Socks Shepherd Mix Neosho, MO

Brilliant, flashy, speedy, eager, unflappable, confident, driven - all of these words describe Socks, both how she interacts with the world and what handling/training her is like.

Socks' personality has stayed consistent since her temperament test at 9 weeks of age -- very rare for puppies who change and grow every single day. During her temperament test, she showed high food drive, high confidence, fast recovery from anything scary (or simply not finding anything scary in the first place), high environmental stability, and an enthusiasm to join in with whatever is going on around her. Social and forgiving, this is a puppy that could take on the world!

Now 15+ weeks later, she is much the same - her attention span has improved a lot though! She is still high energy, social, and unflappable. Her food drive is incredible; she has taken to luring for treats like she's done it her entire life. During training sessions, not only does she understand new concepts rapidly, she also then autonomously applies them without having to be guided into doing so.

For instance, we have been working on some impulse control exercises with her - within a few repetitions it clicked that she needed to keep all 4 feet on the floor. When we added "duration" (time between rewards she needed to refrain from jumping in order to earn said reward) she started automatically offering a sit and eye contact, things we'd only lightly touched on previously! Then when we ended the official training session and went back to spending time as office dog, of course her first instinct was to return to jumping or trying to take food. However, she almost immediately self-corrected and offered up the positive behavior we'd just been reinforcing.

Socks' beginnings may have been humble - she and her 8 littermates were dumped on our doorstep overnight in a kennel, so our history about her and her litter is limited. All we know about them is limited to what we have observed personally during the length of their stay. But what we have observed is an exceptionally social, intelligent, human-focused, and food motivated bunch who will enrich the lives of whoever choses them.

So if you come to meet her, don't be fooled by her high energy levels or how she nearly bounces off the walls. Her learning style and retention ability shows us hints of dog mature beyond her age and intelligent to boot! This girl is eager to please, loves to "work," and such an enthusiastic and spongy learner. Come meet Socks today!!!