Melody Maltese ST JACOBS, ON

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED WHILE WE WORK WITH CURRENT FAMILIES WHO HAVE APPLIED

MELODY'S STATUS WILL BE UPDATED IF SHE BECOMES ADOPTED

Melody is a 6.5lb Maltese Terrier , 5yrs young and a sweet, sassy girl when she feels comfortable with people.

Melody will be available after her Dec 9th spay surgery is completed.

She will require a family with previous dog ownership and training experience with dogs who are under-socialized and require patience and ongoing training to overcome her fear based behaviours. She bonds very closely with her "safe people" and is a joyful , very intelligent, active, adventurous wee girl when she feels safe.

Melody is a very bright, active intelligent girl who loves mental stimulation with treat puzzles, and other activities that challenge her. She thrives learning new skills and would do very well in RallyO or other obedience activities suitable for smaller breeds.

She requires very consistent grooming, especially face trims to keep her eyes clean and dry.

We cannot ever guarantee that a dog is hypoallergenic, please do not apply if you are allergic to dogs.

Melody has come a long way with her house training, but still has accidents if not taken out on a consistent basis to help continue her success with her training.

Melody bonds very tightly with her chosen people and adores snuggles, lap time and an active lifestyle filled with adventures appropriate for her size.
She LOVES squeaky toys and hunting through her toy basket to find her favourites.

She would thrive in a home with another gentle, respectful, but active playful dog to help with her confidence and does best with other dogs for companionship. She has met many dogs both large and small and loves them all as long as they are not reactive/in her face loud.

She is not suited for a home with cats.

She does bark when voices are heard or loud noises that she cannot see the source of, so if your home is an apartment or attached housing, you'll want to be sure there are no concerns about neighbours complaining about barking. Consistent training and patience will help her overcome this with time.

She is very timid with men especially and many strangers, will bark due to fear. With patience, treats and appropriate calm body language, allowing her to feel safe and loved, she blossoms with time and patience.

Her ideal home will be active but not gone for longer than 3-4 hours as she does best when someone is home more often. Melody would not do well in a busy household where there are many visitors.

She was surrendered to our care from a commercial breeding operation when she was no longer producing puppies. Due to her previous life, she was not properly socialized and although she has come a long way since arriving into our care, she will require ongoing training and socializing to help build her confidence and overcome her fear related behaviours.

**She has nipped a visitor twice in her foster home when they got up to leave (classic terrier herding behaviour), and will require a savvy dog owner with previous experience using positive reinforcement for fear based behaviours. She never does this with her trusted people at all.

She is not an aggressive dog, her behaviours are related to fear and herding behaviour common in terriers. This is very easily prevented by using calming body language and treats and providing her with a safe space while visitors are present.

Melody does not have any food or toy resource guarding, she happily shares everything.

She is blossoming with her training but struggles meeting new people, and especially men, which is easily managed with appropriate positive reinforcement handling, reading her body language and gentle patience, along with ongoing training and socializing to help her feel safe and learn that not all strangers are scary.

Once you have earned her trust, she is the most amazingly sweet girl, adoring her trusted people, fabulously smart girl who has learned to love squeaky toys and treat puzzles, and is rocking her training.

She is not pee pad trained, we are housetraining her to use the outdoors for potty breaks.

Melody is exhibiting mild separation anxiety which is improving greatly. She would however do best in a home where someone is either working from home or home quite often to help her with this, where there are not a lot of visitors or chaos constantly.

Due to her small size and fragility combined with fear related behaviours, we are asking for a home without children, and without grandchildren visiting often.
Melody becomes very agitated around noisy children or strangers, and her anxiety escalates into reactivity if she is consistently around children/teenagers and their noises.

As a young dog, Melody is not suitable for elderly caregivers, she is very active, and as a healthy young Maltese, may live up 15+ more years.

Older seniors make great pet parents but we recommend matching up with older or senior pets as well, to ensure that our dogs do not have to go through yet another transition/change of homes if their caregivers become unable to care for them in later years.

Please read her entire profile before applying. An adoption application must be submitted to be considered. If the dog's listing is still showing, they are still accepting applications.

Only applicants who meet each dog's criteria for their ideal forever home will be contacted. You MUST submit an adoption application prior to being considered , see instructions at the bottom of this profile.

Notes:
*Registration with a positive method training school/trainer is mandatory for this dog to continue with her training, socialization and to help her become the best that she can be.
We are requiring proof of approved training registration prior to her adoption.
*No children or visiting grandchildren
*Pools and ponds must be separately fenced from yard
*May never be off leash outdoors unless in a fully fenced yard with in person supervision. Melody is tiny and tries to escape through gaps in fencing or gates, so she must always have her owner present with her when outdoors.
*Owned or rented homes welcome with landlord's permission, but must be detached due to her vocal tendencies.

Hobo Haven is located in St Jacobs Ontario.
For approved families, we require two in person meetings in St Jacobs ON after your application has been approved.
If you are not willing to drive to this location to meet our dogs if you are approved, please do not apply. We do not meet elsewhere nor deliver dogs.

If you are interested in applying to adopt a dog from Hobo Haven Rescue, please use this link to submit an application https://hobohavenrescue.ca/dog-adoption-application

Melody's adoption fee is a minimum donation of $550 Her contract will include mandatory training registration
Adoption fees include spay/neuter, microchip, age appropriate vaccinations, fecal testing, dentals if required, deworming if needed, Heartworm and Tick disease testing, bloodwork, Advantage prevention, and all medical treatments and surgeries required during their time with us.

Her adoption fee is only a tiny fraction of her expenses for her vetting and care expenses.

For anyone possibly interested in adopting from Hobo Haven, here are a few, but not all, criteria to be aware of:

We require all serious applicants to watched "Petfooled" which is a free documentary at this link https://tubitv.com/movies/494913/pet-fooled
Our motto is "know better/do better" and we ask all adoptive families to be as committed to providing our dogs with quality nutrition as they are to providing love. This documentary is not advertising, purely just educational.

An adoption application must be completed and approved, as well as a home visit (Zoom during COVID), prior to meeting available dogs. All dogs are placed in loving foster homes during their time with us, we do not have a shelter to visit.
We do not allow applicants to visit until pre-approved for adoptions. All dogs are in private foster family homes, not a facility.

Any questions may be emailed to hobohavenpetrescue@gmail.com

Please do not ask us to make exceptions, we set these protocols and policies for the dog's best interests which are always our highest priority.

Emails are best, our volunteers work full time and are often not able to answer or return phone calls in a timely manner.