This lady is Layla! Don’t let her age fool you, she is super spritely for a 10 year old!
Layla found her self needing rescue when she was surrendered to a Melbourne pound with some nasty skin issues. Layla came into care quite nervous and wary of strangers, she wasn’t too fond of anyone touching her. We reckon this was mainly because of her itchy painful skin. As soon as she arrived to her foster home, she was off to the vet to help relieve her of some itchiness and pain. After a few tests we have come to the conclusion that Layla had a severe allergic reaction to fleas, that had unfortunately been left untreated for a long time. This has caused some irreparable damage to the hair follicles on her back, which means she now has a permanent bold spot. Since this was left untreated for so long, Layla now has sensitive skin. She requires a special medicated shampoo at bath time and to avoid rolling in grass, which is difficult as it is her favourite thing to do on a nice sunny day! Layla is also on a small dose of cortisone, while it’s not ideal long term, we do believe she may need to be on this for the remainder of her life to keep her comfortable as she lives out her retirement years. Layla also has a few fatty/skin tag lumps all over her body. We have tested these and found them to not be causing any issues so aren’t wanting to remove them to avoid putting her under anaesthetic at her age. She also has a funny shaped jaw and worn down canine teeth, this does not affect her at all! She can still eat extremely well, she absolutely loooves food!
Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, Layla is still adjusting to meeting strangers, obviously during lockdown this has been difficult. We have found she tends to be a bit cautious with women, she prefers to come to you rather than have affection forced upon her. Once she gets to know you, she loves a good scratch, she’s not a cuddly dog but will lay on the bed or couch with while getting a scratch and a pat. Layla does love to play! She loves to be chased, pushed around and especially loves when her favourite squeaky toy is involved! Layla loves a good squeak toy! She is good chewer, she loves to chew rubber toys but she does chew them up and swallow the pieces. We haven’t found a toy durable enough for her yet. She can even chew through kongs!
Layla currently lives with 2 other dogs but she is possessive and dominant over her things. She co-exists well with them currently but they are never left un-supervised. She doesn’t really play with other dogs. When she does, she is just trying to dominant them, which isn’t always nice for the other dog. Layla has been slightly re-active when seeing other dogs running off lead but if they are on lead she is fine. She does walk fairly well on the lead she likes to stop and sniff everything and prefers to leisurely stroll rather than a fast walk.
Since being in foster care Layla has really come out of her shell and once, she gets to know you, she is super sweet and easy going. She is fairly independent and is quite happy doing her own thing, but she can be a little sooky and does make some ridiculous screaming noise when she doesn’t know where she is. Layla is crate trained, she absolutely loves her crate. She is also toilet trained, knows how to sit, wait, shake, tolerates the bath and loves the car!
We would like Layla’s forever home to be with someone who is home most of the time, has lockable gates(she knows how to use her head to push them open if they aren’t shut properly), allow her to be inside, have no other pets or children, allow her to bring her favourite squeaky toy and be willing to continue her on her medication, weekly to fortnightly baths and keep her up to date with flea treatment.
Layla is desexed, microchipped and kept up to date with her vaccinations, flea and worm treatments.
