14/08/2021
This very handsome 16 month old is Hix he’s bred from German working bloodlines and needs a very sensible, experienced new home.
He was bought during lockdown by a lovely family that were naive to our breed and should never have been sold such a strong bloodline as their first GSP puppy.
Hix has shown signs of anxiety and this causes him to become unpredictable. He has seen two behaviourists who agreed that he was the wrong dog in the wrong home.
He has jumped up and bitten two of his family members and one of the behaviourists. One of the children aged 3 years at the time, tried to take a pigs ear out of Hix’s mouth and that resulted in a snap to the child.
Hix has learned that if he wants people to back off he can snap at them and they will give him space.
He was taken to gundog training as a much younger pup and his owners felt that the trainer was very heavy handed with a nervous pup and when he did jump up he was met with aggression and was pinned to the floor. He was petrified and this is something his owners say that he’s never got over, they felt that after this his behaviour did escalate.
Hix has been staying with our amazing team members in their boarding kennels where he has been learning a different way of interacting with people and to make better choices.
They can now enter his kennel, feed him, take him to the exercise field and take him back to his run, without seeing the reactive dog that he was when he arrived. However in the wrong hands all the work that they have put in with Hix could be easily undone. He needs a home that’s not going to allow him to walk all over them but listen to the advice given by the people who have turned him around and changed his way of thinking.
He’s a very intelligent boy and would benefit from a job to do where he would have ongoing training and build a strong respectful bond with his new owner like scent work, Canicross, search and rescue etc.
His family say that he’s been a loving boy and was living with children aged 4 and 7 years, who he had been very good with and loved playing bubble machine games with them. But because of his history we will only be considering homes with dog savvy children 11 years plus. He does like other dogs and could live with a sensible female. We think a male might cause too much pressure for him moving forward.
Hix was chemically castrated at just over one year of age on the advice of the vets and this lasts for six months.
Hix is currently raw fed with 1kg over two meals daily. He is happy to be left up to 4 hours after exercise either in his crate or in the kitchen. He has been living with two cats but his owner didn’t trust him around them after he did try and bite one so they would rather him be rehomed without a cat.
With other dogs he has been taught to ignore them because as a younger boy he could be very pushy but this will need ongoing training. He has never been introduced to livestock so his reactions are unknown.
Hix doesn’t realise his own strength and does try to play with the children, but when his excitement levels raise he starts to mouth them and jump up.
Hix travels really well in the back of an estate car and is happy to settle down. Out on a walk he wears a Perfect-fit harness along with a muzzle that was recommended by the behaviourist that the family saw. He does check-in while out on walks, but his recall is still a work in progress because he can get easily distracted like most youngsters.
With further training and consistency this lovely boy is going to make someone a wonderful companion.
Gorgeous Hix is currently in East Yorkshire and will be rehomed with his 5 weeks free Agria insurance and our Adoption Contract.
If you could offer this gorgeous boy his happy ever after please contact us.
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