Looking for a very special foster-to-adopt home for a high needs girl in the Edmonton area! Kamy is a 2.5 year old spayed female. She is a very sweet dog who loves her cuddles, but is high anxiety and has some stranger danger when meeting new people in the home. She is pretty much the perfect dog on walks, however. She was previously in a foster home as a single dog, but the foster became too busy to manage her, so she has since come back to headquarters and we have slowly integrated her into our pack. She loves going for long hikes in the river valley and is great on leash and in the car. In her original home, her best friend was a little girl, and she is very gentle around little ones, but a home without kids is best due to her specific needs (and the fact that she's an established counter surfer and food thief, lol).
Kamy has the most severe generalized anxiety that we've seen in over 15 years of rescuing. Her anxiety manifests in a number of ways: she paces A LOT (it was almost constant, initially), she is a very destrcutive chewer and MUST be crated when unsupervised, her housetraining is hit or miss, and she licks herself obsessively. She currently lives with a male Doberman, 3 small dogs and 5 cats, and she is okay with them, but does sometimes pounce on the small dogs (not maliciously, but inappropriate given the size difference). She shows some resource guarding of toys towards one of the small dogs in the house (who is extremely "feisty" and who also resource guards), but has never hurt her.
Kamy’s weirdest behavior is that she tends to “see” things that aren’t there and bark at them frantically if not redirected. We did test her for the possibility of narcolepsy (which could have led to hallucinations), but it came back negative. We believe that Kamy's "episodes" are related to a noise phobia or sensitivity. She sometimes redirects onto nearby objects, dogs, or humans when she is having an episode, but she has very good bite inhibition and has never broken skin on anyone. Kamy would do better in a quieter home and we think her ideal placement would be on an acreage with someone who doesn't work or who works from home. We have tried a number of different behavior meds with her over the past 15 months, and she is currently on venlafaxine and gabapentin twice daily. This combination has pretty much resolved her fear towards new people, and allows her to settle for much longer periods than previously. A few months ago she was losing weight despite being fed 7-8 cups of food per day, but has since gained all her weight back and is only eating about 4-4.5 cups per day. We are still working with a vet behaviorist to see if we can make more improvements in regard to her anxiety and noise sensitivity. We recently ordered military-grade dog hearing protection in hopes that it might lessen some of the noise stimuli around her, but it doesn't arrive for a few more weeks. We are trying all we can to save this little girl from behavioral euthanasia, but we also need to keep her mental wellbeing in mind, as her current state is not healthy or sustainable long-term.
Kamy is spayed, microchipped, and vaccinated. Her adoption fee is by donation, but please be aware that Kamy will require lifelong behavioral medication. All adopters must agree not to use any punitive training methods including, but not limited to, leash corrections; pinning; alpha rolls; and prong, pinch, choke, shock, or e-collars. Apply to foster-to-adopt Kamy by submitting on application at https://adoptadobe.com/adoption-application. All adoptions require a home visit prior to finalization.
To donate towards Kamy's care, please visit adoptadobe.com/donate.
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