PLEASE NOTE: Lily will only be adopted into a Doberman experienced home. Please read her entire bio.
Lily is a beautiful four-year-old black and tan Doberman who in many respects typifies the breed—she is smart, sweet, and intense. Lily has the potential to be a once in a lifetime dog for the right owner—brilliant, loyal, affectionate, and tightly bonded. But like many rescues, she has some behavior issues that will be too much for an owner not willing to do the work.
Lily was abandoned by her first owner after a dog fight, and she remains dog aggressive. She’s worked on this with her foster family, and has made one dog friend, but she cannot be trusted to keep the peace and needs to be in an only dog home. Lily is calm and affectionate in the house. She never jumps up (always has four paws on the ground), and although she takes a minute to warm up to strangers, she is respectful and generally quiet. She barks when necessary, and often at passing dogs, but isn’t overly vocal. She loves face and backrubs and will demand that any free hand give her a scratch. She is definitely a Velcro dog, and will follow you wherever you go. She loves to be with her person and always wants to be as close as she can! Lily has also taken well to training. She knows sit, down, crawl, paw, spin, touch, and can hold a treat on her nose on command. She also knows to drop things with the command “out” and has worked well on off leash recall. She comes when called, knows that “wait” means to pause, knows “heel,” and is working on “slowly.”
Lily has a very high prey drive, and this can be good for training. It can also be difficult for walks. She will scream with excitement when she sees squirrels on leash. We’ve worked with her on this, and she’s learning. But she also seems to forget as soon as someone new walks her.
Lily’s main challenge is intermittent resource guarding. In the past year she growled once over a bone, and a couple of times over a favorite couch spot (when she was woken up from a nap). Lately, she has become infatuated with a new infant in the house and protests when anyone picks the baby up. This means she is not a good fit for a home with small children—which is unfortunate because she definitely likes kids.
Lily will require a physically fenced yard.