Olive has been adopted!
Meet Olive, the puppy who will steal both your heart AND your socks!
Olive comes from an Indigenous reserve In Northern Ontario. Olive was rescued by a group that works with Northern communities. Save Me Rescue is proud to help puppies, like her, to find amazing forever homes. These puppies are called ‘Nordic mixes’. They often have a combination of Husky, Shepherd, Border Collie and/or Lab in them but you never know quite what you are going to get! In our experience, they grow into dogs with lovely personalities who do best with active families. They are destined to be intelligent dogs who will require training and tasks to keep them healthy and balanced. They will require an active family that will include them in their recreation time.
At just 10 weeks old, Olive has had quite an exciting life so far! She’s traveled a long distance to get to her foster family and is now ready to find her special, furever family! In the short time she’s been with her foster family she’s opened up and shown just how adorable she is. She’s got a lot of personality going on for such a small dog.
Although she may be tiny now, she will likely grow to be about 60lbs when full grown so she’s got a lot of growing to do and really needs a family who will work with her as she grows. She is currently living with a fur sibling (a 4 year old shepherd mix) and she is completely in love with her foster sister! She follows her around like a little lost puppy (ha!) and is constantly trying to engage play with her. Her foster sister is very docile so she puts up with a lot of puppy antics, but Olive would greatly benefit from having a canine sibling to teach her the ropes of her new house and to act as buddy for her. Having a fur sibling will help teach her acceptable play and socialization, which are very important and will help her to grow to be a balanced dog. Within hours of being in her foster home, Olive had already figured out toys and what to do with them – she hasn’t put them down since! She enjoys playing tug with her foster sister and her humans, but her absolute favourite game (so far) is playing keep away with the human’s socks (or other laundry)!
Olive is a daring and adventurous puppy who will keep her new family both on their toes and continuously laughing! She is fairly independent as she will entertain herself with a toy for a while but will eventually seek out your attention. She is definitely a chewer, which could be from her puppy teeth bugging her or she might just be a chewer in general. Her new family will need to have plenty of safe toys for her to chew on so she doesn’t become destructive around the house.
Her foster home is working with her on crate training and house training. Currently Olive is pee pad trained: she will seek out the pee pads (located near the exits of the home) and do her business on them. She will do her business outside if she is outside when she has to go. She hasn’t shown her signals yet for when she needs to go, but her foster home believes since she picked up pee pads so quickly that transitioning to house training could also be quick with dedication and consistency. Her crate training is a little different: she is crated at night and the crate is in her foster mom’s bedroom for closeness but not out of the crate. She is struggling a little to settle at night (whining, barking) as she doesn’t really like to be forcibly alone, separated from others. She does settle down after she tires herself about (so far, about 30 – 45 minutes) but when foster mom goes out she doesn’t settle as easily. With training and consistency, her foster home believes this will lessen as this is the first time away from her litter mates and in a new environment. For these reasons, she would not do well in an apartment environment so a house would be best for this little one.
Olive is going to be a rambunctious and playful puppy who would do best with older children. She is currently mouthing things (as most puppies do) to explore her new world. She is very smart and picks up on things very quickly: for example, her foster mom held a treat out, above her head and she instinctively sat to receive the treat and she now sits in the presence of food.
Her new family will need to be committed to continuing with crate training as this will help minimize any bit of separation anxiety she may have as she grows, and they must be committed to taking her to obedience classes so she can bond with her family and learn their commands. Olive would love a family who will take her on adventures and for lots of walks as she will become increasingly active as she grows. She will need a family who is active and who is willing to be active with her. As a Nordic mix, she is a mixture of working breeds and if not properly exercised she could be destructive around the home.
Olive was lovingly fostered by Amanda
