Darcy is a 6 year old female Springer cross Hungarian Vizsla. She was rehomed due to growing tensions with the other resident dogs. For this reason she is looking for a dog free home. When HRH Princess Darcy arrived with us in foster she landed like a hurricane!! But within a couple of days she settled and found her place and is a real sweetie. Darcy loves people, cuddles, tennis balls, tuggy ropes and a nice comfy sofa. She is great playing with her toys with you and is an excellent tug of war opponent. She is incredibly clever and picks up brain games very quickly. Darcy particularly likes to present you with your socks, worn and unworn. If she feels that you aren’t paying her enough attention, but gives them back quite easily. She is good with children, but better to be older dog savvy children as she is bouncy and will play chase if they run and has a very “big dog” bark for such a tiny princess!! She will chase anything that moves i.e. birds, cats, squirrels, sheep, horses, foxes etc.
Darcy walks perfectly on a harness, however does not like the lead being put on her in the house. When you appear with it ready for a walk she goes running and cowering. We have worked on this with a slow and gentle approach. Darcy is also not keen on going in the car and has to be lifted in, I think this is also linked to her dislike of the lead. Once in the car she actually travels fine, provided she is in a small boot with a dog guard or a covered crate. For this it may be better for her to find a home where she will have minimal trips in the car. She is however fine to get in the car after a nice long walk to head home. Now to the reason Darcy was rehomed, she is dog reactive. We are told this is due to being jumped on by a GSD when she was a puppy. In her previous home they were able to manage this with distraction. Since being with us we have been working on gaining her trust in us as her handlers and working with distraction techniques when we meet other dogs out walking. Her favourite distraction technique so far…cheese!!
We have also had her wearing a “nervous” yellow bandanna to ward approaching dog owners which has been helping people to give her some space. However, despite her being reactive, she has also been happy to stand and talk with passing dog walkers with no reaction at all. She loves to play fetch and will bark and jump around with excitement. She also has high prey drive and can suffer from the spaniel deafness but generally her recall is pretty good and she loves being out on walks. Darcy has started to show some signs of separation anxiety. She was crate trained when she arrived and a note from her old owners said that whenever the dogs were left alone they were crated. We have continued this to try and keep as many things the same for Darcy in her new life. There have been a couple of occasions in the last few days where she has attempted to escape her crate and has once succeeded. There was no damage to her or the house. This will be something that will need to be worked on as she settles in to her new home.
A lot of the little issues we have had ie the nervousness of the lead and the car and of course the dog reactiveness, I feel will all improve with trust. She will never fully get over being dog reactive but being able to trust her owners to be in her corner when she needs them will make a huge improvement. I also think she could benefit from doing some agility. Darcy is incredibly clever and is as quick as a flash and agility would really help to focus her intelligence and to build that much needed bond with her new owner. All in all, Darcy is a beautiful and sensitive little princess who is just looking for a nice warm home with a family that will dote on her. Darcy has specifically requested that her new home allows her on the sofa.
Darcy is neutered chipped vaccinated wormed and flead and adoption is subject to meet and greet homecheck and adoption fee.