Daisy Mae is a 4-year-old, girl, hound weighing in at 33 pounds, but is grossly underweight. Daisy came to TAPS in early October from Kentucky and, like so many dogs, came with a blank slate of information which made it fun to take her out of the shelter to learn more about her. Also, when she arrived at TAPS, she was heartworm positive and was unable to participate in any activities until recently as she just finished her heartworm treatment.
In her kennel, Daisy can best be described as extremely excited and hard to keep still, but she is a hound and her bred demands this type of behavior. But I suspect life has not been kind to sweet Daisy which is evident when you touch her because she will winch and shutter with human touch, yet she quickly quiets down to embrace the human touch that is unfamiliar to her. Car rides also seem foreign to Daisy, and at first she needed assistance in the car because she is scared and slightly shivers with fear of the unknown, but later in the ride she settled in and enjoyed looking out the window, enjoyed her puppacino and eventually she found her favorite spot – in your lap.
Once she got to my house she was extremely curious, but this is not surprising given she is a hound and hounds love to explore. It is evident that Daisy has never been in a house before because she was absolutely fascinated by my TV, skittish when she realized cabinets “move” when their doors are opened, and curious of my inside trees (Christmas). But even though it appears Daisy has never been in a house, I do believe she will settle into a home well because in the short amount of time she was at my house, I witnessed a layer of anxiety shed and she started to calm down. And once Daisy discovered my toy box full of bones, her tail wagged with excitement as she dug through to find the perfect bone and settled in for a good chew session.
Although I did not introduce my dogs to Daisy, she appeared to want to meet my dogs that were in a different room making themselves known, and she seemed happy when she witnessed another dog at Starbucks, so Daisy may be dog friendly. In closure, Daisy is extremely sweet and human friendly, and a learning curve will be needed as she settles into living in a house. And as stated earlier, I believe that someone was not kind to Daisy in her past so potential adopters should be mindful of this when giving her corrections because if the tone is too sharp, she startles easily and tightens up her body in fear. Daisy will also need to learn potty training and needs a patient adopted to help her learn this unfamiliar ritual.
