Balto German Shepherd Dog Jefferson City, MO

Balto is a beautiful cream and black male German Shepherd. He is a great size, about 60 lbs. We rescued him after he was hit by a vehicle which badly broke his leg. Balto needed intensive veterinary care for the first few weeks as his kidneys were also bruised from the trauma. It appears he was on the streets for many months as he was emaciated and had very bad flea allergies which had caused large hairless droopy areas of skin on his back end, and bare, inflamed elbows and tail. Despite his injuries Balto is extremely sweet and gentle to the people who were caring for him.

When Balto was stable, he was brought to St. Louis to continue his recovery. His badly broken and crushed leg could not be repaired, and therefore the only way to alleviate his pain was to amputate that leg. We had also discovered that Balto was heartworm positive which made the surgery more dangerous, but his heart sounded strong, so we had to move forward regardless of the risk. Balto sailed through the surgery and is now fully healed. With plenty of good food and a soft bed, Balto has gained weight and regrown a lot of his hair and is looking so much better!

Balto is now pain free and has learned to run and play well with only one back leg. He adores his stuffed toys and his big GSD puppy foster brother, and they chase around after each other at top speed. He is super sweet with some dogs but guarded with strange dogs he meets at the vets or outside of the home. Balto has some deep scars on his face, so it is possible while he was a stray he had to defend himself against other dogs in order to survive. It is also possible that he was locked in somewhere and had to try to escape.

Balto must have originally been someone’s pet – he loves to be near people and shows extreme gratitude for his food, toys and his soft bed, donated by a kind supporter. He is housebroken and responsive to voice commands. He does not particularly like to be in a crate and will break out if it isn’t secured with zip ties at the joints and leash clips on the doors.

Balto has learned to adapt and get used to it and settle, but in a new home if he is crated it may take a week or two to settle down again. Balto will more easily settle in a crate if it is next to where you are sitting (which is what we had to do when he was recovering from surgery.) Otherwise he may yodel for a while until he realizes that loudly complaining doesn’t get him anywhere…

Balto would really like to chase cats. His foster home had three, so things were pretty lively for the first few days. Balto did manage to corner a couple of the dog-savvy cats, and then didn’t quite know what to do with them, so he still gets excited if the cats run from him but will not harm them, and a confident kitty will do well with Balto given a little time to get used to each other. Balto’s foster mom will say “NO CAT” if Balto goes for the chase, and he will then stop and pretend to ignore the cat :)