05/01/2026
This sweetheart is Brandy’s and GCH. Neon’s puppy from Winter Greens 2024/25 litter who came back to me for rehoming due to developing some “naughty” behaviors that are fixable but his family not having time to work with him.
He is not responding to his given name, I am taking suggestions for his new start?
He comes from strong performance background with some top agility dogs on his sire side of the family and accomplished nose work dogs on the mom side.
He is very “sniffy”, curious and likes chasing things. While I can’t promise that he would be the next performance star, a strong interest in training and relationship building is a must for his new placement. He really needs to find outlets for his curious nose, love of chasing things and his desire for running off leash. An avid hiker or adventurer who would take him on lots of sniffy walks would work too.
Awesome things about this little buddy:
- crate trained, utd on vaccines, neutered
- tolerates grooming and handling well
- rides in the car well
- affectionate, sweet, kissy, lapdog
- confident
- has not met a stranger
- shows appropriate social behavior with other dogs and people
- a small guy at about 13” tall
- beautiful soft coat the color of butter cream
Not so awesome baggage that he need help with
-escape artist and needs secure fence
-chasing small animals - no cats or bunny roomies
-steals socks and dryer ball and wants to keep them
-recent escape and following chase and grab resulted in a restrained defensive bite to previous family member. This response is associated with high-stress handling, rather than unprovoked aggression. He has been great with multiple people handling him for grooming, picking him up and ext, but I have to disclose that this incident has happened.
The right home for this guy will be experienced, active adult only ( dog savvy older teens ok) home committed to building a relationship with their dogs through positive reinforcement training (he has seen enough of choke collar and aversive).
I will be keeping him for at least 3 weeks for a full assessment, until I know all of his quirks. What I know about him: as adolescence hit a few months ago and household structure changed he started to selectively protect socks and dryer balls he steals. He will give them up to chase tossed toys and doesn’t guard his own toys and items - this suggests that this is a learned behavior, not his temperament trait.
At previous home he would escape through wrought iron fence bars and lead his owners on a chase down the street which meant he would go outside on the leash in his own backyard restricting his ability to fulfill his needs.
From my experience working with dogs and similar cases I am very certain that these habits are easily fixed with the right approach - relationship building and providing outlets and fulfillment for his physical, mental and emotional needs.
He will be adopted out on the condition of having a behavior consultation with Canine Cohesion prior to placement and commitment to working with them, or another science based positive only trainer. Having a secure solid fence is also a must.
He is not a dog for just anyone, but he is awesome and a total gem for those who know how to train teenage dogs.
This bud is a poster pup why my contracts specifies “positive only training and avoidance of prong and choke collars and why I ask owners to reach out with behavior concerns. Recently he has been enrolled in day training program known to use very severe, dangerous and outdated methods which have been scientifically proven to cause stress, loss of relationship and an increase in defensive behaviors. I believe his previous family only meant well as the trainer also uses treats, and did not realize how dangerous techniques like choke collar are for physical and mental health of a small dog. As a result of choke collar use he is showing signs of irritated trachea and needs to be walked on the harness or soft martingale collar from now on.
Poodles are too smart and emotionally sensitive and attuned. When aversive methods causing discomfort, pain and fear are applied to them they learn to avoid the people on the other end of the leash. There are typically two scenarios of “fall out”from such training for poodles - complete shut down and anxiety, or defensive, self protecting behaviors and anxiety. Thankfully it is not too late for this guy to turn things around.
Please send a message or enquire through the website.