Size
(when grown) Small 25 lbs (11 kg) or less
Details
Not good with kids,
Good with dogs,
Story
Introducing Ernest.
He’s adorable, tiny, young, non-shedding, healthy, housebroken, under 10 lbs… hold on ✋. You know there has a to be a catch, if it sounds too good to be true it usually is.
Ernest has issues. 😮💨 They are hard to explain, but we will try. If you know little weird dogs, you know how they can be.
He’s a bit complicated and we are still figuring out all his quirks. He was originally found abandoned, and then did some bad things in his previous homes despite working with a trainer and their best attempts. He’s not so trusting of men. He’s not trusting of vets and groomers. He’s not trusting of people trying to take stuff from him. He can be a bit of a bully with tinier dogs. He gets scared with fast movements and some handling. He doesn’t like harnesses put on and off and can get nervous about leashing. He’s not passing any canine good citizen tests anytime soon.
He’s also still just a puppy, about a year old we think, so has his crazy mouthy excited puppy energy and zoomies. So even when he’s happy and playful and loving he can be a bit mouthy and nippy, separate from his more fearful warnings. He’s done fine with most dogs his size and bigger and isn’t looking for conflict with them. He’s crate-trained and great about housebreaking in his foster.
He’s very smart and learns quickly. That can be a good or bad thing- if you don’t show him the right thing to do in a situation he will figure it out for himself and he’s still working on learning to make good decisions. Most adolescent boys aren’t good at that. At least he is neutered though so that’s one less mistake he can make 😆 He is not broken, he just needs your understanding. He does best in a home with one woman he can bond to that will give him clear rules and boundaries first, and affection later and on his terms. He’s not a purse dog, or a dress up and carry around and hug and kiss type, or a hide in the apartment and use wee wee pads type. Don’t let his little toy poodle foo foo look fool you, there’s a real little dog under those curls that would love to go hiking or take long speed walks with you.
Email njwoof@cs.com if you think you have what it takes to be Ernest’s person and would like to meet him in Northern NJ.
Since COVID-19, we are no longer holding our Sunday adoption events until further notice, but we are scheduling meet and greet appointments with a specific dog or dogs at our meeting spots in Northern NJ. To streamline adoptions, all communication before, during, and after the adoption process is done through email only: we have limited volunteers able to return phone calls. Submit an application from our website www.secondchance.petfinder.com to speed up the adoption process and email any questions to us at njwoof@cs.com. Please check your email regularly for next steps. All our dogs reside in foster care in Northern NJ until adoption and we do not have a central shelter location. 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.
