Jeni - courageous and ball obsessed shepherd German Shepherd Dog Ossining, NY

Jeni is a lovely shepherd and as you can see, she is a very pretty lady. She is so full of life that every step she takes consists of fun loving energy ready to take on the day! Jeni is incredibly friendly and super affectionate!
Give her the opportunity to get some pets and she'll lean into you big time, look up at you with her giant beautiful eyes and draw you in with curiosity that makes you want to get to know her more and more! PLUS... Jeni is a BALL fanatic!!!! If she has a ball in her mouth or chasing one, she is HAPPY!

Jeni's entire life, up until her rescue, was lived attached to a chain in her previous owners yard. Jeni was eventually found running loose as an emaciated stray and the shelter workers tracked down her owner who was then charged with animal cruelty. He admitted that Jeni lived her whole life on a chain and sometimes went days without food. She was terribly skinny when she came to us (cannot imagine how thin she was when first found). She seems to have had pups at some point too. ?Jeni is incredibly resilient eager to start this happy chapter in her life!

Life on a chain does not usually set dogs up for life in suburbia. Jeni had to learn a whole new set of new skills in order to be able to handle certain situations that happen on a daily basis in our neck of the woods. Two of which were walking on a leash and how to be around other dogs. When a dog is chained, they can't get away from people, animals and other dogs if approached. It's clear that Jeni learned bad things happen when dogs appear... so it's taken a little while to reteach her that other dogs aren't out to get her and she's forever safe!

Jeni can be reactive and/or defensive with other dogs at times. Her reactivity on the leash when walking passed other dogs has greatly diminished, though since those first few months with us. Yay Jeni!! We have been providing Jeni with a lot of easy going connection, relaxation, training and playtime around other dogs is it has helped a ton!!

We started by taking her for quiet walks with calm, confident, non reactive dogs & based on her progress we continued to exposed her to the dogs she liked the most. Slowly she become less guarded and better socialized with other dogs. While we don't put Jeni directly in with other dogs, she has shown that is not something she would be successful in, she is capable of walking with and passing other dogs without a bother. Most importantly, we have learned to guide her through such situations and anyone who comes to adopt Jeni would be trained on how to walk her past other dogs without an issue!

Jeni cannot live with another dog or cats.

MEDICAL INFO
When Jeni first arrived she was diagnosed with heart worm. Call it a blessing in disguise because it caused us to take a closer look at her heart, as we do all HW positive dogs, to make sure she is healthy enough for treatment. We did discover Jeni has something called Sub-aortic stenosis which is the narrowing (stenosis) of the aortic valve that causes some degree of obstruction or blockage of the blood flow through the heart. This as well as some OCD and anxiety behaviors, are managed greatly with daily medications. Our tough girl made it through HW treatment exceptionally well. She has put on a perfect amount of weight, eats regularly and takes her medications with ease. Moving forward, Jeni will need ongoing echocardiograms and check-ins with a cardiologist. We are offering a permanent foster option for Jeni's adoption.

Jeni still needs to be kept on a relatively low key exercise routine to keep the risks of Jeni's heart condition low. Jeni is an active girl with a busy mind who needs to keep enriched and engaged with. We do a lot of training and loooong walks with Jeni! She now walks fabulously on the leash and is so in tune with her handler.

If you are interested in coming out for a visit with Jeni or providing a foster or forever home for her, please email us!! lovedogs.bedfordNY@gmail.com

***While we are very grateful for PetFinder, we have been having chronic problems receiving inquires. Please contact us directly if you are interested in adopting by emailing us at lovedogs.bedfordny@gmail.com and visit fortheloveofdogsrescue.org***