About Orvie

We are looking for a very loving home for our beloved and affectionate 4-year-old mutt Orvie (short for Orville). He is loyal, affectionate, well-trained, and playful with no bad habits. He is a beautiful boy that we adopted from the SPCA at 11 weeks old. He is neutered, microchipped, and we have only fed him the best food and have 100% maintained his vet, heartworm and flea/tick needs. He is tall and leggy at 80ish pounds and we think he is a mix of beagle, retriever, great pyrenees and possibly hound. He is used to three-ish 45-60 min walks per week, sheds a lot in spring, loves lying in comfortable spots like beds and couches, and really enjoys outdoor time (but refuses to swim!). When going on trips we have used a dogsitter who loves and knows Orvie, but early on we took him to a few local boarders and he can handle that too. We have loved and enjoyed him immensely, and are heartbroken to have to find a new home for him. Orvie is highly stressed by active children aged 18 months to 13 years, and we have a toddler and an infant. We did a lot of training with Orvie and our toddler which has made the situation manageable, but it is clear that two children has only decreased Orvie's quality of life in terms of daily stress. Our toddler is somewhat afraid of Orvie and thankfully has done NO hitting, teasing or 'messing with' Orvie so we think he had some kind of early negative experience, before us, with children. He has snapped at our toddler a lot but has never bitten him or another child. Once on a walk he snapped at a 10 yr old boy who approached him quickly without asking us first. His stress around children is expressed by growling, whining, snapping, aggressive barking, and literally trying to escape the room/situation. Our ideal home for Orvie is an older couple or single who loves dogs and the outdoors. We are hesitant to rehome him to owners in their childbearing years, as we wouldn't want him to need to be rehomed again. Our ideal new owners live on a location with a large yard or a little land, as Orvie takes his guard dog responsibilities seriously and we feel he would likely be barking/anxious in a neighborhood setting with many people/dogs/delivery trucks coming and going. We have had him on an invisible shock collar fence near a busy road, and he has always respected the fence boundary. On numerous occasions he has alerted us to potential threats, like copperheads near the house or random folks walking on our property, and has also hunted a few squirrels and groundhogs near the house - we will miss his steadfast protection! We would also love to see him stay in the Charlottesville or central Virginia area so we can visit him as part of the adjustment period.

Contact

Albemarle County
Charlottesville, Virginia

Email

Lauren Maupin: 4349810452

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