Cocker Spaniel puppies and dogs in St Thomas, Ontario

**IF THIS LISTING IS STILL POSTED THIS DOG IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION. NO NEED TO EMAIL ASKING IF THE DOG IS AVAILABLE. PLEASE READ THROUGH THIS BIO THOROUGHLY AS INFORMATION ON HOW TO APPLY IS CONTAINED IN THIS LISTING** For Adoption: Mallory! Please read our dog bios carefully to be sure that the dog you are applying for suits your family and lifestyle. To apply for adoption and for more information on our process and requirements, visit our website at https://pounddog.ca/adoption-info/. This lovely lady is Mallory. She is a 5yr old Cocker Spaniel and just the sweetest girl. She weighs about 30lbs and is at an ideal weight for her breed and build. Mallory is a sweet natured, gentle dog looking for a quiet life with lots of outside sniffs and grass to roll in. You will notice right away that she has cloudy eyes. Unfortunately Mallory came to us from a puppy mill and she has Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) which is a chronic dry-eye condition very common in Cocker Spaniels. This was never treated while in the mill and over time corneal scarring caused the cloudiness in her eyes. This impacts her vision and she is vision impaired. She requires daily eye meds and lubrication and she is very easy to treat with these. Mallory is very accommodating to handling. Anyone considering her will need to be fully committed to daily eye med treatments as these are a must for her to live a comfortable life. Because of her vision impairment she has some special needs in her home. Mallory can see certain things, shapes and such, and does better in well lit areas than dark areas. She takes some time to get used to her surroundings, but once she knows her areas she knows them well! Mallory can manage stairs, and she knows the mapping of her foster home and maneuvers around like a dog with perfect vision. She copes very well with her vision loss. We initially had her on leash in the home and taught her the command “step” to let her know when a step was coming up and she quickly figured this out. Mallory also figured out our deck stairs all on our own and now runs up and down them with ease. Mallory stays on the main floor of our home for added safety and she is just fine with this. We just baby gate off the stairs. She finds any new objects startling, so placing a box on the floor for example gives her cause for concern, but a quick sniff check and all is good. Her people will need to be well aware of her vision issues and be cognizant of her needs and keep her safe. In no time she will adjust to the layout of a new home, she just needs patience and care while she does. Mallory came to us from a puppy mill heavily pregnant. She gave birth to 7 adorable puppies and she was a very good mom to them. Her puppies have since found their adoptive homes and now Mallory gets to have all of our focus. Mallory got professionally groomed, and our groomer stated that for an essentially blind dog, she fared very well! She is sensitive to loud noises so they didn’t use the blow dryer on her and let her dry naturally and this worked well for her. She was a great dog to manage at the groomer and they had no trouble with her. She will need a few professional grooms a year to keep her tidy and clean. She has a thick, wavy red coat that needs trimmed and thinned out from time to time. Because of her puppy mill life up until rescue, Mallory had never been exposed to anything other than the inside of a barn for 5yrs. She is only now learning about the world outside and the world inside of a home. Learning all of this while being vision impaired is a challenge as well. Mallory is doing so well and she has learned to love being outside, and rolling in the grass has been one of her favorite things to do. She LOVES a good roll! She is nervous of loud noises or sudden appearances of things. Mallory is a definite flight risk and must be secured on leash at all times when outside of a very secure fenced area. Mallory startles easily and will try and bolt. We always have a good grip on her leash and she is walked on a martingale collar for safety to ensure she can’t escape. Her people need to be very aware of her propensity to try and flee from scary things and keep her safe. Inside the home too, sometimes things scare her. Something dropped, the baby gate tipping over, a loud sudden noise on TV, etc, can cause her to startle. She is getting better and better with these things, but we always have to keep in mind that she is a mill dog…she never experienced anything at all prior, and she can’t see well to gauge what scary things are..so we have to give her some leeway with this and just reassure her that all is well. She settles quickly and calms once she realizes that she is safe. Mallory’s home will need to be a quiet and calm home without a lot of people coming over. She bonds well with her people but is timid of strangers initially. A peaceful home environment is needed for her so she can feel safe and not be started by a lot of things happening. She would like an adult only home or one with teens who can be patient and calm with her. She will not do well with young children visiting…too busy for her. She requires a home that has easy access to a secure fenced yard. Ideally a yard that is larger and will allow her to roam around and sniff as she loves