Sam

Like Janet, Sam was born in Romania, southeastern Europe. He came to Germany from a killing station as a puppy. He had to leave his first foster home shortly after because of his behaviour, and was brought to the same shelter as Janet. He was adopted twice, but brought back to the shelter after a few weeks every time. His behaviour was described as territorial and overly excited. Staff and volunteers started working on that, but Sam turned out to be one of the tough cases.

My husband noticed Sam during the dog walks the shelter holds every Sunday, which he participates in with Janet. Sam and Janet got along very well, and so we decided to become a foster home for Sam and work on his problems in a more suitable enviroment until he found his forever home. But no more adoption requests for Same were made, and soon he found a place in our hearts despite all the problems, and he officially joined our pack ten months later.

It soon became obvious that Sam has two faces. He loves his pack and is very affectionate and cuddly with my husband and I. When he isn’t distracted, he is a quick learner and responds quickly to commands. He is eager to please and loves to be praised. And he enjoys to play with his tennis ball.

He is a completely different dog when someone comes near the house or comes in. Then he barks distressedly at the door or the windows and is prepared to defend his territory. While taking a walk, he pulls on the leash, tries to attack joggers and bikers and can barely concentrate on his human. He is very anxious and shaking. Changes need a lot of time and many, many repetitions. We consulted with experts because we wanted to find out how such a young dog (Sam is born on November 5th, 2014) can have so many issues. The opinion was he experienced very bad things in his first weeks, and that he always will be a anxious dog, but improvement by  loving assertiveness is possible.

We believe in our little man and will go on practising with him every day. Samwoof, you have all the hime in the world with us!