** UPDATE – AUGUST 26th, 2015 – Frankie has been adopted! Woo hoo! **

We rescued Frankie from Burlington Animal Control where he ended up as a stray. Frankie was not happy being in a cage in the shelter, and showed his displeasure by being aggressive at the door of his kennel. The staff had a hard time with his disposition and the decision was made to euthanize him. Being a city shelter, the only way the public can view an animal for adoption is by seeing him in the kennel, and nobody was going to adopt a “cage aggressive” dog. When the staff took him out of the kennel to euthanize him, he started wagging his tail and licking their faces. An amazing turnaround! The staff went back down the hall and put Frankie back in his kennel. In the next few weeks, Frankie became very attached to a couple of the staff members, and they were able to handle him and lessen the cage aggression. They then began contacting rescues to get him placed into a foster home situation. We went to meet Frankie, and he was just sweet as can be. We knew he would thrive outside of the shelter environment, so we rescued him and took him straight to the vet to be neutered. While under for his neuter, the vet removed a small lump from his rectal area. It was sent away for testing and came back non-cancerous. There is a chance the lump will return, so potential adopters need to be aware that the lumps will need to be removed if they do.

Here’s a report from Frankie’s foster home:

“Frankie is smart boy with lots of love to give. He’s very good with people once he warms up to them; he loves to get attention and give plenty of kisses in return. It’s hard to even get a good picture of him at rest because he’ll come over for attention as soon as you look at him! We originally thought his nonstop activity was just due to being cooped up in a shelter for so long but soon realized that he’s just a high-energy dog who loves checking everything out. Every dog-savvy person who has met him says he seems to have some Beagle mixed with his Cardigan Welsh Corgi background so it’s no wonder he’s intelligent, curious and full of energy!
Frankie came to us with some not-so-great manners which we have been working on improving with good results. We assume his former owners let him have run of the house and didn’t set many boundaries for him (if any) so he likes to get into the garbage, put his paws on the table, push through a doorway first, and jump up on people for attention. In keeping with that theme, he protests loudly at being kept in a crate and given his “cage aggression” at the shelter, it is very likely that he was not crate trained. All of our foster dogs that come into our home are crated when unsupervised and Frankie is no exception. He is so much better with being crated overnight and no longer barks after we go to bed; he still barks at being crated during waking hours whether he’s left alone or not but eventually gives up.
During some training sessions, he has gotten a bit snarly when being corrected by the collar overhead, so it is best he does not go to a home with young children. His ideal forever family should be one that has experience with dogs and will continue the training we have started with him on better manners and crating.
Frankie is housebroken and knows a few commands: sit, lay down, rollover, shake (both paws), sit pretty (sometimes jumping straight up), and ‘here’ (informal recall). Cats seem to hold no special interest for him so a home with feline siblings should be no issue; we have a very stubborn “alpha” male cat and a shy, flighty female cat, both of which he has shown little interest in. We’ve taken him to the dog park where he stayed pretty close by and didn’t interact much with other dogs as he was more interested in just exploring his surroundings and playing on his own. He is usually good around other dogs once he gets to know them a little better on his terms; he will get a bit snappy if a “strange” dog invades his space and hasn’t seemed to care for more dominant dogs. Now that he has bonded with his foster sister, they get along wonderfully and play together as much as they can. When he’s not playing or keeping an eye on things, he’s usually camped out on the floor gnawing away on a Nylabone (he also enjoys bully sticks and has shown a little bit of interest in elk antlers).
Frankie is the ultimate grazer… he’ll take one or two pieces of food at a time and wander around to eat them. His foster sister likes to follow him around practically nose-to-nose with him, hoping a piece of food will fall out of his mouth that she can snatch up. Now that he appears to have gotten his appetite back, we’ve seen that when his food bowl gets empty he’ll pick it up, take it out of his crate, and drop it on the floor. He loves carrots, unpeeled apples and peanut butter (he thought my finger was part of his first peanut butter treat… oops!) and is very eager to do anything to get them as treats!
We hope he finds a loving home who can continue to set boundaries for him but also gives him all the love and attention (and carrots!) he deserves. <3”

Photos by Bumps and Beans Photography

When his foster family had to go away for the weekend, Frankie got to spend time at Briar Meadows Dog Daycare and Boarding Facility, and as you can see from the photos below, he had a great time!

Click here to see Frankie on CHCH News during a story about Munchies Coffee House and Barkery!

August 18th, 2015

We’re happy to announce that our adoptable dog Frankie has started training sessions with Bark Busters Hamilton-Niagara !
Frankie was having some issues with dominance, and excessive barking when left alone, and Michelle Bailey from Bark Busters offered to volunteer her services to help Frankie through these troubles to make him a happier dog for his future forever home. And when Frankie is adopted, Michelle will offer her services at a discount to Frankie’s adopters! Win win!

Here’s a report from Michelle about Frankie’s first lesson:

“Lesson #1 with Frankie:
First of all, a dog couldn’t ask for a better foster home than where Frankie is right now. His fosters – Jessica and Brian, are smart, dog-savvy, and committed to helping animals. They have done some great work with Frankie already, and he has come leaps and bounds from where he started.
I think I speak for all of us when I say that, even though it was late in the day, and we were all a bit tired, we got some great work accomplished and had fun doing it.

The first bit of good news is: Frankie is now quite comfortable in his crate! Jessica and Brian have clearly worked very hard to make sure that he voluntarily goes in and stays in his crate. Our job now is to make sure that he stays there, quietly, until his foster folks say it’s time to come out. (aka: not have Frankie barking for attention in the morning)
In the next few weeks we will be working on Frankie’s reaction to sound. Right now, he is very reactive to sounds – the door, people walking by the fence etc. I have every confidence that Frankie will learn, and learn quickly.
The other good news is: Frankie is a sweet, responsive and very loving dog. He was eager to please, once he understood what we wanted.
I’m so glad Ladybird Animal Sanctuary rescued him from being destroyed. The right owner will be very lucky to have him.
More to come!
Frankie’s adoption page can be found here: https://www.ladybirdanimalsanctuary.com/las515/
Please share far and wide! Let’s see if we can’t find this sweet guy a forever home.”

Visit Michelle’s profile on the Bark Busters website.