Chance

Chance is truly a smart, connected, loving, sensitive dog! He is a different dog depending on how he is handled. When well led by a connected and engaged human Chance is calm, extremely responsive, obedient, and non-aggressive. Left without enough leadership, structure and stimulation Chance is anxious, ignores cues, and guards aggressively. This is very typical of shepherds and shepherd mixes (which we suspect Chance is). In the right hands Chance is an amazing dog, the kind so connected and loving that he steals your heart. This gorgeous and sweet boy desperately wants to give someone his everything, you just need the skill to handle it! https://washingtongsd.org/about-gsds/ (click to learn more) He enjoys his offleash forest walks but should always go back to the basic leash training at least once a day. Duke will do well in a home without children and cats and a family that has medium high to high energy lifestyle to cope with his need for mental and physical stimulation.

Chance was just weaned and wondered on the street with his mom in Southern Taiwan. One day, a foreign worker from a culture that eats dogs took Chance away from his mother. The rescuers were following the pup closely, and thought Chance would have a chance of a happy home, but that wasn’t the case. They let chance roam without feeding him. If he’s thirsty, he travels to next door drinking dirty water. When he’s scared, he runs to hide under the neighbour’s couch in the open carpool. The neighbour successfully convinced the owners to surrender Chance, and named the pup, Chance.

Chance was quickly adopted in Canada and traveled here to live with a young family and another Formosan Mountain Dog and he was named Duke in the new home. Maybe it is because he treasures his new family too much that he developed reactivity towards dogs and people, and had to be muzzled when walking outside. COVID has contributed to his separation anxiety, and Chance would break out of the house to look for mom if she leaves the house only for a few minutes. When Chance broke out of the home, he would go around the neighbourhood, barking at people and refused to be touched by anyone. Worse yet, he started to lunge a children. The family tried everything they could including hiring a trainer and stay in close contact with CooGo. After careful considerations, they decided to surrender him back to CooGo.

In the new foster, Chance was sad for the first week and wanted to break out of the home to get back to his family. With patience, love and management, he quickly bonded with the foster, and learned how to socialize with dogs while controlling his guarding instinct. Chance loves hiking the North Shore mountains and thoroughly enjoys playing chases with his Formosan friends. Chance is still learning to enjoy himself in the dog park but mostly he stands at the side and appears intrigued. He likes going into the streams and burry his nose in to nudge and play with the pebbles. He also has fantastic recall even when in stressful situations. Right now, he lives with his foster mom, dad, a dog, three cats, and a 12 year old child.

Chance is a smart, connected, loving, sensitive dog that displays classic shepherd traits. Quoting from the Washington German Shepherd Rescue’s profile (click to learn more), Chance needs an assertive, emotionally strong, and at the same time easy going leader to be his owner. He can co-exist with children but anticipate nips and guarding behaviours towards the child in the beginning.