About Simcoe

Simcoe is an almost 3yo mutt, rescued as a stray in Texas when he was a few months old and went through several foster homes before I got him at 7mo. Pros: He's a cute and cuddly clown. Very sweet and playful. Crate trained. Food motivated. Mostly good on a leash, good walking and running buddy. Decent with recall, he can be off leash in a lot of settings. Knows basic commands. Has been awesome with kids, he loves them. Barks only briefly if someone is at the door, whines when he needs something, otherwise quiet. He loves attention but does settle down and can be independent. He doesn't chew on anything that he shouldn't. Good in the car even for very long trips (just don't feed him immediately before!). When supervised he mostly behaves aside from the below. Cons: He's a stubborn spirit and has been very difficult to train. Teaching him to do a new behavior/trick with treats goes fine, but it's very hard to teach him NOT to do things. He will definitely do things he knows he shouldn't do if not being monitored. Multiple foster homes couldn't get him potty trained. He's now reliable at our home but in new places he doesn't always seem to get it. He used to jump up on people constantly, now he mostly doesn't but when he gets excited he sometimes will. I haven't had him around cats but he does have a prey drive. The big problem is increasing aggression. We saw ZERO signs of aggression from him initially but over time he started to do a little food guarding and growling/barking at people working in our house. He likes to play with other dogs and also used to be good at the dog park other than being too energetic/pushy with submissive dogs, but over time he got to be reactive with some dogs; he tried to bite a dog who approached him while he was eating. He is still usually fine with other dogs and we have found a group boarding situation that works fine for him. But now he has started lunging and trying to bite people. Mostly it has seemed like he's being protective of me, when someone he doesn't know is entering the house or coming towards me. He has also growled at me when I have needed to take something tasty away from him. We saw a trainer but he wasn't aggressive with her and I don't feel like we got anywhere. My life has been very tumultuous and I think he needs some stability in order to make progress on this. He also needs a positive training approach, I think being punished has unfortunately been the most effective way to get him to stop unwanted behaviors but has probably contributed to the aggression. I think he's a great dog who needs some TLC in a very safe, stable home.

King County
Burien, Washington