to do this. When she is outside her nose is always to the ground. She loves to explore and sniff all over! Mallory would do well being the only dog in the home, but could do just as well with a dog sibling that is calm and mature. Mallory does not wish to play with other dogs but coexists nicely with them, She is very dog friendly and doesn’t cause any issues with the dogs in her foster home. She enjoys going on walks with them and hanging out with them but is not one to seek out a dog to interact with or lie with. Mallory is also very good around cats, completely ignoring the cats in her foster home. Inside the home she is very chill and likes to nap on her blanket on the floor of the TV room. She is very independent and can chill and entertain herself with chew toys and stuffies. Mallory also loves to receive affection and likes a good belly rub. She is happy to sit at our feet and get lots of pets. She is not a jump up on the furniture dog or a cuddle on the couch type, preferring to remain on the floor, but will happily accept affections from there. Mallory is crated when we aren’t home and at night. She is quiet in the crate and sleeps through the night. You will be greeted with a wiggly tail thumping away in her crate when you go down to her in the morning. She is generally clean in her crate but care has to be taken that she gets her bathroom duties done before she is crated. Mallory will drool in the crate some times during the day when crated if longer than an hour or so. This is ok, she is still learning about a crate routine, and she is getting better every day. She just wont be a dog that will do well being crated for a full workday, Mallory would like to have someone home more than away. Mallory has not messed in the home, but we take her out regularly and are proactive about getting her outside for bathroom breaks. She doesn’t know how to let you know she needs to go, you have to take her out. She is though a submissive piddler, which is a Cocker thing, and patience needs to be had with this. If you go to grab her quickly or suddenly she will have a little submissive piddle. She is best for a home without a lot of carpeting for this reason. This gets better with confidence building and we expect that given more time her piddles will lessen or even stop, but she needs patience with this in the meantime, as getting frustrated with a dog that has submissive piddles only worsens the problem. Anyone interested in Mallory has to be compassionate and patient with this. Mallory has come to really enjoy her walks and is doing much better on leash. She is a dog that is still learning to go the way you want and prefers to set her own path based on where the good sniffs are, but she is figuring out the whole going for a walk in the direction the people want to go thing. She needs a quiet and calm outdoor environment as well. Again, she can’t see well so things like bikes, skateboards, kids etc coming fast at her will be very scary for her. She is being fostered in a rural area that is very quiet and she loves this. Her adoptive home will need to be a rural area, or a small town or very quiet subdivision where she can explore on her walks without having things terrify her when she is out. She does ok with some traffic noise as long as it isn’t super loud like the garbage truck, but general traffic noises she is ok with. She is a low energy dog and does well with some casual walks that let her explore and sniff rather than formal walks. She also enjoys yard time to explore and sniff. She is building up her endurance but for now is a dog that is best for short walks at a casual pace, letting her just take in all the smells, and definitely time for some good grass rolls. Mallory is not comfortable in the car and is still getting used to the whole car ride thing. We crate her in the car and she will drool in the crate. She needs more short car rides to fun areas, like a remote park to go for sniffs, to learn that car rides can be great! Overall Mallory is very easy to live with. She asks for little; a couple good meals a day, some snacks in between (Mallory is becoming quite the connoisseur of snacks), a couple good scratches and petting sessions, a blanket to call her own to lay on during her many naps, and a good place to safely sniff outside to her hearts content. Her home needs to be a quiet one where she can continue to build confidence and become comfortable with this wide world around her. She is a complete doll and bonds well with her people. She does well with the occasional visitor as long as they ignore her initially and let her just get used to them at her own pace. Offering her a few treats helps win her over quickly and then visitors can pet her and scratch her and truly make friends with her. Mallory is an affectionate dog and loves gentle attentions. She has some special needs, but having come to know her well, her needs are very manageable and she is an easy and quiet dog who brightens our day with her sweetness. Someone is going to be very luck to be able to call Mallory their dog! Name: Mallory ID # PDR1525 Age: 5yrs Gender: female Spayed: yes UTD vaccines: yes Breed: Cocker Spaniel Colours: red Coat length: med House trained: yes Special needs: yes, see bio OK with kids: teens OK with cats: yes Ok with dogs: yes Status: adoptable Microchip: yes Size: med Location: Drumbo, Ont Adoption fee: $700