Rufus - A great family dog

by Maryanne Pearce
(Ottawa, ON)

We are happy to report that Rufus has found his forever home. We give our heartfelt thanks to his new family and wish you many happy years together.

Rufus was born March 5, 2010. He is a lovely dog, gentle and sweet. His owners have infant triplets and were unable to manage their human babies and canines at the same time. Rufus lived with an older dog for a year until his death; after this, a male puppy was brought into the home. All was well for a year, but with one- and two-year old males in the home, some fairly typical food aggression and dominance issues arose that proved too much for the owners.

Rufus is a house dog. He is alert and protective of his home and family, but also loves his couch and to lay on the AC vent. Rufus went to a new home for just a few days, but as these folks were also expecting a baby, decided it was not a good fit, although Rufus himself was wonderful, calm and easy. This is what they had to say about Rufus:

After 3 days of having Rufus with us, we felt like we had been with him for over a year. He is a sweet gentle giant, and loves to act cute like nuzzling his face into his bed. He is certainly a companion, as he prefers to always have you in his sight, and when he isn't resting he likes to park himself right in front of you, sometimes almost on you because he loves to be so close. He is quick to accept new people coming into the home, as soon as he sees you accept them. He learns very quickly what you expect from him behaviour-wise. We told him not to go upstairs, and he never did. We told him our cats were welcome and he didn't bark at them. On walks, he seems to just enjoy being with you and only pulls when he sees a ball or certain dogs that he wants to meet. During travel he was very quiet and appeared excited but happy. He is very trusting. He is a complete sweetheart and 100% stole our hearts. We highly recommend him to anyone who can take care of him. He is such a great dog!

Rufus has been moved around quite a few times in May and June, and really needs to find a forever home. He is doing well in care, but is more stressed than we would like but as soon as he was in a home setting, he was calm and happy. He would not make a good outdoor dog; his first owners tried to rehome him to a farm, but being a couch potato person dog, Rufus was not happy being away from people.

Rufus would be best as an only dog, or with a female dog.