Adopt Loki!
It is time that I start seriously looking for a home for Loki. He is not yet available for adoption through WPHS, but he will be very shortly and my preference would be for him to go to a special home. Unfortunately, waiting for a special home is not always possible in the shelter environment, so if I can find an interested adopter BEFORE he’s officially up for adoption, it would be ideal. There is a lot to love about this little guy and if the time were right for me, he would absolutely not be leaving because he has awesome potential for being a performance/sporting dog. He will make someone very lucky for having such a great partner!
He has some nice movement, even for a little guy figuring out his body.
The Basics
Breed: Corgi/Aussie (best guess)
Age: 17 weeks
Sex: Male (intact right now but will be neutered prior to adoption)
Weight: 15.2lbs (so my guess for adult weight will be 25-35lbs)
Height: I don’t have current height at withers but he is a shorter and longer bodied dog
Color: Brindle and white
Structure/Movement: He has nice rear angles, nice shoulder angles and layback. His top line is level though he is a long-bodied dog. His movement is pretty fluid (considering he’s a puppy learning to use his body) and when he runs he has nice extension and collection.
About Loki
Loki is doing great with his house training! He can be left up to 5 hours or so without having an accident in his crate or xpen easily. As long as he gets regular opportunities to potty outside, he has been great with not pottying inside. He sleeps in his crate overnight like a rockstar and doesn’t wake me up before I’m ready!
Just some of the things he’s bravely explored!
This puppy absolutely oozes with confidence! He has been exposed to lots of potentially scary things (shopping carts, vacuums, inflatable holiday decorations, heavy machinery, fireworks, thunderstorms, umbrellas, brooms, unstable flooring, wobble boards, etc) and nothing has even made him think twice. He jumps right into the baby pool, walked through a full length tunnel on his first go, and was a wild man with his first experience on a wobble-board. He has done box turns off people’s shins, climbs through things and jumps off things (or tries to until I catch him). He is brave and wild and seems to be willing to try almost anything.
He has an amazing work ethic for a young dog, he wants nothing more than to interact and to work with me. Although most of our time has been spent on other behavior modification work, Loki has learned sit, down, touch, lay on a mat, impulse control (with toys and food), and drop it all pretty reliably. We are working on loose leash walking/heel and that is going really well in our neighborhood. I took him to petsmart and he was able to focus on me and work without any problems. He absolutely amazes me that at a busy park with cars, dogs, kids, people, and bikes all around he will play tug with a rabbit fur tug or with a raccoon tail flirt-pole-like toy. The world disappears when he’s playing and tugging with these toys. He is also very very food driven–this fantastic boy will easily work for kibble at a busy park doing basic doing sit/down/touch and with a slightly higher value treat (like a rolled dog food or Zukes) he’ll do most anything else.
Loki has never met a person he doesn’t LOVE! Sometimes he greets people appropriately, sometimes he jumps up and gets mouthy. This is certainly a work in progress. He is learning that barking at people doesn’t get him to that person any faster and this behavior has largely gone away. He does get a little mouthy upon initial greetings so having a toy handy to redirect the mouthiness to is helpful, but it’s still a work in progress (he IS teething right now which makes it a bit worse–he actually lost his first pre-molar last night while playing tug!). He has now met about 30 different stable adult dogs and has gotten better and better with each experience. He likes other dogs and likes to play and chase with other dogs a lot but he IS cocky and confident. He’s great with stable adult dogs but would be way too much for an insecure or a shy dog–he would very quickly become pushy and obnoxious. He is working through some leash reactivity issues but is getting better everyday with the power of string cheese! Here are some photos of him playing with his puppy friends:
He was playing very appropriately with a group of 8 other stable adult dogs–he was a rockstar!
Loki meeting Duke a handsome Boxer, they hung out together nicely.
Loki even convinced Valentine, a pit bull, to play with him and she doesn’t play very often!
Loki got to play with Delta and Doc. Doc was being a bit pushy and controlling and Loki, for the most part, followed his rules.
Playing with my neighbor Callie! These two get to play together a few times a week and love it!
It’s not often Rio will really play with Loki but sometimes it happens!
I’ve been doing a lot of trading games with him and teaching him “drop it” to address his resource guarding issues toward people and it has paid off beautifully. Now, when a person approaches him with a resource he will drop the resource or back away from the resource to trade for kibble or a treat while the person picks up the item. He is a very quick learner but a new home will have to do a little bit of this work to show him that they also know the ‘trade’ game and show him that giving up resources is good for him in the long run. We have also worked on his dog-dog resource guarding (food/bullysticks) by having group feeding times with him initially separated by an xpen but now he’s with everyone eating kibble on the ground or chewing bully sticks–he’s learned that resources are plentiful and he doesn’t have to fight for them. If another dog has a food resource and he doesn’t he will bark at them but he is easily redirected, if he has a chew item and another dog walks by it’s no problem, if they get close and sniff, he will get stiff but then walk away with his item.
He is also a totally sweet boy. He is just so happy to be part of the family and loves attention. He has fleeting moments of being a total snuggle bug, so I suspect that as he matures and settles down a bit, he’ll ultimately be a real good snuggly friend.
Wanted: Special Furever Home!
Loki is looking for a special someone to be his forever home, here’s what he’s looking for:
- Someone who is experienced with high energy and drivey dogs
- Someone who is already involved in a canine sport like rally, agility, flyball, or nosework
- Someone who is searching for a dog specifically to do a dog sport
- If not a sport home, a very active home (runs every day, lots of hiking, plenty of fetch, etc)
- A guardian committed to continuing the positive training foundation that has been started
- A confident canine friend or two would be awesome
- Although he likes kids, he would prefer a home with kids over 10 or 12 years old
He will be available through the Western PA Humane Society in the near future! If you have any questions about him or want to know more, let me know!