Kara moved to my home in Ham Lake, MN, a few weeks ago because I am retired and home during the day. Since she was a former breeding mama who spent her time in a kennel, she had a lot to learn about being in the house and needed to learn to trust people. 

In her previous foster home, Kara barked a lot when crated and chewed the mat in the crate. When she was at the vet for her spay, she hurt her nose trying to get out of the kennel. We think the barking dogs there scared her.

They thought it was best to move her to another foster home so she didn’t have to spend so much time in the crate and where someone could work with her on trusting people, get her housebroken, and feed her more often to help her gain weight.

In her first foster home, they found out that she can’t live with cats, so she had to move from there. She is doing great here with my dogs.

She has free roam when I am gone and has never chewed anything that wasn’t for a dog. She had one accident here the first night she was here. She woke up at 3:30 am and had to go out, but didn’t know how to tell me, so she pooped in front of the kitchen door where we go out.

After that, I shut the bedroom door with her in the room with me so I could hear her moving around. She sleeps on the bed with me at night, and I now can leave the bedroom door open.

During the day, she comes over to me and paces back and forth if she has to go out. When I ask her if she has to go out, she starts going to the door. She is such a good girl!

When Kara first came here, she was scared because everything was new. The main issue that we had to work through was coming through the service door into the garage, then through the kitchen door. These breeder dogs usually aren’t allowed in the house, so they have to learn how to walk through a door, go up and down stairs, what the new sounds are, and what was expected of her.

Her last foster brought her over with a 30-ft lead so I could make sure that I could get her into the house. After a week, I switched the lead to a 10-ft leash that she dragged outside because she was afraid to drag the long lead through the door. She would follow my dogs to the patio, then stop. I had to go to her in the yard and step on the leash or she would keep running in circles. Once I picked up the leash, she walked like a charm right into the house.

After a lot of treats and practice walking into the house, I could go into the house first while calling her name. She started following me into the kitchen for her treat, but was skittish with the leash dragging behind her. Finally, I could let her outside without a trailing leash on, and she now runs into the house on her own with my dogs. 

Kara started running around the yard with my dogs while she dragged the 10-ft leash. Now that she doesn’t need it, she has started wrestling with the other dogs in the snow. She needs another dog to continue to follow and learn from.

She is a real sweetheart and loves attention! She is not afraid of new people and loves kids! Due to her size, Kara should go to a home with kids over 10 if there are kids. She plays rough and moves quickly, so she would easily knock a toddler over. 

Now, my next challenge is getting her to get into the car, then start enjoying car rides. I have been feeding her 3 meals a day to help her gain weight and I can tell that she has gained weight since she came here so her ribs and hip bones aren’t sticking out anymore. I want to get her to the vet to use their scale. She has been spayed and is up to date on everything, so it won’t be a scary visit for her.

She is such a sweet dog and will make some family happy!