Georgia - a beautiful, sweet people-pleaser, full of love - would be a GREAT guardian and companion

6/30/17 Great news:

*****Georgia has been adopted!!*****

Thanks so much to her new Daddy Gabriel, her foster Mom Karen, and for all the help provided by Michele, Curt and Colleen. It really does take a village : )

-Laura

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A note from Laura...

How I met Georgia

This beautiful gal is Georgia!!!  She is just as sweet and full of personality as I'd hoped she would be! (you can see some tail-wagging videos if you scroll down).

Here's a video with Georgia ... she is just so sweet and loving!!!

This picture on the left is her loving on her foster mama. She actually stood like this for over 15 minutes, wanting to keep cuddling and so excited to be rescued!!

Photo that captured my heart

This whole thing started when....

I saw Georgia on Nextdoor.com when a very big hearted woman named Colleen posted multiple photos of dogs needing emergent rescuing. There was something about Georgia and her sad eyes that just grabbed my heart. You could see from the pics that she'd had puppies and was discarded like a piece of trash.  It seemed just wrong so I inquired a bit more....


 Colleen informed me about  Curt and Michele who devote huge amounts of time to rescuing dogs from high kill shelters in the Central Valley.  Curt & Michele are volunteers for The Friends of Madera Animal Shelter - click here to see the Facebook Page).

I knew I had to help! I can't have dogs but there was something about Georgia's face that just got to me. I wanted to do something to save her, so I offered to do free photography for anyone who could foster this sweet mama.

A very kind woman named Karen stepped in and offered to foster Georgia. I don't even think she needed the photography (though I gladly take pics for her) but she clearly wanted to help too.

Curt (whom many of us consider to be a God) dropped off Georgia at Karen's place.  She and  Colleen took her for a nice walk around Stanford Shopping Center where she was complimented (multiple times) on her beauty.

Georgia is so lucky to be in such capable hands.  Karen is an amazing foster mom.  She too has a large dog (a German Shepherd) and is dedicated to finding her the perfect home.

Georgia's ideal home is with someone who is willing to exercise care, caution and responsibility in having her, as she a very strong dog who will need regular exercise.



On a different note...I just saw a dog walking down Redwood Ave in Redwood City and thought, wow she looks a lot like Georgia! So I pulled over to ask the dog walker what breed she is. He said she was a German Shorthaired Pointer. I couldn't help wondering if Georgia might have a little bit of that in her. Here is a picture of a German Shorthaired Pointer that I found on the internet (the dog with the red collar on the grass on the right... this is not Georgia but I see some similarities, including the tiny light spots all over her fur that are almost like a Dalmatian... you can see them better when she is closer).

And she seems to have the "jowls" of a pointer like you can see in this pic of a brown pointer (you'll see the jowls more in the pic at the top of this post). I got these pics from this page about German Pointers.

You can see the similarity in the jowls... not an exact match but she definitely has more of a "box" shaped snout than a pitbull, and we've been trying to figure out what the other breed(s) could be. At first I thought maybe she was a boxer or Great Dane, but now I'm thinking German Shorthaired pointer. Who knows... she could be a lot of different things.  If you adopt her, you can call her what you want!!! Jus don't call her late for dinner!!

  

Another update, 4/11/17:

I took her for a walk today and she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. I turned around, and Georgia was frozen in the "pointer" position, looking at a cat, with a paw raised, just like a German pointer! She is just too cute!!

  I reached for my camera to get a photo of her pointing, but my cell phone had died (which probably is a good thing because I was a little scared to stop holding her leash with 2 hands, when she was fixated on this poor cat). She didn't try to attack it, but she just froze in position, looking at it.

Georgia is getting used to being put in the "sit" position for a while.  As soon as she starts pulling me to hard or getting too excited over seeing another dog, I have her sit. And she is pretty good about it (and we're only on day 2 of going for walks).

