Wilson – Adopted
I am WILSON! I’m a 5-year-old purebred GSP and am so looking forward to having a family and place that I can call my very own home again. My owner lost his job and then realized he needed to move to another state where he would be living in an apartment. Not a great place for me. So he surrendered me to the rescue along with my older housemate, Lucy, who has already found a new home.
My dad felt like I wasn’t a good candidate for being crated but my current foster trained me
to be in a crate in just a couple of days.
I am a very happy boy (my owner says, “happy X10”) and I love to be with other dogs and people. With other dogs I am a little submissive. I do not like aggressive dogs because I don’t like fights. I’m a pretty gentle boy. But I do like playing with other dogs. Cats? I’m very curious but haven’t chased one . . . yet. I’m also good with all people, even with toddlers and, of course,
with older kids. I was not trained on an e-collar (training collar) but I might really like that and it would keep me safe if I slipped out the door.
Here are some observations by my current foster mom:
Crating – Wilson can spend an entire day or night in the crate. The crate is always left open for him and he will use it at his own will. He will play in it with toys or nap during the day if he wants. He enters it and typically will sleep in it at night on his own. If we are gone, we will crate him and he has been in there as long as an 8 hrs day. His command to go into the crate is “inside” and he will enter the crate. If he doesn’t sleep in the crate he will sleep on a dog bed in our room.
Counter cruising – He is a cruiser. I am quite sure he would be a trash diver if I had a trash can that wasn’t in an enclosed location. Our trash locks in our cabinet.
Separation anxiety – If separated individually from both of my dogs, (they had to go for a nail trim) he initially does feel anxious but calms himself in his crate within a few minutes. If he is left with at least one dog, he is fine and is loose n the house
Training collar – I use a “good dog collar” to walk so he doesn’t pull and occasionally we need a bark collar.
He does not challenge my fence.
He does not jump up on people.
Allowed on furniture? He is allowed on the sofa but not beds. If he gets on beds he can show some territorial behavior.
Challenging Behaviors – He can be an escape artist by darting out the door. We are working on this behavior by training him to sit by the door when someone enters or exits the door and before he enters or exits the door. He is only allowed to cross the door Threshold on command. We’ve had great success with this training. We want him to sit at the door on his own without command and only cross on command. Another challenge is he likes to try and steal food from the other dogs. They have corrected him on their own and this seems to have come to an end. That last challenge is beds. When allowed on a bed he can become territorial.
Best Traits – He is a snuggly, happy, eager-to–please–and–learn pup. Young at heart and wants to be around you constantly. A real lover with a great personality. He wants to play all the time and loves walks. We take him for a 2-3 mile walk every day. Quick learner and loves other animals. He hasn’t reacted to any dogs or cats in our presence. We do not have a cat at home but on walks and at the groomers he does not react to cats. Behaves wonderfully at the vet and groomers
General Observations – Wilson has learned how to eat in a pack. He’s learned to play in a group and share toys with other dogs. He’s learned crates are wonderful and safe spaces. We’ve mastered some etiquette manners like waiting to eat until given permission, “out” to leave a space, “inside” to return to the house or enter the kennel, sitting by the door, and we are working on not alerting when people walk past the house. He is super wonderful!
