Entered: 09/03/2022
Status: Adopted
Age: 6
Color: Black/White
Weight: 56 lbs.
Gender: Altered Male
Location: East Springfield, PA
Health: UTD, HW-, overall good health
Temperament: Good with adults, reportedly good with children as young as four, ignores other dogs, reportedly good with goats and pigs and a dog-savvy cat
Original: “Bowie just loves to play and always carries his ball around in his mouth in case his foster mom wants to toss it for him.”
Buoy was originally owned by an elderly lady in Maryland who kept him tied outside or crated so he wasn’t housetrained. When her health began to decline and she could no longer care for him, another family took him in. Although they felt he was a good dog and was making progress with housetraining, his family felt overwhelmed trying to keep him on a schedule while working and also keeping up with their young kids. They contacted MAESSR knowing we could find him the home he needed with proper structure and consistency.
His former family must have been doing a better job at housetraining than they had thought because Buoy (now called Bowie) has not had any accidents since he arrived in his foster home. Although he does not have a clear signal yet, he is let out on a schedule so he has lots of opportunities to eliminate outside.
Bowie just loves to play and always carries his ball around in his mouth in case his foster mom wants to toss it for him. In fact, he’s a bit obsessive about his ball. However, he is not interested in playing with the resident female; he just ignores her and other dogs he encounters. In his former home he reportedly loved playing tug-of-war and fetch with their kids and loved swimming.
Because he was crated for long periods of time in his two former homes, Bowie is NOT a fan of being crated now. When his foster mom puts him in the crate, he barks and seems to dislike it immensely. At night Bowie happily sleeps in his foster mom’s bed. When his foster parents leave the house, Bowie is crated and he makes a fuss barking the entire time they are gone. They are going to start leaving him loose in the house with the resident female little by little to see how he handles that.
Bowie’s house manners need some work. He is a counter-surfer and he jumps up on people. When he sits in front of his foster mom, he will suddenly jump in her face. His foster mom is working with her trainer on these behaviors and on his ball obsession.
His three different families have called him three different names—first Parker, then Buoy, and now Bowie— this pup sometimes does not respond to his latest name when it is combined with a command. His foster mom is working with him on the “down” and “stay” commands. Bowie needs work with leash walking but he is good off leash, staying by his foster mom and coming when called. His foster mom thinks Bowie would enjoy a job that would stimulate his mind and scent work may be just the thing.
Bowie handled home grooming by his foster mom pretty well. She needed a bit of help from foster dad this first time because he was so scared. Reportedly he did well at a professional groomer in his prior home. He was very good at his vet appointment as well.
Bowie has been described as a goofy dog with a big personality. His happy-go-lucky temperament makes all fall in love with him. Being in a forever home with a structured environment filled with love would be top on this boy’s list.