- Adoption Fee: $250
- Gender: Female
- Current Age: 2 Year Old
- Good with kids: No
- Good with dogs: Yes
- Good with cats: Unknown
- Vaccinations: Current
- Neuter/Spay: Yes
BIO:
Maddie is an adorable young lady who was brought in as a stray to a Kansas shelter, and within hours of being euthanized, MARR pulled her and got her to safety.
Maddie has some vetting and training to get caught up on, but she is cute as a button and only weighs about 60lbs at about a year old. She wants to be sweet and cuddly, but sometimes her nerves get the best of her. She’s very playful and has a tail! And did I mention she’s CUTE!?
UPDATE: Maddie has continued to progress with her skills as she has adapted to house dog life.
Maddie has gained some weight and muscle with some yummy food and regular exercise! She’s about 75 lbs now. Maddie has been spayed also. She’s up to date on her vaccinations and other cares. She will be micro-chipped before she is adopted. Maddie is also very well potty trained now!!!
Maddie has been a tough case for me. I’m going to lay out the good, the bad, and the ugly here, simply because I know that there is a perfect home out there for Maddie and I want to help her find it. Maddie is doing great here, but I want her to have her own forever home!
THE GOOD: Maddie is SUPER playful! She is really really good about only chewing on appropriate things like her toys. She takes treats nicely and she loves anything she can toss in the air and shake crazily. She also loves to wrestle a tire toy that we have hanging from a tree branch. She grabs on, wrestles, and then when she lets go, the tire swings around and she catches it again. Endless entertainment! She’s finally catching on to fetch… she has learned that if she “gives” the toy, then it gets thrown for her and she can go catch it again! Still working on that but she’s made a lot of progress! She loves the Jolly Egg, and her Kong ball and Kong Wubba. Maddie is amazing on leash. She has learned to heel and almost has her auto-sit down. She’s easy to keep on command even with distractions, usually. She LOVES to ride in the car, and her manners in the car are great. She’s solid on sit, down, and kennel. She is trained to WAIT for things, including her food, and only touch it with the command EAT. Despite her insecurities about being touched, Maddie LOVES to cuddle!! She will stop what she’s doing to plunk herself into your lap or plaster herself next to you on the couch if invited. She will wait for you to pass through doors and gates first. She sits to be leashed and practically SHOVES her head into her Halti and collar for walks!
THE BAD: Maddie can get a little hyper, especially if she’s not getting enough exercise that day. She’s incredibly athletic, and will clear a half flight of stairs if she’s excited to get somewhere. She gets “zoomies” sometimes but that’s easily worked through by some fetch or a long walk. If she’s in the house, your rugs may all end up in the corner as she races around and play bows.
She will need regular, somewhat vigorous exercise to keep her mind balanced. Maddie will sometimes pace in her kennel- not always, but if she has trouble getting settled down. She will occasionally bark if she thinks it’s time for her to come out, and you don’t. She is easily corrected though. She had a resource guarding problem when she came to me. We have worked through most of this, but her new foster mom or dad will need to continue that training slowly and consistently. As of right now, though, I have zero problems feeding her or treating her. Sometimes a trade must be worked out if she has something she really values (a sock, for instance…she’s a sock thief). She gets a yummy treat if I ask her to GIVE the sock and she spits it out. Maddie lives here with 3 other dogs. My older dog is 11, and he’s very calm-assertive, but calm. They get along just fine even when she tries to play with his grouchy self. I have an 8 month old puppy who is a little too big for her britches, and she and Maddie do not see eye to eye. Maddie has met and played with several other playful/calm dogs. If Maddie is to have a canine brother or sister, they would need to be pretty laid back and playful. Maddie has met both cats and horses, and while I think her prey drive is probably not conducive to a cat sibling, I haven’t spent a lot of time socializing her with them. She seems to be curious about the horses and made playful movements. Maddie is protective of her house and yard, but not to the extreme. She does not challenge my fence.
THE UGLY: Maddie has an issue with getting really defensive about her body. She has a tendency to want to overreact if you hurt her (for instance, brushing her and pulling a snarl). She is not the kind of dog that you can take to the dog park or to a soccer game. She takes a very long time to learn to trust an individual person to the point where that person can handle her freely. I have no problems walking her, even around people, as long as she’s not under pressure to be touched, but if someone were to try to pet her that did not know her, I fully expect her to react. That being said, her new owner must handle her accordingly and not put her in situations where she may feel defensive. She needs a strong and confident leader to look up to and model her behavior after. Maddie has been muzzle trained, so she is comfortable in a muzzle for extended periods of time for vet visits, etc. She muzzles with no fuss. She was either really abused when she was young or she was just left to her own devises about learning to cope with humans. She’s slowly but surely improving, but I can’t say that she will ever be reliable around unknown people. Once she knows you well and loves you though, good luck keeping her out of your lap.
For these reasons, Maddie needs a home with either a single person or possibly a couple, and no children. She is used to older children, (I have 4, ages 10 to 18) but they are very dog-savvy and I am incredibly vigilant when she’s around them. Maddie also MUST have that prescribed decompression time upon adoption that we recommend to all of our new fosters and adoptees. Her adoptive humans will receive a copy of that and of course, lots of support from me and MARR, too.
If you’d like to adopt Maddie, you can visit our Adopt page where you can find information on our adoption policies, and fill out an application.