Bear – Norfolk

BOUNCY BEAR

Bear is  a lovely young dog who has been acquired by an elderly couple, who cannot cope with him. He is only 16 months old, and he is displaying dominant behaviour with his female elderly owner, particularly, who is becoming nervous of him. Bear is housetrained and seems to be amenable considering how he was acquired and the level of leadership that he receives. Here is what our assessor wrote about him.

“Meeting Bear

It was evident that his owners did not have confidence in Bear or knowledge of his behaviour. I was a little concerned given their description, and their apparent lack of confidence in Bear, so asked if they would keep him on a lead and away from the door so I could sit before they brought Bear in.

I knocked on the door and I could hear Bear barking he has a good meaningful bark. F answered the door looking very worried and I went into the front room where B was hanging onto Bear, he was pulling hard and barking, showing teeth a little. I sat down and started speaking to Bear, who stopped barking immediately, but was desperate to get to me, B brought him towards me, and I produced some ham, which Bear ignored and he climbed up onto me, not barking and just intensely wanting to be part of what was happening.

I then encouraged him with ham to sit which he happily did, and he took this very gently, which goes against what I had been informed. I then played with Bear giving him treats and gently engaging with him in-between, he was very excited at this point. I then produced a ball I had taken which he loved and started playing. Bear is very responsive he clearly loves food and balls.

I spoke to the couple whilst playing with Bear and at one point he lunged into my face, no teeth, in fact I didn’t feel anything, and I think it was a ‘Hey give me attention’. Bear once he has the ball was not keen on dropping it but pranced around wanting you to try and take it. Bear at no time mouthed me, nipped me even accidently, when I gave him treats he was gentle and after I felt Bear was confident with me, I stroked him all over, put my hand in his mouth holding the ball, put my foot on the ball and picked it up, was a little rough with him playing, and he was a typical bouncy strong adolescent dog.

He is bright and was quickly picking up games I was playing and loving the attention. He has a lovely coat, he was groomed, I would say he is a semi/long coat. Black and tan. He is a handsome boy he is kind and in the right hands will be a super dog.

We took Bear for a walk, B tried putting on the lead and Bear was grabbing and biting it, B walked Bear on a slip lead, Bear dragged him around and B looked uncomfortable walking him. B normally drives Bear in the car to an isolated area where he lets Bear off the lead and he says he has a good recall with no distractions. But Bear is keen on chasing rabbits and squirrels, if he sees these, he goes deaf.

Bear will bark at dogs when passing them in the car but otherwise is happy in the car. Whilst walking Bear was sniffing around merrily, he took no interest in passing cars or people. He was calm and barked at no time during my entire visit other than when I came into the house. F says he barks at everything passing the house, but I didn’t see this at all.

A dog walker passed on the other side of the road with a small dog and Bear didn’t really pay much attention, he did look and had noticed it. Two teenagers on skateboards came from behind us and this spooked Bear who again didn’t bark but stopped and was pulling towards them, B asked them to not come near, Bear was very interested but showed no aggression.

I would guess Bear is maybe 40kg, or a little less. He is a typical fun yob with little training. The couple do not know if Bear is ok with other dogs or any other animals. He certainly appeared pretty chilled out on the walk other than dragging B along.

At one point a teenager came out of an alley and walked a few inches from B and he had no reaction. They have only had one visitor since having Bear and they say the person was frightened and Bear lunged towards them.

They have said he is destructive but when this was explored, he had dug a little in the garden.
I played with Bear for 20 minutes after the walk in the garden and he was loving life, very gentle, and he did leap up a couple of times and was just having a lovely time. He is very focussed and loves balls so training should be easy enough, I was using two balls in order to get the other off him and he quickly realised what I was doing and was trying to carry both, or kicking one along while carrying the other, he certainly has some humour.

In conclusion he is a good-natured oaf who will need training from scratch, but he does appear to have a level of social engagement with surroundings that may make things easier, like being used to the car, being fairly chilled, out and about. They have only had him two weeks, so he hasn’t had a chance to settle in or get to know the couple.”

 Could you be the lucky person to take Bear in hand?