SAMMY
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Sammy is a four year old, 85 pound, fawn colored Bullmastiff. Her life has changed dramatically in the past couple months and she learning all about what it’s like to be a real dog finally! Sammy left her life as a mill dog behind in January and came to live here. She was very scared, still is in many ways, had just had puppies removed from her (she was still leaking some milk), very skinny, and felt overwhelmed. Her first few days she never left the crate and hid her head in a corner, not even wanting to make eye contact. All the sounds, movements, lights, scary ceiling fans and TV’s, and attention directed on her made her jump and run for her crate.
Her crate is very much still her safe place, she likes hanging out in it and watching my family. Over the last two months, she has been spending more and more time outside of it, especially in the evenings (she was used to the dark at the mill) and when the kids are at school and the house is quieter. The one thing that doesn’t scare her is my dogs! She will come right out to play with them and try and get those lazy dogs to romp around. She is very good to them; submissive and kind, though doesn’t have a lot of body awareness and hasn’t learned to watch out for dog or people feet and sometimes forgets about others and shoves them a bit when walking through doorways or wherever she needs to go. She gets very excited about food, treats, and tries really hard to stand still for pets without heading back to the crate. I know that once she settles into an environment, training her would be an amazing tool. We started treat training, but really believe some clicker training would be awesome!
Sammy is learning how to come when called and is making great strides on walking on a leash without pulling. She is very much a routine oriented dog and following the same patterns helps her nervousness and anxiety, which increases when outside. Due to living the first years of her life within a dark structure, inside the house is less frightening, but the big world outside can surprise her, so hold her leash tight if not within a privacy fenced yard because even the tree limbs blowing made her jump at first. Things are much better now that she’s been with us and seen the same things over and over; she just has some trust issues. Using the potty can be nerve wracking at times, she prefers the same spot and is not always 100% on going outside. She doesn’t want to and has developed some body language that we have picked up on as clues she needs to go out, but accidents can happen because she NEVER barks, NEVER whines, so her clues are subtle at best (pacing to the backdoor is the most obvious, sometimes it’s scratching her crate floor). Having a regular schedule and lots of patience is very helpful for her! During her time here, she really has come out of her shell and has even found that lying on the kitchen and living room floors isn’t as scary as she thought it was! And my 7 year old daughter is slowly becoming her friend, though she does prefer the older kids because they aren’t as squeaky and fast paced, but there is interest from Sammy in my daughter. She will take treats from her and allow brief pets, she’s just never seen a small human before is my guess. I laugh at her when she steals things from my daughter to sleep with in her crate, I know she is interested in her a lot and wants to know more about her.
Sammy is in need of a special family who can work on training, guiding her, and understanding that where she came from was pretty tough, but can still see her wonderful potential. She is a very sweet dog and her foster family feels very honored that they have been able to help her get this far.
Sammy is a four year old, 85 pound, fawn colored Bullmastiff. Her life has changed dramatically in the past couple months and she learning all about what it’s like to be a real dog finally! Sammy left her life as a mill dog behind in January and came to live here. She was very scared, still is in many ways, had just had puppies removed from her (she was still leaking some milk), very skinny, and felt overwhelmed. Her first few days she never left the crate and hid her head in a corner, not even wanting to make eye contact. All the sounds, movements, lights, scary ceiling fans and TV’s, and attention directed on her made her jump and run for her crate.
Her crate is very much still her safe place, she likes hanging out in it and watching my family. Over the last two months, she has been spending more and more time outside of it, especially in the evenings (she was used to the dark at the mill) and when the kids are at school and the house is quieter. The one thing that doesn’t scare her is my dogs! She will come right out to play with them and try and get those lazy dogs to romp around. She is very good to them; submissive and kind, though doesn’t have a lot of body awareness and hasn’t learned to watch out for dog or people feet and sometimes forgets about others and shoves them a bit when walking through doorways or wherever she needs to go. She gets very excited about food, treats, and tries really hard to stand still for pets without heading back to the crate. I know that once she settles into an environment, training her would be an amazing tool. We started treat training, but really believe some clicker training would be awesome!
Sammy is learning how to come when called and is making great strides on walking on a leash without pulling. She is very much a routine oriented dog and following the same patterns helps her nervousness and anxiety, which increases when outside. Due to living the first years of her life within a dark structure, inside the house is less frightening, but the big world outside can surprise her, so hold her leash tight if not within a privacy fenced yard because even the tree limbs blowing made her jump at first. Things are much better now that she’s been with us and seen the same things over and over; she just has some trust issues. Using the potty can be nerve wracking at times, she prefers the same spot and is not always 100% on going outside. She doesn’t want to and has developed some body language that we have picked up on as clues she needs to go out, but accidents can happen because she NEVER barks, NEVER whines, so her clues are subtle at best (pacing to the backdoor is the most obvious, sometimes it’s scratching her crate floor). Having a regular schedule and lots of patience is very helpful for her! During her time here, she really has come out of her shell and has even found that lying on the kitchen and living room floors isn’t as scary as she thought it was! And my 7 year old daughter is slowly becoming her friend, though she does prefer the older kids because they aren’t as squeaky and fast paced, but there is interest from Sammy in my daughter. She will take treats from her and allow brief pets, she’s just never seen a small human before is my guess. I laugh at her when she steals things from my daughter to sleep with in her crate, I know she is interested in her a lot and wants to know more about her.
Sammy is in need of a special family who can work on training, guiding her, and understanding that where she came from was pretty tough, but can still see her wonderful potential. She is a very sweet dog and her foster family feels very honored that they have been able to help her get this far.
