Sam was rescued by Terry in July. We have an incomplete story on him, but he was apparently owned by a family and kept chained. There were several other intact males on the property and we were told that the dogs attacked Sam on a regular basis, Since he was chained, he couldn’t get away. He was also not fed on a regular basis, and had little contact with people. We were told that the father beat and threatened to kill Sam after he bit a young teenager who was dragging him by the collar. After working with him over the past few months, we feel that it likely that the bite was provoked and probably defensive.
Terry intervened before the dog was killed and boarded the dog for a couple of months in a non-abusive situation, giving him time to settle and relax. We moved him to El Chucho Feliz on October 8th.
We are grateful to trainer Marjolaine who took Sam for us for several weeks and helped evaluate him. He is crating well thanks to her work and was much more comfortable with hands and body handling after his stay there.
We initially put Sam in a side run with the younger dogs, but he was extremely anxious and frustrated being separated by a fence. He really wants to be with people and other dogs, so we moved him down with the senior dogs on the porch. He is doing much better there and has settled in beautifully.
Sam tends to be excitable and a little anxious when separated from people. He really wants to be with people and the other dogs. He was extremely distractible when we got him but his focus has improved tremendously. He is doing very, very well with his basic obedience and can now be off leash on walks. He rides great in the car, and is not reactive towards other dogs or people. He has shown no resource guarding and has a very low prey drive.
He does very well with our student volunteers. He has learned to play tug and he fetches. We continue to train Sam and to to work with body handling and collar grabs. He is relaxed with all of this training and we feel confident that he could be adopted without issue.
He is a very pretty dog, between one and two years old. He appears to have Spaniel in him.
