Rehome for Plott Hound - hunting dog with no hunting experience
We can provide you with reports from our trainer or a direct contact to them to get their opinions on Bear's training, behavior, and potential to become a stellar dog.
Bear would thrive in an environment with lots of space to roam and explore and bark, and with a highly structured schedule. He is a pure Plott hunting dog but has grown up inside our residential house with no hunting training, since he was 10 weeks old (now about 11 months). He is a very happy and excited, smart, playful pup with a big and vocal personality. He is prone to some anxiety, as many Plott dogs are, and we have been reinforcing "settle" and "leave it" to encourage him to calm down. He reacts well to treat-based reinforcement. He loves playing outside, chewing sticks in the sun, or running with our other dog or our neighbor dogs, but can take a minute to adjust to new dogs - he growls in situations with new dogs, but once he feels comfortable he is all play.
He would do best with an experienced dog owner who understands resource guarding behavior and aggression. While Bear absolutely loves strangers, he can become loyal/protective of a primary caretaker inside the home (i.e., will growl at others who enter his sleeping or feeding space unexpectedly - it can be intimidating but he has never been aggressive/violent). Most of his trainers and handlers (and breeder) have been women, so he tends to show preference to women. Bear is more cat-like in terms of the level of physical affection and touch he wants. He'll come to you, but often doesn't want to be handled - even if he plops down on the couch next to you to snooze. He'll tolerate some scratches but doesn't like to be grabbed or hugged.
Bear is quick to bark and shows some reactivity to other dogs on leash- something that he is working on in training and improving on. He will shred stuffed animals and chew toys but as long as he has those, he is not destructive towards shoes, furniture, etc. Bear gets along with our cat, but it's possible he may not do well with other cats.
Bear can get grumpy when he's hungry and tired (growls to communicate to leave him alone), but generally, he's a sweet, happy guy. We have worked with multiple trainers over the 10 months to improve socialization. His behavior has improved with more structure in his day- multiple short walks, lots of time to sniff and run in the yard, punctuated with quiet time in the crate.
Bear is crate trained - he sleeps overnight in his crate and goes down for regular naps during the day. Occasionally he whines to be let out, but he is improving on his ability to self-soothe and calm down. If there are other dogs, people, or distractions around, however, he is very eager to get out and participate in whatever is going on.
A family adopted Bear but asked to return him to us less than one week later. They did not seem to heed our advice above. We do not want Bear to enter the shelter/rescue system so we readily accepted him back. Again, we can provide you a direct contact to our trainer for their take on Bear's personality and behavior, independent of us.
He has not been exposed to many children and should be supervised around any young kids. He is a fully vaccinated, recently neutered, sweet and energetic dog, who would be a perfect companion in the right environment.