Lab German Shepherd Chihuahua Mix Dog For Adoption in Dallas TX – Supplies Included – Adopt Masala

At home with me, she is incredibly loving, cuddly and loyal. She’s mellow through most of the day then starts getting energetic around 6 (when I stop working normally). She’s very playful and food motivated. She can get a little jumpy about noises she hears outside, but she mainly just barks once and quiets back down.

With other people, she’s very skeptical. She is not keen on stranger’s touching or petting her and will generally just back away if they try. She warms up eventually, but she’s very loyal by nature and isn’t too interested in other people’s affection besides mine (I assume this will be true for whoever is her main human).

Her favorite toy is her flirt pole, which we probably play with for a good 20 minutes every day. Her other favorite game is “find it”. I tell her to “go hide” in the kitchen where she can’t see the rest of the living room. I then hide a piece of kibble somewhere around my apartment. Once I say “find it’, she’ll come sprinting out of the kitchen and start sniffing like crazy trying to find it.

She loves most food, but her favorites are dried chicken breast and string cheese.

She’s a chewer and spends a decent amount of time every day digging into her favorite bone.

Daycare is probably her favorite place besides home. She’ll run herself ragged playing with the other dogs.

She’s quite the napper and likes lounging with me on the couch. She’s actually snuggled up against me as I’m writing this.

Coming home to her when I’ve been out is always adorable. She’s been getting especially excited since I’ve been working from home since March. The first thing she does after jumping up to say hi is find her bone and then run circles around the coffee table with it in her mouth; no idea why. She’ll usually lay down and chew on it for like 10 seconds and then run over to say hi again.

She also will make it clear if she doesn’t feel like she’s getting enough attention. She’ll pretty much just crawl on top of me if I’m sitting in a chair on my laptop or on the couch. She doesn’t do it all that often, but she’ll do silly things like wedge her self into the tiny space between me and the armrest just make sure i know she’s there (she normally just hopes onto the couch next to me)

She just needs a backyard. Living in an apartment is hard on both of us. Every trip outside to pee puts her on edge and going for long walks always runs the risk of getting to close to another dog and her losing her shit.

The fact that I’m finally following through and sending this breaks my heart because she’s so sweet and loving and know it would be hard on her, but, in the long run, I just think she’ll be better off in a more stable situation with a yard.

We’ve tried 8 medications, gone to a behaviorist, and worked with a couple trainers, but the stress when walking just won’t lessen. I really think most of her other anxiety related issues would lessen drastically if she had a backyard. I was really expecting to take her hiking, to dog parks, and out and about with me, but her anxiety really makes that hard.

Once her baseline anxiety is down, I imagine a lot of the training and work I’ve done will show through more, but I just don’t see it happening as long as we have to go out on a leash 3-4 times a day.

To be honest, I’m going to be annoyingly picky. I’m not going to send her to a new home unless I know they can provide a better home for her than I can. Being in an apartment is hard, but I’ve learned to manage it and, if push came to shove, could continue to make it work with her. I’m not in a rush or have an immediate need so I’m ok waiting for the right home.

Main things (in order of importance):
1. Backyard
2. Owners committed to not using any aversive training methods (e.g. shock collars, prong collars, yelling, hitting, etc). I’m against them in general, but she responds especially poorly to that sort of thing.
3. Owners understand that she’ll have to mostly stay at home and shouldn’t expect to be taking her out and about (at the start especially)
4. Willing to put in effort to continue working on Masala’s anxiety (and understanding that will be 100% necessary if they hope to be taking her on outings).
5. Stable environment and no imminent plans to move. After a 6-12 months, I’m guessing moving wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but a move soon after rehoming would be hard on her.
6. Owner looking for a hobby/interested in dog training. I’ve done a lot of training and someone that will keep up with that would be great. Obviously lowest on the list since it’s a stretch, but still would be a major plus.

Bed, crate, a box of toys, leash, harness, seatbelt, clickers, whatever food/treats I have, whatever heartworm/flea medication I have.

I’ll probably write a guidebook of sorts that covers the basics of what she likes/doesn’t like as well as information regarding the training I’ve done, collection of useful resources, and other training related information.