“I know we have recently been in contact with you about Mary, however, we do now have an additional GSD looking for a rescue space. Elsie is a sweet girl, who enjoys a fuss. She is excitable and does act quite puppy-like, and she will jump up when you enter her kennel. She is quite dog reactive when other dogs walk past her. When tested with another dog she did show aggression towards the other dog, but showed no signs of redirecting onto the staff member. She does flinch when your hand goes around her head, and if she hears loud noises, signifying she may have had a difficult past. I have attached a behaviour assessment and a photo of her. Would you be able to help her at all?”

Elsie was in council kennels so of course we said yes. She is about a year old. She is microchipped but it was not registered. Vaccinations will be restarted.

No young children as we do not know her history, and she will be getting careful introduction to other dogs.

This beautiful young lady will need a GSD experienced home to give her the training and socialisation she seems to have missed out on please.

Update from Foster Mum

Elsie is a gorgeous girl, a pleasure to have around, she gets complements where ever she goes on how friendly and attractive she is. She is a small sized (German Shepherd Dog) GSD. With people she is very friendly, having meet lots of new people over the last couple of weeks. She greets everyone with enjoyment and interest. We have had a few visitors to the house and she has been very friendly. She has been great with all the children she has met.  She is affectionate and loves to be around you. She is bright, very alert and has picked up training commands easily. She can walk nicely on a lead, but she can also have moments of pulling, so a little more heal work training is needed.  She really loves playing with balls and is learning the word “give”, so hopefully soon she will bring the ball back! As she is still very young, she has puppy like attributes, which is very endearing.

As far as I’ve seen/experienced so far, she does not suffer from separation anxiety, toy or food aggression. She is clean in the house. I’ve given her a bath and even showered her legs gently with the outside hosepipe. She was good at the vets during her booster vaccination, both with the vet and with other dogs in the surgery waiting room (i.e. she did not bark at them). Elsie has been to various pubs, a local win bar, garden centres, high street shopping centres, school drop offs, she has been excellent with all new places and people.

Over the last few weeks, Elise has met a lot of new dogs. Initially she needs careful introduction as she is a little fearful, once she knows the other dog is going to be friendly, she warms up after a bit and then just wants to play with them. She does have a tendency to bark quickly at a new dog she meets “up close”, then she backs away to check it’s safe.  At a distance she is not reactive with other dogs, it’s only when another dogs come close that she has become defensive. Hence, this area needs work with continued positive introductions to new dogs.  Due to this an experienced handler is required, whilst this behaviour is addressed as she gets used to other dogs in her personal space.  She is also a little bit mouthy – i.e. when she is excited she opens her mouth. There is no biting involved at all, but her mouth is open and she wants to play. This is being worked on and she is already 50% better. She therefore needs a handler experienced in teaching a dog not to mouth (unless I’ve already addressed this 100%).

She is still a very young dog, so she wants to play a lot, which is lovely. She is not a high energy GSD, with the right level of exercise, she is lovely and calm. She gets on very well with my older male GSD. She went to a dog fun day where there were over 25 GSD’s in a field, she met allot of the dogs off lead, she was really well behaved and I was very impressed with how she coped with so many new dogs.  She currently attend a dog training club, which she seems to enjoy.  Elsie now knows the basic commands, sit, down and stay and wait are being worked on. Her recall is pretty good, but that is without distractions of a squirrel or fox! When she sees another dog in a park playing with a ball, she can’t contain her excitement and pulls allot.

She currently lives with a dog savvy cat. She has been good with the cat, all though she is a little bit too interested in him for my liking. She has contact with horses on a daily basis and she is good around calm horses.

In summary, Elsie is simply a lovely dog, with loads of potential, she has been super friendly with people. She still needs work with the initial greeting with others dogs. But once the greet is over, as far as she is concerned, it’s play time!  She also needs more direction not to mouth. A owner/handler able to address both these topics will have an amazing beautiful dog called Elsie.

 

Apply to adopt

Location:

Hampshire - IN FOSTER

Sex:

Female

Age:

DOB 11.7.23 (est)

Neutered:

Unknown

Good with children:

Yes - Older Only

Good with other dogs:

Careful introduction

Good with cats:

Unknown