Beth - Newquay

This is Beth who is 7 years old and spayed.

Beth is great with children from toddlers upwards, she is very gentle with them and they can take toys off her to play with.

Beth is also good with farm animals as the current owners used to live rural in France and rescued farm animals - donkeys, duck, chickens. She even adopted a rescue lamb of her own. She doesn’t do cats though.

In the house she is really well behaved, house trained, good commands and very calm. She sits nicely to take treats and doesn’t snatch.

According to her owners, Beth is not good with non-family members entering and leaving the house. Allegedly she barks at them which can be quite intimidating, more so with men. However, she did not react this way towards our volunteer when she entered or left. Our volunteer ignored her and after about 20 minutes she made contact first by licking her hand.

She has never suffered from separation anxiety but in the last couple of weeks when the owner has taken the other dog out, she has emptied the bin. She does not do this when left with the other resident dog.

The owner has started walking them separately recently unless she takes them both to secure paddocks because she feels she cannot control Beth because of her reactivity towards other dogs. Beth will sometimes lunge at strangers.

Beth originally belonged to the owner’s father-in-law who had her from a puppy. And gave her no training or socialisation.

When Beth was about a year old she went to live with her current owners in France where they had 10 acres of land and an animal sanctuary. Hence Beth has never had to cope with lots of people and other dogs.

Beth is dominant towards the resident dog which is a female Labrador. She will take toys off her, steal her food but growls if the Labrador comes near her food.

The owner and her husband are separating but he works away a lot so can’t take her with him. When he is away, after 24 hours she claims that Beth becomes protective of her. Our volunteer believes that the owner becomes apprehensive and displays fear of Beth which she has picked up on and won’t respond to commands. When the husband returns home, Beth’s behaviour reverts to normal as he brings leadership and balance for her.

Beth needs an experienced GSD owner, she can live with children and she could live with another dog preferably a male.

She would make a brilliant farm dog or with owners that have land or a very large garden.

Beth is a lovely dog who just needs to live in a quieter area with a strong firm owner

Beth's problems are not of her making but with time and patience, she will learn to accept other dogs and strangers. Can you give Beth the chance to become your best buddy?

Beth is reactive towards other dogs

Beth does react towards some strange men