Hi everyone - i'm Sansa and I came to Hopeful Hounds in March 2024 to begin my rescue journey!
I am a 3 year old Romanian rescue mixed breed who came over from Romania back in 2021 where I was placed with my previous owners. I am a BIG girl at nearly 40kg (although the team do say I need to loose a few pounds in order to be a bit healthier!) and am a whole lot of floof but despite my size, I am a genuinely sweet and lovely girl.
The Hopeful Hounds team first met me in February 2024 when my previous owner got in touch looking for some help to find me a new home. I have been with my last family since I first came over from Romania and have been very well loved and looked after. However, I struggled to adjust to my new life in the UK and became lead reactive towards dogs and people as I can be a nervous girl and I wasn't sure how to deal with my emotions. Sadly a breakdown in the relationship in my last home meant I was left with part of the family who really struggled to manage me and my behavior and so made the difficult decision to find me a home more equipped to dealing with my behavioral needs.
So I arrived at Hopeful Hounds at the beginning of March 2024 and quickly showed off how lovely I really was underneath the scared barking I would do at everyone. Within a few days I fell in love with the team members I was working with and started to really enjoy my walks and training sessions despite being quite unfit and struggling a bit with the longer walks!
The Hopeful Hounds team have spent a lot of time helping me to gain in confidence and generally just see the world around me. See my previous owners really struggled with taking me out and about because of the reactivity I was showing and so I my nervousness to things I was unsure of was quite clear to see. So for a lot of my early weeks, the team simply took me to lots of different places nearby to expose me to new places and help to gain confidence in myself and my relationship with my handlers. I gained confidence quickly and stopped barking at everything so much and instead started to explore new things or look to whoever my handler was for help! The team were so proud of how quickly I gained confidence and trusted my new people.
Here I am learning to be confident in new places!
I also started learning some important skills like recall, engagement with my handler and some sit training too as we explored new places and practiced my new skills out and about. I also did some social sessions with some of the teams dogs as although I am VERY friendly with other dogs, the team said I was a bit too forward and that jumping on dogs was maybe not the best way to make friends after all! So the team helped to teach me to be a bit calmer around new friends and to socialise in a more appropriate way, especially for my size! I really love being with other dogs and enjoy making friends but the team say I will continue to need some support to make sure I don't forget how big I am and scare other dogs by being so enthusiastic.
One of the biggest new skills I have learnt, is to be calm both inside and outside the house. The team have taught me to be comfortable in a crate (which I love!) and to sit nicely on a bed both in and out of the house. Being a bit of an anxious dog, I can struggle to settle unless someone actually tells me to and so the team have been working hard to teach me to settle and relax better so that I can continue this in my forever home.
The team have said I'm doing really well now and they think I'm now ready to begin my journey to find my perfect forever home! I will still need some training and support when I go into my new home to help me to continue building my confidence and further my training but the team say I am such a lovely big girl and they can't wait until I can find my forever people!
What kind of home am I looking for?
I am looking for a home where I can continue to learn and grow into a confident and happy young lady now that my foundations are in place! I am not the kind of dog who needs really long walks and lots of stimulation, in fact some would say I am a little lazy! However I do enjoy hour long walks exploring new places and would love my new family to take me out and about to see the world! I really enjoy relaxing time at home and love to snuggle up on my bed and snooze with my people nearby. I don't need a huge house or garden even though I am a big girl but I do need good sized fencing to make sure I don't one day work up the energy to go exploring on my own!
My restrictions
I am a little nervous of children and find them a bit scary so I would rather be rehomed to a family with older children at least over the age of 11 who are good with dogs and will be respectful of me and my boundaries. I have also not been tested around cats or other small animals and so would prefer not to share my new home with them unless my new family are happy to work with our training team to help me to adjust to this change. I am a big girl and need a family who have experience or are willing to work with our training team who understand large breeds and overseas rescues but don't worry - the team will help us all every step of the way so that we can all enjoy getting to know each other and can make my placement successful!
If you like me, get in touch!
The Hopeful Hounds team are really excited to find me my perfect forever home so if you think you could give me the perfect home that I am looking for, get in touch!
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