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| Name: |
Seven
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Age: |
Two and a half years old
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| Gender: |
Male |
Breed: |
Dog |
| Home: |
Suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
This
is my little boy Seven. We think he's a shepherd/lab/greyhound mix
but the consensus changes every time people see him. They just know him
as the white dog with big ears and honey colored eyes. He was rescued at
a very young age and came from a very tough place. At six months he had
been abused and even tattooed. He was left tied to the front door of an
animal shelter in Philadelphia in the winter of 2000. Fate had me in
Philadelphia that day and when my best friend and I stopped in on a
whim, Seven and I made eye contact and the rest is history. Seven, even
though he has been through more than any animal should, is still the
friendliest dog in our Philly suburb town. It's impossible to walk
through town without women stopping me so their children can play with
him and remarkably, given his start in life, has never been aggressive
with kids or other animals. He's easily the best thing to happen to me
in years. I'm not sure of his age, but Seven's roughly 2 1/2 years old.
I've had him for almost two years and he was still a puppy when he was
rescued.
Seven is a very well adjusted dog. Sometimes he has too much personality
if that's possible. He's a talker, much like my old husky. I've found
that he usually will make vocalizations when women play with him more
than men. He's very sociable with other dogs and can be pretty hyper
at times. Boundless energy and he loves to run. Favorite games? He love
to play hide the keys. I deal with this almost daily. He's a swimmer and
after thinking I would need to coax him into the water when we drove up
to the Poconos on vacation, as soon as he saw the water, he sprinted for
it and wouldn't come out. His favorite games are fetch (with water toys
and balls) and pursuit. I have seen him bait other dogs into chasing him
even when they didn't seem interested at first. He is definitely a pack
animal and loves to be involved in the crowd.
Everyone gives me credit for being a wonderful trainer and handler when
the truth of the matter is, Seven is just a really smart dog. When I
started training him, we only needed to go over things once or twice
before he "got it" and is so smart that he figured out that when we come
to intersections, he will sit down and wait for me to move to get up and
cross the street. He even understands the command "get comfortable."
When he is told this, he will grab all of the pillows in sight and pile
them up and lay on them. He kicks his feet and stretches until they are
spread out enough that he can lay in the middle of them.
I guess that the thing people notice first about him are his ears. They
are very expressive, probably more so than you or I are with our
eyebrows. He is also very protective. We were at the dog park not too
far from my house and a couple was arguing. The guy was a little louder
than the woman and Seven stepped in between them and sat with his back
to her, staring at him and wouldn't let him get any closer to her. He
never barked or growled, but made it very clear that he was protecting
her. I think that's why he is such an amazing dog. He seems to
understand a lot of things on a "people" level.
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