Size
(when grown) Small 25 lbs (11 kg) or less
Details
Good with kids,
Good with dogs,
Good with cats,
House-trained,
Spayed or Neutered,
Shots are up-to-date,
Story
* To be considered for a meet/adoption, please read the full biography to see whether they may be a good fit for your home, then submit an online application at www.dpsrescue.org.* This dog will be at the Palo Alto Pet Food Express on Saturday, August 8th from 12–3 PM (unless adopted prior to the event). All DPS Rescue dogs are spayed/neutered, vaccinated, dewormed, flea/tick treated, and microchipped prior to adoption. Adoption fee: $750 Meet Matcha: Some Things Are Better When They Aren’t Rushed Anyone who appreciates good matcha knows there’s a process to getting it right. You don’t dump everything together, rush through it and expect perfection. You slow down. You’re patient. You give it the care it needs. Our Matcha requires much the same approach. Matcha is a 6–8 year old, 23-pound Cockapoo with a soft, nonshedding coat, soulful eyes and quite possibly the happiest tail on the planet. She is gentle, sweet and incredibly endearing. She is also VERY shy. Not “give me a few treats and twenty minutes” shy. Not “a little nervous when meeting new people” shy. Matcha is a genuinely fearful dog who is still learning how to navigate a world that feels much bigger and scarier to her than it does to most dogs. We want to be very clear about this because Matcha is exactly the kind of adorable little dog people see and immediately want to scoop up, cuddle and reassure. But Matcha doesn’t need someone who believes they can simply love the fear out of her. She needs someone who understands fearful dogs and knows that love works best when it comes with patience, experience, management and absolutely no timetable. Matcha Needs Time to Settle When Matcha arrives in her forever home, she may not immediately resemble the dog described by her foster. A move means new people, new sounds, new smells and an entirely new routine. She may retreat to a crate, x-pen, dog bed or quiet corner and spend much of her first week there. That’s okay. She may not follow you around. She may not want to explore. She may not eat normally right away. She may watch you from across the room while she tries to figure out whether this new place is safe. Her new family needs to be comfortable letting her do exactly that. When Matcha first arrived in foster care, she was shut down. With time, patience and consistency, things began to change. Now she knows her name, takes treats from her foster’s hand, enjoys affection, gets excited about dinner and is beginning to respond to simple cues like “come.” And then there’s that tail. Every morning Matcha waits quietly beside her crate, and the moment she realizes her foster is awake, that tail starts thumping against the floor. Simply looking at her can set it off. With a dog like Matcha, those moments mean something. You earned that tail wag. Matcha Is Not Ready for Your Walking Tour Matcha is still very uncomfortable walking on leash independently. When she is tethered to a confident dog, she can happily walk alongside that dog. Take away her canine security blanket, however, and Matcha freezes. That means her new family should not expect to bring her home Saturday and start neighborhood walks Sunday morning. She may not go on walks during her first week. She may not be ready for regular walks for weeks. Her adopter needs to be genuinely okay with that. This is not a dog who needs someone to decide, “She just has to get used to it,” and pull her around the block. Matcha’s confidence needs to be built, not demanded. She needs someone willing to work at Matcha’s speed, not theirs. A securely fenced yard would be tremendously helpful while she works on her confidence. Like many fearful dogs, Matcha’s instinct when overwhelmed is to get away, so her adopter also needs to understand flight risk and be extremely careful with doors, gates, harnesses and transitions. Additional security such as a GPS tracker or AirTag is strongly recommended while she continues learning that the world isn’t such a scary place. Whisk Gently Once Matcha begins trusting you, there is an incredibly sweet dog waiting underneath all that uncertainty. She loves gentle pets, head scratches, body rubs and even paw massages. She isn’t demanding about affection, but she absolutely enjoys it when she feels safe enough to receive it. She’s not exactly a Velcro dog. Matcha is more of a FOMO dog. She wants to know where everybody is and what they’re doing. If her people move into another room, she’ll often want to follow—not necessarily because she needs to be attached to someone, but because apparently household business should not be conducted without Matcha being informed. She’s also wonderfully mellow. Matcha is perfectly happy relaxing around the house, exploring the