Given her history as a stray, Oreo approaches most situations with caution. For the first few weeks in our home, Oreo preferred the safety of her kennel but would study us from her quiet corner of the living room. 

 

Over the weeks, Oreo started to become more comfortable with the four adults living in the home. She still startled easily and sought refuge in her crate but was slowly starting to trust humans. 

 

As the months passed, Oreo started spending less and less time hiding out in her kennel. We would notice her watching us as we made dinner or following us from a safe distance in the fenced yard. 

 

Aside from time, we believe the biggest help getting Oreo to open up to us was our two resident dogs.  From her first day with us, Oreo was immediately comfortable around our dogs. She would follow them around and copy their behaviors.  Soon, Oreo would join the other dogs as they greeted us after work with tails wagging. She even started sitting on the couch next to us for cuddles. 

 

As Oreo has gotten more comfort around us, we started introducing her to basic obedience commands and leash walking. She is familiar with sit, down, come, and kennel but will require continued training to strengthen her reliability in various situations.  Oreo is very food motivated and seems quite bright so we think she could really go far with more education!

 

Oreo is potty trained on a schedule and has only had three accidents over the months with us. Her cues to go outside are still subtle so keeping her on a schedule will ensure continued success as she transitions to her forever home. 

 

Oreo easily sleeps through the night and is quite comfortable in her kennel. There have been a few rare nights where we allowed her to sleep on our bed because we just couldn’t get enough snuggles. 

 

Oreo travels well in the car, mostly sleeping in the back seat, but does need to avoid eating right before getting in the car because she has occasionally gotten car sick. 

 

We have started bringing Oreo to dog-friendly breweries, where she lays down under the table and watches the other people and dogs. Oreo is not comfortable with strangers approaching and will hide. She has shown no aggression but is very shy and requires patience when meeting new people. 

 

Oreo is also quite lazy for a young dog. She does enjoy running around the yard with the other dogs and will sometimes pick up a ball or stick to encourage them to play with her but most of the time prefers to lay down and chew on a bone or lounge on the couch.  She can often be found sleeping on her back with all four feet in the air!

 

Over the months of getting to know Oreo, we believe she would do well in either an apartment or house given her calm and quiet personality.  A fenced yard or play area would be best to give her safe freedom because every once in a while she still gets scared by loud vehicles or delivery drivers coming up to the house. Oreo has limited exposure to children and startles easily so a home with adults or older, respectful children would likely be a better fit. Ideally, this home would also have a confident resident dog(s) who could continue to teach her how to be a pet. 

 

Oreo takes time to adjust to new surroundings but if you give her a chance, you will find her to be a sweet and loving pup who craves affection and, of course, tasty treats!