Size
(when grown) Large 61-100 lbs (28-45 kg)
Details
Spayed or Neutered,
Story
Ok Basset Fans, we know you must be out there somewhere and we need your help…Please read his entire bio before saying “I want him”, and then email us at njwoof@cs.com if you want to help him.
Our largest dwarf dog, Doc, is a 5 year old purebred basset hound who somehow ended up with us but does NOT belong here at all! We are urgently looking for an adopter, or better yet a reputable basset rescue to take him in… the little old cranky dogs here are NOT at all happy and deeply offended by such a large loud drooly hound dog invading their foster home and are demanding his eviction asap! We wouldn’t be surprised if we come home and find him locked out on the porch with his belongings while the chihuahuas and Shih tzus barricade the door. He may be short in stature but he’s a big strong boy at over 70lbs. He’s been friendly and respectful with dogs of all sizes, even the snarky tiny bratty ones, and is desperate for someone to play with him and be nice to him… he should fit in nicely with a pack of bassets or other hound dogs.
Doc is a friendly social good-natured boy overall, loves meeting people and other dogs, does fine for vetting and handling, is crate-trained and housebroken. Perfect except for his one vice… food! If you know hounds, you know that they are usually food obsessed, and he is no different. While our little doxies are too short to countersurf and swipe food for themselves, this guy can easily stick his large nose onto your counters and anything he can reach is fair game. And once it’s in his possession, it’s all his and don’t try to take it. While he hasn’t shown resource guarding with the other dogs, he was being chased by people to pry stolen food out of his mouth in his previous home and eventually started lashing out to defend his prized feasts. Prevention, training and management is key- he’s learning some better manners but in meantime should be kept out of the kitchen during food prep and all garbage cans and food storage will need to be hound-proofed. Most people don’t realize it and think strong-arming their food away from them teaches them you are “the boss”, but actually taking valuable items away from dogs is the most effective way to teach them to guard them 😡. Think about it from their point of view: if every time you sat down to eat your dessert, someone yelled “no!” and wrestled it away from you, how many times would it take for you to start reacting? When first asking nicely to be left alone, running away and trying to hide, and then yelling and cursing at the thief don’t work, how long would it take you to start punching people? You probably have a much lower threshold than what most dogs tolerate from us humans.
But what if someone asked you to trade with them for your most favorite dessert of all? Over time, you might actually start to look forward to them approaching and leave your plate happily to get that really good Fudgy the Whale ice cream cake 🍰 🍫. You might not even bother grabbing cookies or cupcakes from the kitchen once you see that person in hopes of ice cream cake coming. And that, in a nutshell, is how you train dogs not to guard their food, bones, toys, blankets, beds, people’s laps…. Pretty much anything and everything. Sounds like simple common sense, right? Unfortunately, many well-meaning animal lovers get dogs without learning this simple fact, and so many dogs lose their lives due to “food aggression” and guarding when bites could have been preventing.
Doc will need to learn that when you approach him when he has something, you aren’t interested in taking it, only giving him something even better and reward him for leaving it. So he doesn’t have to curse you out or try to “punch” you in the face with his teeth 🤷♀️ You will have to work on figuring out his value system: rotisserie chicken is pretty high value currency for most dogs though it might not beat an entire holiday ham he has run off with. If he steals your lunch off the counter, the best method is to take a rolled up newspaper, and hit yourself, in the head with it for being careless enough to leave your lunch so close to the end of the table so that he could grab it. Then make yourself a new sandwich 🥪 because that one is now Doc’s. We have been working on him with his manners, he does sit and wait nicely for his food bowl, and we are practicing tossing yummy treats into his bowl while he’s eating to start desensitizing hum that human hands give and don’t take. He should be taught to go to his “place” or crate or removed from the room while the humans are eating for right now. While he’s friendly meeting children, he should only live with adults as a precaution at this point; training a child to ”leave it” and not bother the dog while eating or sleeping or trying to take his stuff is usually not 100% successful. Other dogs he’s been fine sharing with, even smaller ones, and his guarding seems to be more of a man-made issue stemming from the communication gap between dogs and humans.
Doc is currently located in Northern NJ and we are looking for an experienced committed adopter within a couple of hours from us, OR a breed-experienced rescue willing to take him on and do right by him. Please email us at njwoof@cs.com if you can help Doc!
Due to COVID-19, we will not be holding our Sunday adoption events until further notice, but we can schedule socially distant appointments with a specific dog outdoors at our vetâs office: VCA Morris Plains Animal Hospital 3009 Rt 10 East Morris Plains (Denville on GPS) NJ 07950 Now is the perfect time to open your home to a needy dog! Submit an application from our website www.secondchance.petfinder.com to speed up the adoption process All our dogs reside in foster care in Northern NJ until adoption. We are a small all-volunteer organization focused on rescuing local dogs from area shelters, as well as accepting some surrenders and puppy mill rescues.
