Kona
terrier/catahoula cur Mix | Female | 5 months Old | 35 Lbs
QUICK FACTS: ✔️ Good with other dogs! ✔️ Good with kids! ✔️ Crate trained! ✔️ Good in car! ✔️ Enjoys learning new tricks! ❌ No cats!
Updates
Officially adopted on August 19, 2021!
Kona is an incredibly sweet 5 month old puppy who absolutely loves her people! She wakes up between 6-7am and we head outside for potty and a little morning playtime with our resident dog. Then we come inside for a "working breakfast"....Kona earns her breakfast with working on her basic training commands such as "place", "sit", "wait" and a nose work puzzle. This helps not only makes it fun and keeps her interested in training work, but also builds her confidence. After breakfast, we take a short walk in the neighborhood...10-15minutes and return to a little more backyard play.
Kona then hangs out in the dog room and/or her crate while I run errands, work, housework, etc. While she isn't old enough to be left free in the house, she also does well tethered to me on a lead while in the house....as a hang out buddy. We have multiple outside playtimes during the day followed by chillout crate time. She still eats lunch mid-day and in the evening, she eats between 5-6pm and we do another evening walk. She absolutely loves snuggle time...anytime...but especially in the evenings so she loves to hang out in her bed while you watch TV (she has not yet earned couch privileges at her foster home)
We let Kona out for the last time between 10-10:30pm and then she is her crate for the night. She is great in her crate...quiet and keeps it dry until morning.
Kona has done really well meeting new people that come into our home. She is a puppy so she does get excited and want to jump at first, but she is quickly redirected to "sit" or her "place" when visitors arrive and she has to wait for pets. Then, she loves soaking up the pets and attention she gets. Kona is definitely a people lover in our home!
When outside, Kona has a little more apprehension. She still likes people here, but is afraid of loud, unknown things going by or coming towards her such as the trash truck, trash cans, even my daughter bicycling at us at full speed...can make her scared (understandably). We have kept walks fairly short for now, heavy on the treats, and during the same time every day...and she has already improved in a short time.
Kona has done well with her children in her foster home; ages 12 & 10. They pet her, play with her and snuggle her with supervision. She still has to be reminded to sit or place, but she has enjoyed their attention.
She has also met several kids in neighborhood. When outside, we have placed Kona in a sit and just talked to the neighborhood kids rather than enjoyed full-on pets and scratches.
Kona is a 5 1/2 month old puppy so she has periods of high energy where she will play and chase a ball or another dog like crazy; followed by periods of complete exhaustion! A little nap and food and she would love to repeat that cycle! We have used training sessions as another way to mentally stimulate her and she is really responsive. So far, "sit", "down", "wait", "place" and "kennel" are all fairly reliable for a puppy. And we continue to work on "leave it" and "come". Again, she loves her people and finds it great fun, so far at least, to work on obedience training.
She will need walks and outdoor play time at regular intervals during the day. We currently do two walks a day...and leash manners are ok, but not great. She does pull in general on walks so we keep them short, but consistent. Working on finding the right collar or harness will help with this I suspect along with continued, regular walks. We also utilize our backyard for this...Kona enjoys playing with her toys and she really loves a good game of fetch..though she still needs a reward/treat to give up the ball. Hint: yellow squeaky Kong balls are her favorite.
Kona loves playing outdoors with our resident dog. Backyard play is a blast...they go hard, but when I call them back for a reset; they both listen. Kona is likely just following along from our already trained resident dog, but it is working. She also does great on walks with him...I think she kind of likes the security of following him since everything is so new to her. We have not had a face-to-face with other dogs yet while out walking.
Inside, we did notice just a couple incidents of resource guarding around toys, attention in the first few days. With time to adjust to new place, limiting shared items inside and continuing to work on her training for obedience and confidence, we have seen improvement here.
We have 3 cats in our home...and Kona is VERY interested in them...too interested unfortunately. She definitely zeroes in visually on them and would very much love to chase them if allowed. We have gated off an escape route for them. Kona would do best in a home without cats.
Being a puppy, Kona is crated when we leave the house or when we aren't directly supervising her. She does really well in there, especially with a benebone or a stuffed Kong. She also enjoys some nice relaxing music...who doesn't?
Kona is going to make a wonderful pet! Her love for people is just overflowing and she cannot wait to give her family kisses and butt-wigglin love. When she lays her head in your lap and looks up at you with those eyes, you will fall in love. She does need someone who understands that her bumpy start has left her a little afraid of somethings and someone who is willing to help her feel confident, understand her place in her new "pack" and help her settle in. But she is such a fast learner and an incredible people pleaser, she is going to make someone a lifelong, loyal friend.