Gus has joined my family as a foster in March 2011, after spending nine months with Kristy recuperating from Lyme & Rocky Mountain SF. At Kristy's home he learned incredible house manners!Gus is a perfect gentleman in the house. He is 100% housetrained. Totally non-destructive -- unless you are one of the yummy bones that he enjoys chewing! He does no "garbage diving" or counter cruising. He eats alongside my other dogs without fighting. And he takes biscuits as gently as a lamb. I leave him loose in the house with my other dogs when I go out to run chores, and he gets into zero mischief. He crates well, but really we only do that occasionally to keep up the crate training. And he enjoys going in his crate on his own just to sleep. He will bark an alarm if someone comes to the door or approaches the fence, but he does not bark with without reason (ie, he is not a nuisance barker).
He gets along incredibly well with my dogs-- even my cranky old dog (who grumbles at everyone) play-bowed to him the first time they met. He just has that kind of personality. And he and my 2-year-old intact GSP play well and sleep next to each other. I have introduced him to play sessions with at least a dozen other dogs (from a tiny maltese to huge bloodhound, Rhodesian ridgeback and shepherd dogs) and he has been totally non-aggressive. I have trained him to interact with my alpacas, who are loose in the same yard that my dogs play in.
His only issue is his people shyness. And we've been working on that. He is very wary of new people, especially men. But once he gets to know you he is just the sweetest dog imaginable. A sudden/unexpected noise in the house may startle him momentarily. But I am working on desensitisizing him to that. Surprisingly, he is not scared of thunder.The good news is that the fear is totally non-agressive-- he just wants to keep his distance. I take him out whenever I can to work on building his confidence, and he has come a long way in just a few short weeks. We go to Petsmart a lot and have even started obedience classes with him. He's nervous in new environments for sure, but totally under control. And he's getting some nice on-leash manners.
At my Search Dog trainings, all the other handlers (men and women) greet him and give him treats. Some even walk him. By the fourth visit with them, he was jumping out of my truck wagging his tail and taking treats from both the women AND the men. He is learning so fast!The perfect home will have at least one dog-- preferably a young dog who craves a best buddy. It should be a relatively quiet household that doesn't have a constant influx of new visitors (ie, a single person, or a couple with grown children or no children). He will certainly accept women before men; so the primary caretaker should probably be a woman. The man of the household should be prepared for a longer period of time before he trusts them. My uncle just came back from snow-birding in Florida to live in my downstairs in-law apartment, so Gus will have to get used to a man in the house and this will be good training for him. I'll let you know how this goes.
If you have not worked with a people-fearful dog, I can get you started. Basically you don't coddle or hug him when he is scared. Instead you let him know that you are not scared, and ignore his fear. As the leader, he is looking to you for direction (and comforting him is actually telling him that he is right to be scared). Simple obedience (he has a great sit and shake!) focuses him on you and not the "scary thing". And don't force new people on him. There is no need for a visitor to have to pet or feed him. Just have the visitor ignore him, and gradually he will warm up. Since he loves to play fetch, one of the best ways to bond with him is in the yard, tossing the ball. The trick is to try to keep any new fearful stimulation to the point where he can still concentrate enough to do obedience (or at least not try and take flight), and before it reaches panic. Surprisingly, he does better on leash than off-- perhaps because we can communicate leadership ("I'm not scared, so you shouldn't be") through the leash.
We're working on his recall in the yard, and he is joyfully bounding over when called. But I do not think he is a dog that will ever have full off-lead control outside of a fence-- simply because of his propensity for flight if he were to get extremely scared. So this rules him out completely as a hunting prospect. Though it is fun to watch him lock up into point on the birds in my yard!
I'm tempted to keep him, but my next working dog will be arriving soon, and four dogs is too many for me to handle logistically. But it will be very hard to part with such a sweet boy.
