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Jeffrey
Jeffrey definitely tested our limits a little bit, but we absolutely loved our crazy man. He was abandoned in boarding by another rescue, so he had been living in a little kennel for several months with only a small amount of play time every day - definitely not enough for a dog as playful land energetic as Jeff.
He was estimated to be about three years old, but he definitely still had the personality of a puppy. He could chase the tennis ball down our hill for hours and be happy as a clam! He was great off-leash too; he never wandered far from us and would come right back when called. But with his puppy personality came some more difficult traits, such as his jumping and play-mouthing. These weren't too bad for my boyfriend Colin to handle, but anyone who knows me knows I'm a pretty small human so it was really difficult for me to manage Jeff when he got in a very hyper mood. He was a total escape artist, too - we had to cover his crate with dozens of zip ties so he wouldn't break free over night. I think he may have been abandoned by his owners after they let him get away with a lot of "cute" behaviors as a puppy that became a lot less cute when he grew into a big, strong, lab-pit mix.
Fortunately, our friend hooked us up with an incredible trainer who spent a few hours at our house teaching us the skills and techniques we needed to give Jeff some manners. It was A LOT of work - every day we had to take Jeff on walks with a special collar and keep him by our side the whole time. Then at home, we had to make him sit for ten minutes straight a day, and lay down for thirty minutes a day without getting up. At first, he would squirm and try to wriggle away, but it didn't take long before he realized "down" meant "down" and he had to stay that way until he was told to get back up. He learned to sit and wait for dinner, as well as learned not to go out the front door unless he was told it was okay. It was an incredible transformation!
However, we still had a few more road bumps ahead of us before getting Jeff adopted. Within his first week as our foster, a girl met with us who had initially shown a lot of interest in Jeff. Unfortunately after meeting him, she decided that he was too much for her to handle and decided not to give him another shot. I was really disappointed in myself for doing a meet-and-greet so soon after getting Jeff from Georgia because he didn't have any time to adjust and he was definitely very high-strung when she came to meet him; it certainly didn't allow him a fair chance for her to fall in love with him.
About a week later, we met with a man who was super interested in Jeff. Everything went really well, but he was moving in a few weeks so we had to wait for him to move before we could do a home check. We didn't meet with any other potential adopters during the next few weeks, because we were so sure that Jeff had a home lined up. Sadly, we were unable to approve the home check and we were back at square one with Jeff. This poor pup just could not catch a break.
We immediately started sharing his adoption info all over social media and reaching back out to a few people who had initially shown interest. We met with one really amazing couple who had another dog, but it wasn't the right fit because Jeff's activity level just didn't mesh well with their calm, more timid dog. Once again, we felt like we were back at square one.
Thankfully however, we found another great couple shortly after. They met with Jeff a few times, and we explained some of the difficulties we had with him as far as his training, as well as some other important pieces of his personality - he is only dog-friendly when off-leash, he is very food aggressive, and he does not do well with intact males. This couple was totally smitten with Jeff anyways, and assured us they wanted to do everything in their power to give him a great home. They had a big yard and they were prepared to meet with the trainer to keep Jeff on track as far as his manners.
After a few more visits, the couple started a trial adoption. Normally, our trial adoptions only last about two, maybe three weeks. Jeff was on trial for much longer, and we were so afraid that he was going to come back to us and start all over. Poor Jeff is so quick to fall in love with every person he meets, and we didn't want him to get attached just to end up back in foster care. During his trial adoption, the couple fenced in their yard (first a four foot fence that Jeff cleared like it was nothing, then a six foot fence that finally did the trick). They met with the trainer that we did to work with Jeff a bit more, and after several weeks Jeff finally settled into his new home. He is on a very strict schedule now that has done wonders for him; his manners have continued to improve greatly and his new mom and dad are smitten! It was such a stark difference compared to our first foster dog, Susy, but it taught us that the key to savings this dogs is to never give up because the perfect home is out there, even though it may take some digging to find.
