As mentioned in our last update, we took a dog home to foster when we went in to help with the arrival of 19 new dogs a month ago. We knew when we took her home that it would be a bit of time before she was ready to be adopted out as she was in full heat when she arrived. She would therefore be the last to be fixed and thus would be one of the last to begin her search for a forever home.
The only thing known about our charge when we got her is that she was 9 (now 10) months old. Our biggest clue in identifying her breed is her fluffy, curled tail and almond eyes. There are only a limited number of breeds with curly tails and of those she most closely resembles a Shiba Inu, in fact she is probably well over 50% Shiba Inu. She is smaller than a typical Shiba Inu; the AKC breed standards call for show dogs to be a bit bigger than her 13 pounds, with females are normally on the small end of the scale. Yas is largely white or what could be described as a light cream, which while not a colour in show quality dogs it still is a Shiba Inu colour. When her fur is viewed from the back the white fur does change to a reddish brown tinge, and so when viewed at an angle she is multi-coloured. She has one ear that is perked up and one down, but she is still young enough that the second ear may also perk up.
For this latest batch of dogs a theme of giving them all Native names was followed and so we named her Yas, Navajo for snow. When she looks straight at you she will lie her ears back flat and thrust her nose forward, making her look just like a fur seal.
While we have no history on Yas, we are pretty sure she was a barn dog until now. She was extremely wary of people at first and it took 3 intensive bathings to get the hay and cow dung odour out of her fur. After a couple of days she began to approach us for reassurance and affection. She now shows normal attention and affection to us, and while she has remained wary of new people frequent exposure with nothing bad happening has resulted in her trotting up to unknown visitors with her tail wagging over the last week. In general she is a very happy and loyal dog. At first she did not even know how to climb stairs or get up onto a couch, but she learns quickly and since learning how to jump she is becoming quite adept at it. It would be fairly easy to teach her to jump straight into her owner’s arms.
She loves other dogs; greeting new dogs and happily plays with our dog Duncan. She has absolutely no fear of noises; she will stand by the shop vac while you are using it just to keep watch on what you are doing.
Now that we have her confidence level up we have been able to begin training her. Housebreaking did not take long and she also quickly learned to ring the bells on our front door to indicate that she needs out. She walks very well on a leash and is crate trained. She has learned to leave cats alone and does not even show any reaction when ours walk inches in front of her.
Yas was spayed on Monday and is now recovering. After a week or two she should be fully healed and ready for adoption. An adoption request can be made though the Dhana Metta Rescue Society. As always, more pictures of Yas are on Flickr, which can be reached by clicking on any of the pictures.
