Blaze 4

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Blaze and his littermate, Camo, were part of a family in Pennsylvania where they had lived since they were six weeks old. A job loss forced the family to sell their home; they turned to MAESSR for help when they could not find housing that would permit two large dogs. While neither dog has shown any aggression to people or other dogs, curiously, they do not like each other. MAESSR has placed them in separate foster homes in order to “keep the peace.” 

Blaze grew up with his owner’s daughter, who was six years old when he was a pup; he has not been exposed to toddlers. Sharing his foster home with two resident canines has gone well. Blaze drinks out of the same water bowl as his Springer sister and ignores the terrier’s grumpy reaction to being bowled over when the other two are romping together. He has met several cats and, after initially ignoring them, he found them interesting enough to give them the sniff test.

Formerly an outside dog, Blaze has discovered the joys of indoor life. He is a quick learner and has had no accidents in his new foster home. Already fond of his foster family, Blaze wants to be near his people and tries to understand what they expect of him. This good boy doesn’t dig, chew, jump the fence, submissively urinate or beg for food. Refraining from counter-surfing and trash-diving are lessons he seems to be learning quickly, with no incidents other than curious sniffing. The command “off” is becoming part of his vocabulary since his prior method of greeting folks seems to have been jumping up. “Sit” is another new command that Blaze recognizes; he is learning that “sit” is what he should do when greeting people or waiting for the leash.

Leash-training is a work in progress for Blaze because his learning tends to be interrupted by the beckoning scents of deer, rabbits, birds, or squirrels. And being a bird dog, he can’t resist the urge to bark at them. A Gentle Leader and patience will soon have Blaze walking like a champ. He will make a good running companion once his leash manners improve since he has an easy ground-covering pace. His desire to find critters, combined with some training, might transform him into a nice hunting dog. Under normal circumstances Blaze has decent recall, but not if there are squirrels mocking him from the trees! 

Blaze is 55 pounds of happy dog. He’s mellow indoors, will play fetch with balls or toys, and reportedly likes to swim. He was already groomed by the time he arrived at his foster home, but he seems to love being brushed. Riding in the car is something that Blaze also loves, but he needs to be tethered to keep him from trying to be the copilot. 

While his foster folks are away for several hours, Blaze has access to the entire house with the exception of the gated off kitchen. His foster parents return to find no accidents or inappropriate chewing. He doesn’t get up on furniture or run up stairs. At night, Blaze is crated. During his first night in a crate, Blaze settled down after his 10 minutes of complaining produced no response; he then quietly slept through the night. He now must be prompted to go in; he heaves a heavy sigh at being confined. During the day, he’ll nap in the open crate if one of the resident dogs hasn’t already claimed it. 

Blaze is an upbeat and cheerful dog who missed out on most of the lessons that inside dogs learn early on. He is intelligent and is picking them up as they’re explained to him. A gentle soul, he tolerates having his mouth handled, being led by the collar, being put into a crate, and having other dogs share his bed. Simple pleasures for Blaze include putting his head on a foster parent’s lap, receiving a few kind words, and being allowed inside where all the “action” is. He would love a new family that would just give this outdoor country boy a chance to spend quality time with them, both indoors and out.