Tater!

Loon Lake WA

Description

This is Tater! He is a an approx. 2 year old bully mix. He was just neutered (2 weeks ago) and UTD on vaccines. He’s an absolute sweetheart. Never met a person he didn’t love. Potty trained. Crate trained. Still working on his house manners. He can be a little bit of a bull in a china shop when he gets excited, but he’s not a chewer and he’s not destructive. Super athletic. I would say he’s low to medium energy, a good walk or fetch session every day and he’s happy to sit next to you on the couch. Tater was found by a neighbor of mine on New Years Eve. He was super skinny and a little bit beat up, cuts on his face and missing patches of hair. He didn’t have a collar or microchip. My neighbor couldn’t keep him and was going to take him to a local shelter. I didn’t want that to happen. I did everything I could think of to try and find whoever may have lost him, but it’s been almost 5 months and at this point I’m 99.9% sure he was dumped. We live in a fairly rural area and unfortunately it’s not uncommon for dogs and cats to be dumped here. He’s gained all his weight back (almost 10lbs), his hair has grown back in, and all of his cuts have healed beautifully (he doesn’t even have scars). Since getting healthy his personality has really started to come out. He’s so so sweet and loves every person he’s ever met. We’ve been remodeling our house and he’s been nothing but great with every person that’s come in the house or on the property. He has quite a bit more energy than we originally thought, but does well with one longer walk every day or 20-30 mins of playing ball/tug. He doesn’t need hours of exercise and is perfectly happy to sleep on the couch next to you too. He does have a few issues that we’re working through. He’ll attempt to chase cats, turkeys, chickens, deer, etc. He has no recall when chasing and needs to be stopped either by his leash or a physical barrier like a fence. I haven’t let him chase anything to the point of actually catching it, but I wouldn’t trust him alone with small animals. He is also leash reactive to other dogs. We’ve been working on loose leash walking and ignoring people, dogs, and prey type animals. He’s made huge improvements, but he’ll need someone willing to continue his training. I also think he might be dog selective. He wasn’t a big fan of a recent intact male foster dog we had. However, he lives with 5 other dogs (including an intact male) and has had absolutely no issues with them. He’s got a couple of other quirks, he’ll chase shadows if allowed, can be a picky eater, and is occasionally a little anxious/whiny in the car. Due to some of his quirks and need for continued training, I think he’d do better in a home without other dogs or with someone knowledgeable and willing to do safe/proper introductions to other dogs. He also needs a very secure fenced yard or someone willing to leash walk him every time he goes out. He’s slipped under our fence. He didn’t dig out (he’s not a digger), the gap was already there I just didn’t think he’d fit through it. (It wasn’t a big opening and he definitely had to work pretty hard to get out) I also have a feeling that he’d jump a fence if left out in the yard by himself long enough to get bored. He’s athletic enough to jump a 6ft fence. I think he’d do well with older kids, but due to his size and lack of body awareness I won’t let him go to a family with little/young kids. I love him and had planned on keeping him if we couldn’t find his family. However, after much consideration I think he’d do better with someone who has more time to work with him than I do. If you’re interested please give me a call or send a text. I really want him to go to the best home possible and will be asking for references, vet information, and I will do a home check.