I had the privilege to meet Buddy and spend time at his foster family’s house. He’s so beautiful and happy. Jenn, his foster mom, told us he does seem to have seasonal allergies which leads to his ears being irritated and if not treated or kept clean, it could give him ear infections. He’s been on antihistamines and that seemed to take care of the problem.
He’s a social dog who loved meeting me and was excited to say hi to me. He also gets along with Jenn’s other dogs and was just so full of energy and life. He also can be left alone and is quite content to hang out by himself. Buddy is still sensitive to touch so I had to be careful when I tried to pet him. He allowed me to and I didn’t touch his head, just the mid section of his back lightly. Jenn told us that it is more of a fear reaction than anything else. Oddly he seems to really enjoy brushing even for long periods of time.
When he meets strangers he appears very friendly and leans against you, jumps up, and acts as if he wants affection but he’s also scared and may snap or try to nip you if you accidentally touch or move too fast or pet him too hard. It’s as if he is trying to break out of his shell and forget his past but still has some conditioned responses to touch. We’re very lucky he’s got a great foster family who understand him and work very hard to rehabilitate him. You can’t help but fall in love with him when you first meet him because he has a lot of good energy and happiness in his eyes and is extremely fluffy and beautiful.
He will need an experienced patient owner that will understand his fear of being petted and work on it with him to overcome this. Because of this, he will also need an owner that will “protect” him and not put him in situations where he could be at risk but also help him get used to new people petting him.
