows no bounds and she is friendly with all people. She is currently living with another dog who she has become good friends with needed the initial time to develop that kind of friendship.

Here is what her foster family had to say:

Zoey is an absolutely beautiful, energetic, funny, intelligent girl with the most unique, lovely blue eyes. Her eyes actually change colour throughout the day according to the lighting. She is always watching you, looking for direction and you can see the intelligence behind her eyes. She is very loving and became attached to me immediately. She follows me everywhere I go and loves to cuddle. She also loves to play but doesn’t really know how to yet. If you throw the ball for her she is so excited to chase it and capture it but has no concept of picking it up and bringing it back so you can do it again. She will often bring me one of her toys and look at me as if to say, “throw it”, I throw it and she chases it and then begins to chew on it. She is perfectly behaved in the house and can be left alone without concern. She waits at the window for me to return.

She appear to be in perfect health with a shiny coat and beautiful, white teeth. She has a maturity, a wise-ness about her, but still has a puppy feel as well. I am not sure whether I would classify her as high energy or moderate energy. She certainly loves to run. She is very fast and can go forever, but when she is in the house, she has no trouble settling down and napping. Zoey does not appear to shed at all. When I brushed her after her bath, there was no hair even in the brush.

She is friendly with everyone she has met so far. She will wag her tail for them and go up and say hello. She is not overly boisterous with them though, so I think she would be fine with young children. She is a bit of an alpha dog though so I don’t know if she would boss little ones around. She has never exhibited any aggressiveness to people, even when I bathed her, which she didn’t love, she was calm. She has never exhibited any signs of shyness.

Zoey’s only problem area is that she is not good at meeting other dogs. She has learned to get along with our dog Wilbur but it took some time for her to accept him. She has never bitten and I do think she really wants to play but gets too riled up. I think with some training, this issue could be solved quite easily. In the last couple of days her and Wilbur have had a few very good play sessions without issue.

She seems to be fine with me leaving the house. She will wait at the window for me to return and then is extremely happy when I come in the door. She has shown no destructive behaviour at all. Zoey is a very brave girl. She has shown zero fear since she has been in our home. Her favourite thing to do is go for a walk. She loves to sniff everything. I think she would love to run and do agility types of games. She does not bark. She will occasionally bark at someone coming in the house, but I think that is only because my dog gets her started. Otherwise she is very quiet.

Zoey is the perfect house companion. She does not beg, counter surf, chew things she shouldn’t or do any other bad behaviour. She does like being up on the furniture though. Again, I think if her family was not happy with that, they could train her not to get up easily. My family and I love to have her up on the couch cuddling with us, so we have not tried to stop that behaviour. She knows sit, stay and come. She does not always listen however. I do make her sit and wait for permission before she is allowed to eat and before she is allowed to exit the house on our walks. Her recall is not good. She knows to come, but only does it when she feels like it outside of the house. She is too excited to be out. Zoey has not had a single accident in the house. She waits for me to take her out and if she really needs to go, she will go hang around the back door. Zoey is crate trained, although we do not use her crate. We put her crate in my son’s room for her to sleep in at night if she wanted, but we do not close the crate door. At night, she will voluntarily go into her crate and will either stay there all night or alternate between her crate, the bed and the floor. She is leash trained but can pull quite hard, especially at the beginning of the walk. After a while, she calms down quite a bit, but again, if she encounters another dog, she is reactive.

She has never tried to escape from the backyard or out the door. However, she did bolt from the back of my car at my country house and took off at a million miles an hour. I was terrified I had lost her, but she did come back on her own a very short time later. She is fast and loves to run so I would suggest her adoptive family spend more time working on her recall before they consider letting her off leash. She is a perfect angel in the car. She jumps in happily and settles right down and does not make a noise.

Zoey is a complete doll. She is going to make some family extremely happy. With a little bit of further training, I am confident she will be the perfect family pet. She is smart, loyal, affectionate and well behaved in the home. When she looks at you with her crazy, blue eyes you can’t help but laugh. She loves to cuddle and you will often find her flipped on her back, tummy in the air even when napping on her own. Zoey is 40 lbs and feels very light. She is super fast and very light on her feet. She seems to attach to one person in the family and will follow that person around everywhere. She is still affectionate with the other members of the family, but looks for her direction from the one she has attached to. She enjoys her food but doesn’t seem overly food or treat driven. I think she prefers a toy as her treat. She loves to play with soft toys, although she enjoys an antler too.

I believe Zoey would do well in almost any home. I do think she can live happily with another dog, but her adoptive parents would have to understand it may take a little while for them to get along. I also think she would be happy as the only dog in the home. I have never seen her around cats, so I do not know how she would do with them. I think she needs a family who is active, as she is energetic and loves to be on the move. She also needs a family who is willing to put some time and effort into training her with her dog aggression. Again, I really do believe this can be fixed with just a little bit of proper training. I think she would be happy in a family, but I also think she would be just as happy with a solo adopter who is able to focus on her alone and build a special bond with her. She definitely loves her person and wants to be with them.

If you believe Zoey would fit your situation and you would like to give her a forever home, please go to our main website at uglymuttsdogrescue.com and submit an application for consideration.