Mikey Plott Hound Erin, TN

Mikey originally came to us from an abandonment case. Mikey and his compadre were left on an abandoned lot with no food, water, or shelter. They were put into a kennel on the lot and left with no human contact whatsoever. A suitable foster became available for them to go to, and we inducted them into our rescue. We brought them up to date on their vaccinations, heartworm prevention, and flea and tick prevention. We had them both neutered. We are aware that a lot of hunters do not want their dogs altered. It is a Tennessee State law that prior to adoption we have all of our animals spayed or neutered.

Mikey was adopted 6 months later by an approved family that already had two Plott Hounds. Unfortunately, Mikey's situation changed the first week of February 2025. Mikey's adopters reported that he became increasingly anxious whenever they would leave him alone. He began to chew on items not intended for chewing. We readily accepted him back with open arms. Even though his foster has expressed his willingness to let Mikey come back and stay with him, we decided to keep him here at the rescue to do evaluation and corrective action. We are within the first week of our evaluation. We have already gotten Mikey use to crating. We are working on the command "kennel". With gentle suggestion Mikey will go into his crate, while receiving treats. Mikey sleeps overnight very well. He is a tad excited in the mornings when we go to let him out. This is something we are working on as well. Mikey integrated superbly into our already existing 7 dog pack, weights ranging from 6 pounds to 28 pounds. He was living with dogs of his own size at his previous adopter's home. We have already determined that Mikey has separation anxiety, and we are working to help him with this. Our first step in that is to get him to love his kennel and see it as his safe space. We have also gotten an anti-anxiety shirt for him to help him feel secure wherever he is at in the home. We have had him back for almost a week now and Mikey is doing great. He has not tried to chew on anything that he wasn't supposed to. We are enriching his days with fun things to chew on, exercise out in the play yard, and nice walks through the neighborhood. We will continue to evaluate triggers for Mikey and help him through each one.

Mikey is still up to date on vaccinations, heartworm prevention, and flea and tick prevention. Mikey is neutered. Mikey is coming along nicely with crate training and is housebroken. Mikey does enjoy a good bit of outside time but loves lounging on the couch catching a nap. He loves a good butt scratch and will do a little dance with his back legs when scratched. He still has good alert and hunting instincts. If you are interested in adoption, the first step is to go to our website and fill out an application. www.voicelessmomentsdogsanctuary.com