Sabrina is a 3 year old female Springer Cross. She is a very relaxed girl at the home. She loves lazing around nearby me on hot days. She most relishes any opportunity to spend long periods of time in a large garden or field, exploring everything she can and using her nose busily. She would love to do scent work and/or mantrailing with her new guardian.
She can be quite anxious about going to new places and is often easily startled by loud noises or strange animals/birds. I’d expect that her social life has been very small and many experiences remain quite novel. She has had a lot of positive social experiences whilst in foster and is growing in confidence daily. She is surprisingly resilient and recovers fairly quickly from frightening experiences, such as going to the vet.
She’s very fond of a cuddle with her trusted person, although this is on her terms and she isn’t always in the mood for too much body handling. She likes a gentle groom but will grab my hands with her teeth if I fiddle with knots or nails. I’ve introduced her to my housemate 2 year old niece. She did several minutes of sniffing feet, then legs, then moving away to sniff the ground before coming back for a bottom sniff and touching hands with her nose. This was done vigilantly with no human touch or unexpected movement and they were great friends within 20 minutes.
I wouldn’t expect her to cope with meeting lots of new people in the home, especially groups of children. She seems not to distinguish between men, women, or children. They are all quite scary when they reach out or move in toward her, so this is avoided. She has met friends and family, who she was suspicious of initially but after slow intros, she ‘manages’ to be touched once she feels safe around them.
We’ve had a lot of positive experiences with other dogs, some of whom she briefly meets before moving along. Large black dogs (Labs, Collies, Rotties) worry her and she is not a fan of overzealous or boisterous youngsters. She loves being in the company of other calm dogs but is equally happy lazing around on her own. She learned a lot from our older spaniel Alfie and would benefit from another confident older dog to teach her some of the social play skills she has missed out on in the past. She wasn’t toilet trained on arrival and actively avoided going outside (soft carpets are much nicer).
I’ve tended to feed her two meals, at 7am and 2-3pm, to avoid poo’s inside the house at night. Although she is mostly reliable now, she will have the occasional slip-up due to failing to wee outside before bedtime. I would expect a minor lapse of the routine once living in a new context – after 3 years of failing to toilet outside, she might not generalize the new behavior to a different context.
She always excitement pees when I return home and stroke her (even if only out for 5-10 mins)! I now walk into the house ignoring her completely until we are outside, then I tell her to ‘go wee wee’ (lots of ‘Good Girl’ ‘Yes’, and Well Done’) before I say hello and pet her, whereupon she might wee again. She’s a bit of a fussy eater, loves fish and meat mainly but will eat some eggs, fruit, and veg. She is a bit growly around a bone and will resource guard socks or other items of clothing.
I’ve never tried to take anything from her mouth, but expect she might well bite and will certainly run off to hide with it. I always get some tasty food from the fridge and scatter feed it away from the illegal item. She’d love to sleep in your bed, under your covers, probably lying on your face. Usually sleeps on the sofa. She is very used to running all over the furniture and enjoys climbing things for a better view.
She can be left at home for 2-4 hours quite happily (with access to the garden), although I do leave her with many toys, bones, and chews so she doesn’t feel the need to destroy my own things! I think she’d love a nice rural home with one or two adults who are happy for hugs and strokes to be on her terms. She probably won’t be a dog who enjoys busy places, camping holidays, or lots of social occasions with new people.
She does enjoy active walks in quiet places and if she pulls on the lead I know she is over-aroused or fearful so will avoid whatever trigger it may have been (traffic, noise, animals). She adores cuddling up on the sofa in the evening and generally following you all around the house. She’s really affectionate when she wants to be and quite a low-maintenance dog who’s happy to sleep in or have an active day on the move.