At 1 year old, Zoee was a big (65#), strong puppy who had never been given the training she needed and had completely overwhelmed her owners. Luckily, what was a trial & tribulation to one family was an exciting challenge to another. When Zoee was delivered to her new family by Airedale Rescue, she was housetrained, knew "sit," was ball crazy, loved to fetch and play tug, and was crate trained. Other than that, she had every bad habit known to man.

Her new Mom's report after one week:

The first day I took her out, she lunged at a golf cart just past our view fence, and I found myself lying in the stones!!! She's FINALLY walking a lot better on leash, and sits to have her training collar put on. However, nothing is safe in the house....she's a trash hound, barks at everything that moves or doesn't move!, digs, loves to counter surf (takes anything she pleases) has a mouth fetish (everything goes in her mouth and she'll eat it if we don't get it away from her!) She still loves to chew, and grabs sox, clothes, towels, shoes, and plays keep away with us, and again if we don't get it away from her.....down the hatch it goes!!!

Zoee is quite the expert at begging at the table. Who could resist that irresistible face & deep brown eyes?? She's a master at opening cupboard doors, sliding doors, and anywhere else her big ole square nose wants to go!

Soooo why do we already love this delinquent? She really is sweet and loveable, and she is definitely a CHALLENGE!!

I'm back to walking several times a day again after a 2 year hiatus, and have shin splints so bad!!! Currently Zoee is sweetly asleep beside me, as I'm writing this. She's so completely different from our sweet, loveable, little ole lady Josee, but I think that's good. We never got her to replace Josee. But we did want to give a Rescue dog a chance at a good, loving home!! Soooo we definitely have our work cut out for us, the next few months....

P.S. Zoee is great helping out with the household chores. She's proficient at emptying wastebaskets, helps load & unload the dishwasher, and loves to sort the dirty clothes!! Anyone up for hiring her to help clean your house????

She now has a lot of privileges. She's allowed off leash behind our house and chases bunnies twice a day for 30 to 40 minutes each time. She plays with neighborhood dogs in our greenbelt area. She loves to ride in my back seat with her harness & seat belt on. Originally when I tried to fit the harness on her, she would have none of it.....biting me as well as trying to chew the harness up. So I decided to put that away for a few months til she was better trained. She was an absolute beast, screaming and biting us when we tried to clip her nails!!! Our neighbors all thought we were killing her! By the time we had to do it again, we took her out for a bunny hunt, and in the middle called her to us, and managed to trim 2 feet....she still was having none of it gracefully, still using her teeth on us, but at least she wasn't screaming!!!! A few days later, we tried the same technique...out for a bunny hunt, and then...we couldn't believe it.....she sat down handed us her paw, then the second one, and then ran off playing again!!!! We were shocked, but she finally decided we weren't trying to kill her, I guess!!

Zoee loves my two 4 yr old grandsons, and is so great with them. Since I babysit them a lot, this was an earlier concern. She loves to run out each morning to get us the paper, previously she loved to eat ALLLL PAPER. My husband thought I could never teach her to get the paper, but I've always taught all of my dogs this daily chore. Everyone is amazed when she's in hot pursuit of a bunny a block or so away from me, and I can call her off, and she'll run right back to me......saying, What do you want? Zoee drops anything in her mouth on command. No, she's never actually caught a bunny!!!

One day out on a bunny hunt, she was about 1/2 block ahead of me, and she did a perfect sit, waiting....I didn't know what she was waiting for, but just kept walking towards her. She was very intently sitting, waiting.....all of a sudden a 15# black dog came running over the hill and up to her, kissing her, like a long lost buddy, and then they were off playing!!! By then the owners came over the hill, were amazed how well Zoee played with him....no, she had never seen that dog before!!!

I only wish her previous owners could see her now!! Then they would know how important early training is on a dog like Zoee!! She is so much happier with herself, and knows her limits. She's almost childlike in her expression, when she comes over and says, "Can we go now, can we, can we please?" Before training, she DEMANDED EVERYTHING, it's just an amazing difference. She's still a clown, loves to play, and makes us laugh. So we've done nothing to mess up her wonderful personality, she's just so much better!!!

Well, it's time for Zoee's bunny hunt, so I'll close for now. If any of you our in our area, we'd love to have you stop by and see our WONDERFUL Zoee!!!! We couldn't be happier with her, so thank all of you for allowing us to have her!!