About Whitley

This animal is available to licensed rescue groups only. Please do not enquire unless with a licensed rescue group. We bought Whitley from a pet store when she was about 6 months old and we have had her for 4 years. She is a bluetick hound mix and we kept the name she came with. We were told she was born somewhere down South. She has been spayed and vaccinated. We first got Whitley when our daughters were 4 and 7 and likely underestimated the commitment required to care for a dog like Whitley while raising children. She has always been friendly and playful and enjoys being wherever the action is at. Because of her high energy, we built a fence around our backyard so she could have space to run around. When no one is around, she likes to lounge in the backyard hammock. She typically sleeps on our couch & likes to snuggle and burrow under blankets. She's never been in a crate and hasn't spent too much time around other dogs, but she's always interacted fine with other dogs we come across when we go out for walks. I have no reason to believe she wouldn't get along with other dogs. (Less sure about how guarded she would be if food and/or toys would be involved.) She is very vocal and loud and will bark at other animals in the yard. This could irritate the wrong neighbors who might be in close proximity. She will at times jump up on guests out of excitement and snatch food from counters despite our efforts to discourage this and other unwanted behaviors. She also might dart out the front door if you're not vigilant about closing the gap. Training Whitley to consistently obey our commands proved to be difficult for us. Had we have been more conscientious we would have gotten her professional behavioral training. She would benefit from this greatly and my hope would be that she still could and that it wouldn't be too little too late. Most discouraging has been her behavior around food. We've taken to isolating her to the backyard or a different room while we eat meals and a locking garbage can is a must. She will take unattended food or trash and sometimes aggressively defend it. She will growl and even bite if she feels someone might be coming to take away these things from her. She has bitten multiple people over this issue. Most recently, she bit our youngest daughter when she hopped off the couch and apparently tripped and fell near/on the dog? It's obvious we're in over our heads. Our vet hasn't given us much hope to believe we would have much chance in re-homing her and suggested the possibility of putting her down. I'm having a difficult time accepting this fate. The manager at our local dog training facility and other rescue workers said to consult a behavioral specialist but acknowledged this could be a slow and time- consuming process.

Bucks County
Perkasie, Pennsylvania