Juniper

Juniper is a sweet, 8 year old female mixed breed dog. She had a rough start to life as a stray, suffered and overcame heartworm and has shown everyone who meets her how smart, gentle and funny is truly is. Although she has come so far, she still carries a lot of the baggage and anxiety from her earlier days. Junie loves to take naps, relax, stretch her legs and look forward to things in her usual routine. Walks, people and squirrel watching, stretching out on the couch. She also loves to be around friends, go to the pet store, the hardware store or Starbucks. She adores car rides and playing in sprinklers. Sometimes those fun outings can be overstimulating and cause her to become stressed and can also be stressful for her human friends. Her current foster parents have found out that taking time to introduce her to any new situation- allowing her to see (and safely sniff) a new place, keeping the first visit short and pairing it with treats, praise and patience can make a huge difference for her. She has time and time again shown that with each visit to a slightly less routine place, she becomes more comfortable and relaxed. And yes, we think her new adopters may even need to do this with their neighborhood coffee shop.

Adopters will also need to pre-plan for potentially high stress situations where Junie may feel the need to act first and ask questions later before she understands what is happening. Asking people to give her space and giving her breaks when she needs them are very important for Junie. The great thing is: Junie enjoys being around friends in a predictable way such as having her mat to sit on with a chew treat when she needs a break from being a social butterfly.