Sex: Female

Birthdate: December 26, 2016

Weight: 28lbs

Sofie (F) is a 6yo Bulldog X Beagle. She is currently living with her foster parents, two canine foster siblings and two cats!

Sofie is house and crate trained. Moving to a new home, she may be whiny during the transition period, but with consistency she will get back to the well behaved girl that she is.  Sofie will sometimes bark and react at the cats when they walk by, but ignores them at other times. 

Sofie loves being around her people and is quick to flop over for belly rubs when the attention is on her! Trying to get a photo? How about a belly rub instead! Sofie is ok meeting strangers, but prefer to calmly coexist and choose to approach them  rather than be the center of attention and have new people reach for her or tower over her. 

Sofie is good with other dogs but does require proper introductions as she comes on a bit strong, just like any typical bulldog mix! She is small but isn't afraid to assert herself when she feels a case of the zoomies coming on! Sofie plays best with other high energy dogs who love to wrestle and holds her own with the bigger dogs! Sofie will sometimes ignore her cat siblings, but other times lunge at them. We feel she would do best in a home without feline friends. 

Sofie has been to 3 dog sitters while in our care and has gotten along with the other dogs she meets quickly, but has been known to be intense around the cats. Our well traveled little girl loves to play hard and pass out to snuggle with new dogs, but does not like loud noises and will bark at things like honking horns, yelling or and things that could startle her. She is good on leash, but does relax better on quieter streets and is alert on the busy streets of Toronto! Her progress settling in her crate has translated to her babysitting homes, although she will sometimes whine for a yummy treat!

 

Outdoors Sofie is pretty good on leash. She pulls a bit, but is learning to walk better on her transitional leash. She is mostly calm and ignores everything, but can react if a dog is reacting at her  - understandably! Sofie is also tense and fixates on fast-passing cars, and needs reminders to focus on her people. In the backyard she loves to play with her foster siblings and stuff her head in the snow! Backyard zoomies are the best!

Sofie has growled and been tense around toys and food with her canine foster siblings, so she does best when given her space enjoying treats. She is a bit of an odd duck so her foster parents aren't quite she if she is tensing when they are near her toys, so they are exchanging toys for food at this time without issues. Sofie was surrendered for a bite incident that was declared resource guarding from her previous owner, and for this reason Sofie cannot go to a home with kids under 12. 

Sofie is very food motivated and loves training! She came to us significantly overweight and is building a food drive getting her meals through training. 

Does your foster dog have any unusual or funny quirks?
"She is very food motivated and we suspect she was fed human food before as she's very under foot in the kitchen and stares at us while we're eating. She's very socially awkward with our female dog in particular. She spends an awkward amount of time slowly sniffing her and she is drooling while she does it.
Sofie will sometimes lunge at moving vehicles and sometimes barks as she looks out the back door at nothing but just one or two barks. And she's a whiner but we're working on it! She also when we first got her and would walk her alone would stubbornly stop after about 15 minutes and try to pull backwards. She's over that now but she only gets walked with the other dogs right now so it could be a thing again if she was walked solo. She's now about to get through a 45 - 50 minute walk with our dogs with no issue and seems to enjoy trucking along. We've never seen her show signs of it being too tiring and she still gets home and likes to run around in the backyard before going in her crate after walks."

This is what her foster parents have to say about her:
"Sofie is a quirky, funny little girl. She can be a bit of a princess and despite being the smallest dog in our house she certainly has a big personality. She's very food motivated which helps with training, but she does need to lose a bit of weight right now so it's important not to fall for her puppy dog eyes and give her too many treats. She has really gotten into our routine of longer walks and seems to be enjoying over an hour total of walks a day. She also likes to zoom around the backyard at least a couple times a day.

 

She's not a very snuggly dog but it's possible that would change if she was allowed on the couch! She is fairly independent and likes to do her own thing and play with her toys quietly. She's very sweet and we think she'd do well in most environments if she was provided with good structure and clear expectations!"

 

BITE HISTORY:
Sofie was surrendered for resource guarding resulting in a bite. Sofie has been protective of toys and food around other dogs while settling into her foster home, but only eats through training or in her crate, and is ok with toys on "place". She has not had any incidences with her foster family. 

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