Brittany 5

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A good Samaritan found Brittany wandering as a stray in Maryland and took her to his vet’s clinic to see if they could place her. They contacted MAESSR for assistance in finding her a new home. 

Although she came to her foster family extremely thin and matted, Brittany was very loving and accepting of the help that she was receiving from her foster family. Her ears were so matted that they had to take her to the vet to have them shaved. She was protective of her foster mom in the waiting room, barking at a gentleman; however, she was fine with the vet. They did not have to restrain her during the shaving. 

Brittany has been pretty good in her housetraining. She and the resident dogs are crated when the family is at work. When they return home, as soon as they remove her from her crate, they take her outside and she does her business. She has had a few accidents but nothing significant. Brittany is fine in a crate as long as she has company in the room. During the work day, she is crated in the same room where the resident Springer is crated; in the evening she sleeps in a crate in her foster parents’ bedroom. It seems as long as she is near them or the dogs she is fine. While her foster family is at home, her access is limited to three rooms so that she can be monitored. The evening she first arrived, her foster parents tried to let her sleep in their bedroom unconfined, but she had an accident on the floor. They then tried to crate her downstairs, but she barked continually. When they put the crate in their bedroom, she was fine; she slept with barely a peep. When they wake, Brittany sits quietly until they let her out.

Brittany is a very happy-go-lucky dog who gets along very well with other dogs. She plays vigorously with the resident Springer, but avoids the resident, cranky, lab/border collie mix. On Sundays, her foster grandfather comes over and brings his two small dogs and Brittany interacts very well with both of them. Since she loves to play aggressively with the other dogs, a forever home with an older dog may not be the best fit. She does like to play bite, too. Brittany is very energetic and she needs a lot of room to run. She also loves to be around people, and she thinks she is a lap dog. There are no children in her foster family, but when teenage nieces visit, Brittany enjoys them very much. She can be a little over-protective when new folks come into the house, though. She makes sure she protects her foster mom by barking at the “intruder.” However, she is very quick to befriend them and turn back into her lovable self.

Brittany is a great dog in need of additional formal training. So far, her foster parents have taught Brittany to sit and are working on teaching her to lie down and stay. As to leash walking, Brittany gets a B for a grade since she tends to pull on her leash. She rides well in the car and really seems to enjoy it. The only problem is that she wants to sit on the passenger’s lap – a bit uncomfortable since she is very bony! She has tried counter-surfing a few times, but was caught in the act. Although her foster folks are confident that she will not do so while they are in the room, they are just as confident that she would take advantage of any opportunity that presented itself. The good news is that she always wants to be by you. She very rarely ventures into a room that one of her foster parents is not in. To date she has left the garbage alone and she does not beg during mealtime. Brittany is not at all food aggressive with humans or other dogs; she even has allowed her foster parents to take food from her bowl while she eats. Overly eager to eat at mealtime, Brittany lunges at her dog food and her foster parents are trying to let her know that that is not necessary since her bowl will never be empty again.

Brittany is going to make some lucky family very happy when she joins them in her new forever home.