Bruce's story

　　From the foster: Im not sure calling a dog scared or shy is a negative quality. Its just a quality. Other than that, Bruce does not have any negative qualities. We spent quite a lot of time with this big boy over the past two days to gain some great insight into his personality. We have not seen one negative thing about him. Bruce has a fear of thresholds, usually crossing them to come inside rather than to go out. He will sometimes stop and completely pancake rather than cross one. One can only imagine what has caused this fear in him. I have had to literally pick him up to move him across a threshold. He couldnt care less that I was moving him. Didnt blink. Just accepted he didnt want to cross, and if you could move him from point A to B, he was OK with that. When I went to get him out of his kennel today, I put the leash on him but he didnt move. I walked right into his kennel and stood behind him. I gave his butt a shove and moved him out. Zero reaction from him. Once out of the kennel, he will walk on the leash, although he is cautious and will look around every corner very carefully. Outside in the run, he doesnt totally relax, he is always on guard for something to happen to him. Again, he wont show an ounce of aggression. The poor thing just needs reprogramming to teach him humans can be good and loving. Hes easy to fall in love with. You can do anything to him, he doesnt react. I lifted up one side of his jowls and put a snack in there. He just left it there resting against his mouth, too scared to touch it. He let me re-lift his jowl and remove it. Today was the first time he finally started taking some treats from me. He went on a nice walk with both Tim K first, then me later, as we took him through the South Adoption building. He did great on those walks. We hung outside with him and several other dogs, all in close proximity, all sniffing him, no reaction whatsoever. He got to hang out with Lancelot and Madison just outside the South Adoption building, as well as a very exuberant, large male Staffie that a trainer was working with. All four dogs hung out in the same space, and all four did great with the other dogs in their presence. It is painful to see such a magnificent creature be so unsure of himself. I have no doubt that Bruce will blossom beautifully in a quiet environment with a patient foster. This will be a fun dog to turn around.

　　This sweet boy will be available at our adoption event this Saturday 1/12 at the Fort Collins Petco 2211 S. College Ave from 10am-1pm. If you are interested in this friendly boy, please submit an application through our website aaanimalrescue.org. We can set up meet and greets before the adoption event. Please feel free to email with any questions [email protected].

　　Breed and size disclosure: As a rescue all of our dogs come to us from high-kill shelters or other rescues, so we do not get a lot of background or information on these dogs. We occasionally receive the mother with the puppies, but in most cases both parents are unknown. Because of this we do not know the full breeding of the dogs. We are required to list the dogs based on the breeds provided to us on their records, but they are all mixed breeds as far as we know, and we cannot guarantee the actual breeds of any of these dogs. Since the full breeding of the dogs is unknown we can also only give you an educated guess on the full-grown size of the dogs. All of the current information we have on the dogs is listed in their bio above. More information may be available at our adoption event, since a lot of the fosters turn in report cards on how the dog has done in their care when they drop them off.

　　Adoption Process: If you are interested in adopting from us, the first step of our adoption process is to fill out an application online at http://aaanimalrescue.org/adoption_app.html. It takes us 24-48 hours to process your application and get back to you, via email. Applications turned in Friday afternoon or Saturday morning will not be processed since we are preparing for or at our adoption event. We do have applications on site at our events, but are not always able to approve them at that time and many of the dogs will already have holds on them, so we suggest you fill out an application prior to attending an adoption event. We can place a hold on one dog per approved applicant after a deposit fee has been received, please do not ask to hold a dog if you have not turned in an application and been approved, for the first hour of our adoption event, so that they can get the first chance to meet and hopefully adopt that dog. After the first hour of the event all dogs are available on a first come, first serve basis. If you already have an approved application on file, there will just be more paperwork and the adoption fee at the event, but you will be able to take home the dog/puppy that day. Since we are foster based and do not have a location, our dogs are only available to meet at our events, unless otherwise noted.