Billy

Billy is an extremely sweet, gentle, funny and loving crossbreed (likely greyhound/staffy). He is 3 years old and approximately 20kg.

Billy is toilet trained and crate trained. He is a lovely indoor dog. He sleeps in his crate at night and stays in it while we are out (this has been for up to 5 hours at a time).

Despite his lean physique, Billy is very food motivated and this makes him fun to train using positive reinforcement techniques. He has learned sit, down, drop it, spin, stand, backup and loves to play fetch with stuffed toys (the squeakers really get him going). He stops, sits and waits at corners. He waits for the signal to cross (either using the command ‘cross’ or ‘okay let’s go’). He waits at doors and is sooooo good at waiting for food now (we can leave the room with food in front of him). Billy has made a lot of progress with loose lead walking. He has good recall (although not if there is a dog nearby – he needs to say hi, but does so very nicely). He would be a great candidate for agility training and other tricks. This sort of training will be important for him as it has the added bonus of building his confidence. We have avoided teaching ‘paw’, as he paws to get attention and are trying to deter that behaviour.

He is generally very calm inside, but will mirror his environment. If someone is very excited, he can get excited and has jumped. He gets stressed if people are upset or yelling. Our home is pretty quiet, so most of the time he can be found sleeping in his crate or next to me while I work. He is very quiet (very little barking), not destructive, has no interest in chewing anything unless you throw it first. He has accidently been left alone while we weren’t home (meaning he broke out of the crate) and did nothing other than sleep on the furniture.

Billy is best suited for an active home. Despite being very lazy inside, he has lots of energy when out, loves to go to off lead dog parks, on hikes and makes a great running partner (although not always in a straight line). He would need two good walks a day. He has very short hair and needs coats in the winter, as he gets cold easily. He is very tolerant of costume changes. I suspect when the weather warms up he would love a good swim.

Billy can be unsure of new things and has some anxiety about being separated from his people. This has improved a lot during his fostering, but he needs someone who will continue to help him manage this as this was one of two reasons he was surrendered. We will spend time with his new potential family to explain what we have been doing. It would be best for his new family to have some experience with separation issues or willing to learn (including with a trainer).

The other issue is that he is an avid fence jumper. No fence is too high for him. He is not suitable to be left in a yard, even when there are people or another dog around. He is actually very suited to living in an apartment.

Billy’s ideal home is a calm one, where people are around most of the time (ideally working from home, able to take him to work, or retired), and have a consistent schedule.  His new family should be active and bring him along for outdoor adventures. He is good with other dogs, so another calm dog would be fine, but not a requirement for him. He occasionally jumps, so would have to be careful with small children. He would be fine in a home with dog savvy kids that know how to interact calmly with dogs. He will happily give his people licks right in the face if permitted. He has met cats and birds and has not shown prey drive.

This is Billy’s second time in foster care, and will only go to a home that is willing to help manage his separation anxiety and understands that he can’t be left unattended in a yard.

Billy is a lovely dog, deserves to find his forever home and will be an absolute gem for the right people.