Love terriers? Looking for an adventure but also a little bit of a project? Here are the details:
Pigeon is a 1.5 year old Jack Russell Terrier (~15 lbs, smooth coat, “shorty” style) seeking an experienced terrier home that is willing to continue working with her. In January she wound up in a county animal shelter, where her mental wellbeing quickly deteriorated in the loud, noisy environment. She was adopted, but returned 2 days later for being “too young”. Like many terriers, Pigeon is easily aroused and upon being returned to the shelter, her arousal levels tipped into negative behaviors with the constant onslaught of dogs barking. While being walked past kennels of dogs, Pigeon became worked up and frustrated, and inflicted a redirection bite on a volunteer.
Since coming to foster and having time to decompress from the overwhelming shelter environment — Pigeon’s behaviors have improved tremendously. Pigeon must be the only pet, and is not friendly towards other dogs. However, she does live with other dogs in her foster home and has learned to successfully ignore them in a crate/rotate situation — but this is not a long term solution. In her foster home, she has not demonstrated the same redirection biting behavior she displayed at the shelter, although seeing other dogs getting excited or noisy does trigger her arousal — she can stay under threshold enough to be called away from the excitement. Pigeon has also displayed some compulsive type behaviors such as tail chasing or incessant pacing when excited. Her new owner should be comfortable in continuing the work of teaching Pigeon how to settle herself down.
Pigeon’s big feelings about dogs is the bulk of her challenges — here is some great stuff about Pigeon! She makes an excellent and well behaved pet that can settle on the couch with you, and is quite sweet. She’s been very friendly with all people she’s met, welcoming guests into her home and she is quite adept at snuggling when all her energy/enrichment needs have been met. She shows no signs of separation anxiety! She is a perfect angel during baths, and while not thrilled about nail trims, they can be done with clippers (no dremel, thank you!). She is crated trained, house trained, loves car rides, playing with squeaky toys, she doesn’t have destructive tendencies such as couch chewing, she walks on a treadmill, and she is muzzle trained.
Despite Pigeon’s challenges, she really is a lovely girl. She would likely do best in a home that will not only provide consistent continued training and behavior modification but also ensure her needs are being met through exercise, decompression and enrichment activities! Due to her bite history, a home without small children is recommended.
Applications can be completed at https://jackrussellrescueca.org/application/
April 28, 2024, 6:04 pm
