Hodu

June 23

Hodu has gotten her happy ending! She left Korea on Saturday the 21st thanks to a volunteer courier and landed safely in Toronto. She is beginning to adjust to her new environment and will soon be running around enjoying more grass and trees than she ever could have dreamed of!

April 3rd
Fostering Hodu has been one of the most fulfilling experiences in our lives. Watching this beautiful dog transform from the terrified, depressed creature that she was, whose fate seemed to be certain to end in death in the shelter, into the fun-loving, happy, playful creature that she is now has been extra-ordinary. Hodu’s story must have a happy ending. We have to find her a forever home.

Hodu is a standard Schnauzer, a medium-sized, highly-intelligent breed with loyal traits and patient temperaments. They are a high-energy dog and need regular exercise for both their physical and emotional well-being. Now, Hodu fits this description perfectly. But it hasn’t always been that way.

Hodu came to us, quite frankly, as a wreck. She was recovering from distemper, her fur was long, matted and filthy, she rarely lifted her eyes from the ground, and she flinched at the merest attempt at physical contact. She was terrified of her new surroundings, and spent the first couple of days in the corner of our apartment, unsure of either her new humans or our puppy, who would sniff her but, for the most part, leave her alone. She wasn’t finishing her food, and she wouldn’t drink water unless nobody was around. We bought a fence to keep her separated from our dog during the day, and she would curl up in the furthest corner of our little area. We showered her and attempted to cut her matted clumps of fur out, but there were too many. We took her to a local vet who shaved her completely. We could see now how underweight Hodu was, and she was clearly uncomfortable after the haircut, but this was an important stage in her recovery.

From this point on, we saw improvements on a nearly daily basis. She began to finish her food more regularly, and she began to accept our love and affection. Her love for walks began to come through, and after a few days she started to wag her tail when we picked up the leash to take her out. A huge breakthrough was when we returned home one day to find that she’d jumped the fence that we had set up. This seemingly depressed dog, whom we had never seen anything approaching energy from, had somehow jumped an 18-inch fence. She clearly had more energy than she had been letting on. She began to approach us to be pet, and she became more curious with our other dog as time went by. There were 2 small incidences of dog aggression during this time, where she snapped at our dog and another in the park when they approached her too quickly, and we knew we had to be careful as we socialized her. However, one evening, about a month after we began fostering Hodu, she suddenly started playing with our dog, Midori. She was clumsy, and it looked like she was re-learning how to play after a long time without it, but she did it. They rolled around on the floor together for about 10 minutes, and then she sat up panting with a huge smile on her face. This smile has now become her trademark. It is constant.

Now, she is just an amazing dog to have around. She has the most fantastic personality, full of love and affection, and through her huge brown eyes you can see straight into her beautiful, kind soul. She has become best friends with our puppy, and the two of them play daily and cuddle together on the couch in the day time. She loves to be pet and have her belly rubbed but boy, does she love being walked! As soon as one of us reaches for the leach, she starts running around and smiling her smile, desperate to get it on and get outside. She is a lovely walker, eager but never pulls, and her favourite thing is to take a new route so that she can sniff around and discover new places. She has gained 5kg since she joined us and she looks so much better for it. Her fur has grown in, and that beautiful Schnauzer beard is now in place. She is healthy, heart-worm free, and is absolutely ready for her forever home.

Hodu’s ideal forever home would be with someone who is willing to give her the time and attention that she deserves. She needs at least one long walk a day, with plenty of smaller toilet breaks. She is completely house-trained, and we haven’t had a single accident, even in her nervous, early days with us. Hodu would do really well as the only dog in the household but, as she has shown with our puppy, under the right circumstances and conditions she can get on well with a brother or sister. Schnauzers can sometimes be aloof to strangers – both humans and dogs – so this should be considered when meeting new people. However, with their family, they are incredibly loyal and affectionate and that is what you would be getting with Hodu. She wants to be your best friend, to love you, and to have you love her back. She has come so far, we just need her to go that extra step. The shelter came so close to breaking her last time. We cannot allow her to go back.

Please consider adopting Hodu.

March 19th
Hodu has had many 'firsts' with us, but by far the most exciting one for us is seeing her learn how to play with our dog! She is such a happy dog now that loves walks, cuddles and food. The only thing she is missing is a family to call her own. Check out the new video of her playing with Midori- it's her new favourite pastime!

http://youtu.be/2wdGd8tnAWo

March 10th

Hodu has started to come out of her shell and is enjoying life outside of the shelter. She LOVES going for walks and is a pleasure to go on walks with! She is pretty low maintenance and spends her days snoozing, chewing on a bone and cuddling up beside you.

Hodu is a much happier dog than she used to be. She gets excited to see us when we wake up and come home from work, when we get ready for walks and of course for food! She is still timid around strangers and new people, but also very curious. She has been to the vet and is healthy and getting stronger every day!

Poor Hodu :(
She has survived a few illnesses and is very timid and weak. She is a little depressed too by the looks of things and just lies in her cage miserable. I took her out today but it was hard to even get her to walk around the yard. Poor little thing is nervous of people and needs a calm, loving home to come out of her (walnut) shell. She warmed a little to me today and she loves her minders Mrs. Kang and Mr. Shin at the shelter. But she really needs to get out of there as her spirits are low :(

She is not a miniature, she's a medium schnauzer! There was no medium option on drop down!