Turns out, you can teach an old dog new tricks — especially in the case of Charlie.
The five-year-old mixed breed is ready for his Forever Home from the Toronto Humane Society where he’s been since mid-August after arriving from a Miami rescue.
“He’s a very sweet guy,” said THS spokesperson Hannah Sotropa.
“He’s a healthy, nice-looking, friendly dog. He’s a wonderful dog. He’s curious in nature. He likes to sniff basically anything out when he’s at the park. His curiosity really allows for a great hiking buddy because he just loves to go for walks, he likes to exercise, he’s very, very playful. So he’s a great, wonderful, life-long companion if you’re looking for somebody to keep you very busy.”
Not that Charlie, who weighs 60 pounds, is perfect, but he’s up for behavior modification.
“Because he does have a little bit of reactivity towards other dogs on leash, he hasn’t had much interaction with other animals, he would benefit from supervised introductions if there are other animals in the house,” said Sotropa.
“He has really good handler focus, however, and he loves his treats. He’s an extremely treat motivated dog, which makes for a wonderful candidate for treats, rewards and positive reinforcement training. He responds amazing to (that). So when he is looking over at other dogs, or focused elsewhere, to be able to direct his attention back onto you, he does (it) quite quickly. You can absolutely teach an old dog new tricks.”
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Sotropa said a quieter area with less traffic in general could work in either an urban or rural setting.
“Just to help with developing the training,” she said. “The whole premise behind allowing him to decompress and have healthy enrichment is just limiting the amount off the triggers that we can surround him by. He’s a wonderful dog and very friendly, it’s just that, for whatever reason, we don’t know, when he’s on leash, he gets really excited. But the other thing too, to note, is when he isn’t fixated or looking at other stimuli, he walks very well on leash.”
Anyone interested in adopting Charlie can visit torontohumanesociety.com/adopt-a-pet/adoption-process to check available appointment times and start the process.
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UPDATE: Marvel and Zoom Zoom, a pair of 15-year-old bonded pair of male cats from last month’s Forever Friend column, are still available for adoption.
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