Had to take this picture, when I saw a rainbow in the background : )

In this video further down, the video creator makes it sound like German Pointers can be hard to train, but honestly, I think Georgia has the potential to be a VERY well trained dog, with practice... I've already seen it. Yesterday, I took her for a walk and it was difficult to get her to sit.  I'd heard she knew how to sit, but it was apparent that she only wanted to sit if you'd give her treats. I've trained dogs before and just wasn't about to put up with this.  So, I took her out for about an hour and had her sit several times. She didn't sit very readily, but I did get her to sit (I had to push her butt down to the ground over and over again, and use a lot of muscle, to get her to "get it"!)

Well, today we went on a 2 hour walk, and she sat almost every time I asked her to! She still needs more discipline, but I was shocked by how much improvement she showed after just one day, which tells me that Georgia is not only smart, but she is eager to please.   If the dog in the video below can be trained to do this stuff, I truly believe Georgia can become a VERY well trained dog as well. She just needs someone with patience who is willing to show her some boundaries, and give her lots and lots and lots of praise (the ultimate key to getting a dog to do what you want).  The fastest way to train a dog is, make a biiig deal out of every little thing they do right!

I just learned that German Shorthaired Pointers have won "Best In Show" at Westminster 3 times!

True, Georgia is not a purebreed, but.. I'm actually kind of happy about that : ).  They say the German Shorthaired Pointer is a cross between the English pointer, the Dalmation, the Weimaraner, the tracking hound, and the Vizsla.

Some info on the German Shorthaired Pointer...

I completely agree with the guy who says this, in the video:

"It's a huge myth that a hyper dog is the most difficult dog to train. The hyper dog is just the one that wants to be stimulated... that wants to work with a human being." Again... I was pretty shocked by how quickly Georgia was able to learn how to sit on command!

Some cool facts about German Shorthaired pointers, on this page: 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/77248/9-winning-facts-about-german-shorthaired-pointer

Here's a paragraph from the page:

German shorthaired pointers have also been used to guard homes, pull sleds, and sniff for bombs. They have a variety of different attributes that make them perfect for any job in and out of the water. Their water-resistant coats repel debris as they swim, while their spoon-shaped webbed paws act as paddles. On land, their heavy nails help them get traction on even rough terrain. 

So, back to Georgia...

4/8/17: Our first meeting!  We got to take Georgia to Pet Food Express on Woodside today, and she was very good and patient when we gave her a bath. And the people at PFE were so awesome, I really appreciate that a lot. They were super helpful, gave us a discount because it was Georgia's first bath, and they hooked us up with lots of treats!

She was just so darn cute and happy...  even in the dog bath room. She was so thrilled to see other dogs. Clearly she wanted to make some new friends. This was Georgia, after her bath.

It was also impressive to see how good she is with people. I haven't had very long to get to know her but can't help thinking she would be a really sweet family dog, and a good, loyal protector. Please know that, due to the fact that some of these rescue shelters get up to 30 dogs a day, they just don't have the resources to do extensive testing on these animals, to see if they are good with kids, cats, other dogs, etc..   

But from what I saw, of Georgia's personality, she seems like the type of dog a whole family would really love to have in their home.

This is Georgia after her bath... with Karen, her foster Mommy!

I want to point out that Georgia has some kind of infection on her jowls and some other parts of her skin, but honestly I am confident it will be gone within a week. I actually told Colleen I'd bet 100 bucks it will clear up quickly from using Kangen 2.5 acidic water (which is the same thing as Vetericyn... it's hypochlorous acid which is electrolyzed reduced water made with sodium hypochlorite). I will be posting after pics soon. The Kangen water works like a miracle. I have a machine that makes this stuff (so does Cesar Milan... you can learn more about it here). If you have a dog that needs this water just contact me via the contact form on the right side of the page and I can share it with you for free. We are giving Georgia the Kangen drinking water plus the 2.5 acidic water on her face and other irritated parts on her skin. Hypochlorous acid is also known to clear up pinkeye!

If you would like to inquire about Georgia, please fill out this adoption form. 

Thanks!

Laura