About Vera

July 15, 2018 To Whom It May Concern, I am writing in regards to a dog currently in an independent foster home who was rescued off the streets of South West Philadelphia following the bust of a dog fighting ring. I was hired by Ms. Penelope Waite to train her foster dog Vera, rehabilitate, socialize, and train her to make her adoptable and secure a forever home, but more importantly to make her a viable candidate for a rescue organization to pick her up and assist in finding her a new home. She can not stay in her current foster home where she has been living after August 31st due to foster's life situation and medical condition she is getting treatment for. Vera is a 1 year old spayed black and white female pit mix that may have been used as a bait dog in a dog fighting ring that was busted by PSPCA in April where she was found shortly thereafter as a stray. She is up to date on all her vaccines and is microchipped through Philadelphia Animal Hospital which is her current vet. She is fully housebroken and crate trained and has a very playful,snuggling, and very intelligent temperament. When Vera came to live with Ms Waite she was very underweight, very skittish, extremely anxious, had symptoms of PTSD such as hypervigilance, fears of loud noises, men, would cower when there were raised voices even if they were laughter or excitement, and she was very easily overstimulated and shut down. Ms Waite soon found however that Vera desperately wanted affection, love and snuggles from her. She knew no commands and had absolutely zero training. She was introduced to another dog too early after coming to stay at Ms Waites house without enough time to decompress and exhibited dog aggression. However, Ms Waite was determined to correct her own mistake and hired me to train both her and Vera and has been extremely dedicated training two times a week. The dogs were able to be seperated in the house and have made phenomenal progress since those early days in April, It became clear that Vera was incredibly smart, wanted to please and needed to be a puppy with a purpose. Moving forward to present day, Vera has mastered all her basic commands including sit, down, place, look, touch, under, right side, left side, front, and rear, she has incredibly good loose leash walking skills and has slack on the leash almost all the time, 'cross' to cross the street, while she also stops and waits at all intersections. She has also learned the command 'bed time' and settles into her crate or up on her own futon. She has also worked on and is very successful with leave it in regards to food on the ground, other dogs, people and noise stimulation that originally created such distress for her. Vera initially had trouble adjusting to life in the city with noises, trolleys, busses, garbage trucks, music, and overall high levels of stimulation. With a great deal of training and practice she is now quite comfortable walking down any streets that are residential and those that are more commercial. She has practiced walking through the local farmers market, sitting at cafes in a down and has been appropriately socialized a variety of stimulating environments. These have included Shakespeare in the Park, Jazz Night in Cedar Park, Historic Woodland Cemetery, Farmers Market and Art Festivals in Rittenhouse, has spent time riding in cars and does fine. We also wanted to ensure that Vera could work with other handlers especially males given that was an issue when she first came to live with Ms. Waite. Now Vera is able to be walked by a professional male dog walker that comes to the home, gets her, walks her various environments, practices her commands (please see attached photos) and she has no issues with males at this point except for males who are visibly intoxicated that she sees from her porch and then she barks. She has also met and socialized with Ms Waite's father, and some of her male friends in the community and done really well. In the home she had issues very early on with the other dog living in the home which forced them to have to be seperated and for Vera to wear a muzzle when around the other dog. We have gotten to the point where both dogs can be laying on the couch with Vera muzzled and they are completely fine; no issues. It appears that the escalation in play triggered aggressive behavior from Vera, but was originally initiated by the other dog in the home. With additional training and practice they can now be in the same room and even on the same couch without Vera having to wear a muzzle for up to 2 hours at a time. In addition Vera and the other dog in the home have been able to play in the backyard with no issues as long as Vera is muzzled (Please see attached videos) She is also currently living with 2 cats and wants to play with them but again is muzzled when around the cats. She can now lay down on the floor and ignore the cats all together for extended periods of time.

Philadelphia County
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19143