Zeus has been with us for over 2 years and has not been able to find an appropriate home due to his behavioral needs. As such, he will stay with us as a permanent foster.
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Zeus is a 6 year old male Doberman and a typicla velcro dog. He is also very much a "guard dog" and will fearlessly protect his home just like the Doberman was meant to. He came to us from a very remote community up north (you can see a bit of frost-bite on the tips of his ears, poor guy), after one of his owners passed away unexpectedly. We think he may have been exposed to some not-so-great stuff, and had a rough start when he first joined the rescue, showing reactivity and aggressive behaviours in his original foster home.
Zeus requires a benevolent owner who won't try to "dominate" him or use any sort of force or manhandling while working with him. Zeus has what is called control-conflict aggression: if he perceives that you are trying to force him to do something he doesn't want to, he will ask you to stop by growling or lifting his lips. He is not a dog you can drag around by his collar or push his bum down to make sit. When Zeus first came to headquarters, we had him drag a leash for a couple days, and we saw this behavior if we tried to use his leash to coax him off the couch to go outside or to his kennel. We quickly learned that Zeus needs to think that going outside (or back inside) or in his kennel is HIS idea. If you do not heed his initial warnings, he will escalate to using his mouth to control the situation and will leave you with a good bruise, but hasn't broken skin. He is food motivated so that has helped, and he is very quick at picking up routines. Now that he knows what is expected of him and at what times, we rarely see this behavior anymore.
Zeus can be selective and even reactive with certain dogs, but has been good with most after a controlled introduction. He actually gets along best with small dogs and needs to go to a home with NO MEDIUM OR LARGE MALE DOGS. He has been in fights with other male dogs, and we do not want to set him up for failure. We believe he wasn't well socialized before coming to us, and will sometimes pin other dogs upon meeting, so we generally introduce him while wearing a muzzle or behind a chainlink fence, paying close attention to his body language. Zeus is very good about sharing his toys and will often play tug with our Boston Terrier X. He does, however, guard the sofa from other animals when he is on it, so we would recommend not allowing him on furniture.
Despite his issues, Zeus is really a gentle dog and has great bite inhibition -- he's never purposefully broken skin on a person (to our knowledge). He does jump up on occasion and has headbutted us all a couple times when excited, but this behavior has almost ceased completely with proper management and consistency. He can also be mouthy when he is excited, but we have taught him to grab a toy whenever someone comes into the house now, and it works really well. Despite his gentle nature, due to his history and mouthiness, we will not place Zeus in a home with children. He really needs a laid-back, quiet home with an owner who understands dog behavior and body language. His leash training still needs work as he has not spent a lot of time on leash in the past, but he will walk on a head collar/halti. He does sometimes show reactivity to other dogs while on leash, so needs more work in this area as well. He REALLY loves to run and hunt mice so we think he'd enjoy some kind of scent work or barn hunt.
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