YARA - IOW

This little lady has had the worst start to her life. She is a GSD cross and seems to have been passed from pillar to post in her first year.

She was found abandoned, then rehomed to a lady who could hardly walk living in a flat with no garden, advertised free to a good home on a pet site and now living with a young woman who has 3 children 2 with autism and she is struggling to cope.

Yara is a sweet girl, very intelligent and just needing a sensible home with someone willing to put in the time and effort to train her.

On arrival she barked a couple of times but showed no aggression just excitement to see someone. She did try to jump but was easily stopped and wanted to be made a fuss of. From the start it was all about play.

She took treats nicely and would sit if told to, after a couple of attempts she managed a down & wait. Yara picked this up very quickly. She loves a game of tug but care would need to be taken as she can get very excitable when playing and easily go OTT. No aggression was seen whilst playing and the volunteer was able to take toys away from her as long as there was an exchange and at one point when she was chewing her blanket he  had to take a length of cotton out of her mouth with out any problems at all.

She is very happy to have cuddles and a fuss made of her. The only real problem te volunteer could find with Yara is the separation anxiety which was evident even as he was leaving. She will bark and guard the front door trying to stop anyone going out unless she is going as well. This is not surprising due to how she has been previously treated. This would be an easy fix for the right owner.

Although she is good when out & owner says she stays be her side if off lead she does pull when on lead. She has had no lead training so this would have to be worked on as well. Yara is basically a young dog that has not had a good start and been let down over & over again by the people trusted to look after her.

She is a very intelligent girl and picks up things quickly and easily so with the right approach to settling in and on going training she would thrive. She would do well at agility, scent work, tracking etc possibly a working role. Ideally she would need to go to home that understands both the GSD & Malinois traits and are able to deal with the separation anxiety.

She could live and would probably enjoy living with another dog(s), older, calmer children but a definite no to cats as she does chase and will constantly bark at them.