backyard, sunbathing or finding a comfortable spot near her people. Toys? Meh. Fetch? Hard pass. Rolling around happily in the grass? Now we’re talking. Another Dog May Be Matcha’s Best Teacher One of the most important things we’ve learned about Matcha is how much confidence she can take from another dog. Her best friend in her foster home is a 16-pound Bichon. They aren’t spending their days wrestling or racing through the house. They simply like being together. Matcha has also met several other small and medium-sized dogs and has done very well with calm introductions. A confident dog can communicate things to Matcha that humans sometimes can’t. Other dog walks outside? Apparently outside is survivable. Other dog approaches human? Human must be safe. Other dog hears strange noise and doesn’t react? Perhaps we don’t need to evacuate. Matcha is taking notes. We believe an appropriate, friendly and confident resident dog could be an enormous benefit to Matcha, particularly because we already know she can use another dog as a guide when walking. More important than simply having another dog, however, is having humans who understand fearful-dog behavior and won’t expect the resident dog to magically “fix” her. The Easy Parts Are Really Easy For all the things Matcha finds difficult, there are plenty of things she makes remarkably easy. She is housetrained and crate trained. She sleeps quietly in her crate beside her foster family at night and can settle when left home. She doesn’t chew things, dig or spend her days barking. She may briefly howl or softly whine when her people leave, but with canine company she settles quickly. Her idea of a wild afternoon is generally finding a comfortable place to lie down, keeping track of where everyone went and perhaps heading outside for a good roll in the grass. She doesn’t need someone to entertain her all day. She needs someone to make her feel safe. Who Matcha Needs This is the most important part of Matcha’s biography. Matcha is not appropriate for a first-time dog owner. She needs someone with meaningful dog experience and, ideally, someone who has experience with shy, fearful, undersocialized or rescue dogs. Her adopter should understand decompression, canine body language, flight risk and why forcing interaction with a frightened dog can actually move you backward instead of forward. We’re looking for the person who reads that Matcha may spend her first several days tucked away in a quiet corner and thinks, Okay. I’ll make that corner comfortable. Someone who reads that she may not be ready to walk around the neighborhood and thinks, Then we won’t walk around the neighborhood yet. Someone who can resist picking her up because they desperately want to cuddle her. Someone who understands that sitting quietly nearby and allowing Matcha to make the first move may accomplish far more. Most importantly, someone who understands that you cannot love a dog out of being fearful. Of course Matcha needs love. But she also needs patience, consistency, experience and people who recognize that building confidence is a process. When you apply for Matcha, please tell us specifically how you would meet those needs. If you have experience with fearful or shy dogs, tell us about it. If you have another dog, tell us about that dog and their temperament. Tell us what Matcha’s first few days and weeks would look like in your home. We’re not looking for the person who fell in love with Matcha’s photograph the fastest. We’re looking for the person who understands the dog behind that photograph. The Matcha Worth Waiting For There is something extraordinary about earning the trust of a fearful dog. The milestones other people take for granted become the things you celebrate. The first time Matcha approaches you instead of waiting for you to approach her. The first time she chooses to lie closer. The first time she confidently follows you outside. The first walk she actually enjoys. The first time something startles her and she looks to you for reassurance instead of trying to escape. And someday, perhaps you’ll look down and realize the frightened little dog who once froze at the end of a leash is standing beside you with that ridiculously happy tail going a mile a minute. We can’t tell you how quickly that will happen. Neither can anyone else. Matcha gets to determine the timetable. What we can tell you is that her foster has already seen glimpses of the dog waiting underneath the fear. She is gentle, affectionate, quiet, funny and incredibly sweet. Watching her confidence begin to blossom has already been enormously rewarding. Matcha doesn’t need someone who wants to change her. She needs someone willing to meet her exactly where she is today and patiently show her where she can go tomorrow. Take your time with Matcha. The best things are worth waiting for. August 7, 2026, 12:20 am
