SOPHIE Belgian Shepherd / Malinois Mix Amherst, OH

We have just taken Sophie in from a very neglectful situation. She is spending a couple of weeks with a trainer to learn how to be a dog. She is approximately 6 months old and is at least 1/2 Belgian Malinois. She is now fully vetted. She does have a docked tail, not sure why someone would do that to her but it is done. ONLY HOMES THAT WILL GIVE HER PLENTY OF EXERCISE AND AN ACTIVE PERSON WILL BE CONSIDERED. THIS IS A WORKING DOG AND WILL NOT BE RIGHT FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN'T ENGAGE HER MIND. We will also insist on an adopter having a fenced in yard. Sophie can be a little bit food and toy possessive but her trainer is working with her on that. She is a very loving dog. Please visit Hartman's Hounds facebook page to see some videos of her with other dogs. She likes to play with them but can be a bit bossy. If interested in Sophie, please call Peggy @ 440-984-7014 or e-mail hartmanshounds@gmail.com.



UPDATE: NOTES FROM TRAINER:

Sophie is a very high energy dog and very driven. She is very inquisitive and likes to explore, and wants to interact with people a lot. She’s always looking for something to do and is intense, which obviously is her breed. Intially she’s reserved which I think is due to her lack of socialization early on. Her curious nature prevails most of the time though and she quickly gets over that. Sometimes submissive urination in front of strangers.



She has gotten much better with crate training, minimal fussing now and goes in on her own.



She interacts differently with different dogs. Initially she was fearful of them, then became playful and more confident. She’s much more respectful of my adult confident dogs, and she responds well to their correction; with dogs her age or younger, she tries to be bossy and has gotten into some ‘arguments’. She’s been somewhat possessive with bones (not really other toys) with dogs - again, mostly with dogs her age not really my adult dogs, so that needs to be supervised and will still need work. She responds to me correcting her for that.