My name is Atticus!

Registration No.: RR097.

Atticus is a 22 month old neutered and pexied merle dane. He will be two years old in April 2024. His outlook on life and his energy level is still mostly PUPPY. (“Life is great! I love you; do you want to pet me? What’s that smell?! Obedience games with treats; I’m in! I’m bored on this walk, let’s play tug with this leash! Why aren’t you playing? No matter, I’ll play enough for both of us. Okay, I’ll nap now.”)

His best qualities are probably his friendliness and his willingness to TRY to do what you want, especially if treats are involved. And his striking good looks, of course. He is good at the vet’s. He rides well in the backseat of the car, but if left momentarily he will peruse the front seat and be waiting for you in the drivers seat, with the rear view mirror adjusted. He is pretty good about leaving you alone while you are eating at the table, but would definitely eat any food left unattended, and counters are well within his reach. In his youth he ingested something he shouldn’t have and needed surgery to remove a blockage, so extra caution is needed to prevent a recurrence.
Although his puppy energy is impressive and occasionally astounding, it is usually short lived. Ten minutes of zoomies in the yard with his toy, and he is willing to come in and snuggle into his bed and snooze. Maybe chew on a chew bone for awhile.

Atticus has lived with other dogs in the past. Most recently with an older spayed pit bull. They were fine in the house together, although the pit bull mostly ignored or discouraged any attempts to play. They did not have a fenced area, so did not have free play outside. We were told that Atticus did like running and chasing with a border collie at a previous home.

Atticus is now living alone. The foster home has an older female dog that does not want any roommates. He essentially lives in a separate apartment. Foster mom spends several hours a day with Atticus. Just hanging out and watching TV or reading, helping mom during zoom yoga class (!), practicing obedience games, going for car rides, and walking in different areas, like Home Depot, city parks, and small town sidewalks.

He gets free run playtime in a large fenced yard when it’s not too muddy. He loves running in the snow and eating the snow. Foster mom doesn’t allow too much snow eating, pretty sure that’s not good. Atticus is usually walked on a front attach harness, but he is strong and sometimes will pull. He gets very excited when he sees other dogs. If they bark he will definitely bark back, and louder. Foster mom has gone to two obedience classes with him, and he was able to be in a room with six other dogs and people and still pay attention most of the time. Not all of the time; he still needs work on this. He has a boisterous personality and although he has been fine with other dogs in the past, he has not interacted with other dogs while at his foster home. We were told that while he was at his previous home he met some other Danes; one was fine and two were not compatible.

Atticus would do well in a home where people are home most of the time. He would like a large fenced yard to do zoomies in. A compatible dog friend might be nice, but having just his people would be fine. Probably no cats due to a fairly strong prey drive, and no young children (12+ yrs) who might be bowled over, or who might have toys that Atticus would want to eat.

Patience and consistent training to adapt to a new situation will be key. As foster mom, I thought I would never be able to walk him on a leash; he’s gotten better. At first he was unruly in the car, now he is calm. I didn’t think I would be able to do yoga with him in the room, but I can; he only visits my mat a couple times, I tell him to go lay down and he does. He still wants to greet, sniff or lick every person we walk by, but I’m seeing improvement. Our biggest challenge at the moment is to be capable of remaining calm and polite when other dogs are around. We’re continuing to work on that.

MAGDRL adopts to eastern NY, eastern PA, NJ, DE, MD, WV and VA only. Please visit our website (www.magdrl.org) to review our adoption procedures and fencing policies.