About Dax

Dax was one of two pups born on 2/20/20 to a starved stray mama boxer-mix taken in by dog lovers in Tucson. She was lovingly raised to six months in the company of other dogs and two goats. Dax came to live on our goat farm with more dogs, three cats, equines and a lot of large goats. In a largely unobserved situation, Dax attacked an elderly goat who has a history of mild but dedicated aggression toward Dax. However, the attack resulted in stitches for the goat (who survived). We cannot have a goat-attacking dog on our farm, no matter the circumstances. Any other incident will result in Dax being put down (assuming she survives our Livestock Guardian dogs who had started to defend their goat during the first attack). Dax IS a great dog: She is very clever, learns quickly, is attention-seeking and very attentive, incredibly athletic, and loves to play with her frisbee (and is even learning to bring it back!). She really likes adults and older kids. She has been a mixed bag with younger children - she is intensely attentive and has barked at little kids (we think it's the voice and quick movements). We asked our vet to do a behavior analysis of Dax, watching Dax interact with children and other animals. Our vet concluded that Dax has a very high prey drive and she will be immensely distracted by small things that move quickly (like little kids) and while she did not think Dax was mean, she would not leave any dog Dax' size with small children - accidents happen. We did not trust Dax with chickens (though I brought her into the chicken pens with me and she was polite) and she was never unsupervised with our young, playful cats. I think she'd be fine with older, calm cats. Dax does require a firm (NOT ABUSIVE) handler who is familiar with the 'Bully' breeds; she will 'test' everyone who picks up the leash (she's a 'teenager' dog!). She has been to our local town, Phoenix and Flagstaff and rides great in the car (and really likes fast food!). For a quietly authoritative handler, Dax will heel, automatically sit, down, wait and come pretty reliably (the video shows Dax after a 2 month break in training, but we have had her out a bit since then, and she's improved). We use either a slip collar or a plastic pinch collar (on the recommendation of our vet) with Dax. She is trained to respond to body and voice signals, without pulling, but she will pull her handler if the handler lets her. Dax loves to be trained, loves toys/sticks/stuffed animals/blocks of wood, loves attention, loves to play, loves-loves-loves to play with other dogs but she is also very focused on other dogs and sometimes frightens them. Dax almost always comes when called. She is highly food motivated and she 'smiles'. Dax was spayed December 8th, has her 1 year rabies vaccination, her 4 puppy shots and recently, her annual booster. She will need her 3 year rabies in August. Dax needs an experienced dog person and at least one dog playmate. Email/Text is best to get ahold of me. Do not bother contacting if you are not willing to provide personal and vet references. Note: Dax did get out once more when someone failed to lock a gate. We do not know how long she was out, but we know she was hanging out in the goat pen at night, and there were no injuries to any party. We just cannot take chances.

Navajo County
SNOWFLAKE, Arizona