Sasha's info:

Sex: Female
Age: 5 years old
Size: Large
Breed: Crossbreed

Bio:

Introducing... beautiful Sasha!

Sasha's Story:

Poor Sasha has spent a majority of her life living in a public kill shelter in Romania. She has seen nothing of life and received some truly horrendous treatment from humans.

We have seen a change is Sasha recently. Outside, we have caught little glimpses of her playing with her best friends Nero and Alex but this only lasts 30 seconds or so until the fear of the outside world takes over again and she paces around and around the field until she is let back inside to the safety of her kennel.

As Sasha feels safer inside, this is where she spends a majority of her time. Because of this we have ensured she gets to spend 1-1 time with at least one person, per shift.

To start with, we couldn't touch her. She's sit at the back on her crate and avoid any kind of eye contact. Not, she seems to look forward to the bonding time, sometimes even standing up to greet us and recently she has sniffed our faces and given us a little lick.

She loves her food and will now interact with toys with us - squeakers are her absolute favourite! She doesn't get off her bed to play but the fact that she's comfortable enough to eat and squeak her toys whilst we are sat with her is amazing when we remember back to how she once used to be.

Sasha no longer tolerates strokes but actually seems to enjoy them now and even enjoys a daily brush.

Whilst all of these things are huge milestones for Sasha, she is still a VERY frightened girl and going into a home, she will need a very patient owner that is willing to give her all of that time to help her trust them too just like she has with us for the past 10 months. It will be a slow journey but such a rewarding one.

Sasha has never known love before and has never been able to trust any human. This is something she will experience for the first time when she finds her very own family and forever home.

With other dogs:

Sasha has lots of dog friends that she spends her time with during play time. She has known nothing other than dogs as she has grown up surrounded by them in the kill shelter. Unfortunately, during kennels shares at Oakwood though, she has started a few scuffles. We believe this will be because Sasha has always had to fight for everything in her life including food, water and shelter. We hope that in time, she will learn that this is no longer neccessary. Because of this behaviour, we have assessed that she would not be safe to live with another dog in a home however we will continue to monitor this and update her bio if there are any changes.

Moderate energy

Sasha hasn't yet shown us her true personality so it's hard to say what her energy level is. She is too scared to play and on many occassions she has been seen trying to climb the fences to get back to the safety of her kennel.

3-4 hours

Sasha has never been in a home before. She won't understand the do's and don't's. Periods of time alone will need to be slowly built up until she is comfortable and knows she is safe

Lead trained

Sasha has never been walked on a collar / harness and lead. She has only ever known grasper poles so will likely have neck trauma and it will take a lot of patience and positive reinforcement for her to learn to accept lead training.