Yoshi

We are looking for a home with few visitors that does not have cats nor any children living (now or any time in the future) in the home. Yoshi can be a nervous dog, dislikes loud noises. Yoshi would be happiest with a quiet and calm home, with people who can give him lots of attention and cuddles.

Yoshi was originally adopted in June 2020. He was a slightly nervous dog and in turn reactive towards other dogs and (occasionally) people. With the guidance of a behaviourist, his owners managed to slowly instil confidence in Yoshi and improve his ability to pass other dogs in the street without reacting. They got him to the stage where he could be taken to the park to meet and play with other dogs. He would always be slightly stiff and uncertain when initially meeting them, but would quickly loosen up and loved to play and chase. He also started going to a daycare a couple of times a week, which he absolutely adored. The daycare owner was sceptical that he had ever been reactive as he adapted so quickly to spending time with other dogs. With house renovations and the arrival of a baby (he is extremely stressed by everything that comes with having a baby in the home) sadly Yoshi’s anxiety and behaviour has led to a downward spiral. Yoshi sleeps downstairs at night either in his crate or on the sofa.

October 2022 Yoshi began exhibiting a limp (more accurately, a “skip”) in his left hind leg. He has been on Meloxaid at various stages and it has never made any apparent difference. The vet’s advised that he shouldn’t put too much stress on his leg through running, jumping, etc. whilst recovering from his procedures, means that he is therefore no longer socialising with dogs on a regular basis.
The above describes Yoshi as he is today, living in the current family home. However, it is not a fair reflection of the “real” Yoshi. Below is a “Good and the Bad” list in which describes the real Yoshi as the family have known him for the majority of their time together.

The Good
Yoshi is an incredibly sweet dog. Most people who spend a bit of time with him absolutely fall in love with him. He is polite. He is not overly “jumpy” or “licky” or “barky”, which means people who usually don’t like dogs are often won over by him. He is also very unique looking, which earns him a lot of attention.
Yoshi loves attention and loves receiving pets and scratches (particularly butt and belly scratches). He will cuddle into you when sat on the sofa or sleep with his head on your lap. I miss this so much. He is also extremely soft and nice to stroke.

He loves training and running through his tricks for treats. See separate attachment with the full repertoire of his tricks.

He is an extremely polite dog – he doesn’t try to steal food (and is too short to counter-surf), doesn’t beg for food obnoxiously, and has never been destructive or damaged any of our property (though his own toys rarely last too long).

He walks nicely on lead (assuming there are no other dogs, cats or squirrels in the vicinity). He loves to sniff his way along the walks at his own pace, enjoying calm exploration rather than racing to the destination.
He loves playing off-lead, albeit this has (until recently) been restricted due to the recovery time following his medical procedures.

He loves playing with other dogs, but only after meeting them properly. We have never managed a successful introduction to a new dog when Yoshi is on lead, but off lead he will socialise well with some dogs (after an initial stiff and admittedly confrontational couple of seconds). He tends to get on best with confident dogs, as they tend to be most likely to ignore his confrontational body language. For the avoidance of doubt, we do not believe that Yoshi is a danger to other dogs (or anyone). He has never tried to bite anything – but he ‘acts tough’ when he is scared.

He gets on very well with people. He is very rarely reactive to strangers or bikes and will walk past them undeterred on walks. Though he will react if a stranger tries to interact with him without first giving Yoshi a chance to sniff them. When a guest visits the house, they should be told to ignore Yoshi for the first 5 minutes (during which time he will sniff them before losing interest). From this point onwards, he will then be very happy to receive attention from them.

He is crate trained and house trained.

He is very comfortable being left alone for a few hours each day, though we have never left him for longer than a morning or an afternoon alone.

He would ideally be happiest with a quiet and calm home, with people who can give him lots of attention and cuddles. He is very much a lapdog and likes lots of contact. He is playful and sometimes energetic, but he would need somewhere quiet to relax and sleep.

The Bad
He is reactive to other dogs, particularly when on lead. We think he is a ‘frustrated greeter’, but considering his small size he does have an extremely adult bark and will ‘air-snap’. This does alarm other dogs and dog-owners, but has vastly improved his tolerance. For the avoidance of doubt, he has never sought to actually bite anything and I do not think this is within his nature.

Avoid head-on confrontations. Cross the road when another dog is approaching, do not walk him through areas with off-lead dogs unless Yoshi can also be off-lead.

When passing another dog, keep Yoshi moving and/or ask him to do commands/tricks. This mitigates the amount that Yoshi can ‘fixate’ on another dog and lessens the likelihood of a reaction.
Treat Yoshi with high-value treats whenever we see dogs.

When you see a dog, say “Nice” in a calm voice. This tells Yoshi that there is a treat available for him, whilst not 100% successful, the aim is for Yoshi to focus on us rather than the dog.

He is not a massive fan of driving in the car, this can be tackled by placing him in a crate within the car, he can now tolerate long car journeys, albeit they can still be stressful for him.

Medical
In October 2022 Yoshi began to “skip” when going at a trotting pace (ie. faster than a walk, slower than a run). His hind left leg skips every few steps. Lumbry Park Vet Specialists, diagnosed Yoshi with “left pelvic limb paroxysmal dyskinesia”. The condition was essentially explained as being a ‘misc lameness’ that Yoshi was unaware of and undisturbed by. April 2023 a second opinion from Oxford Veterinary Specialists (OVS). OVS disregarded the previous diagnosis and instead diagnosed a grade 1 lateral luxated patella. X-ray showed this to be a minor luxation and to start hydrotherapy before resorting to surgery, as therapy should resolve the ligament damage which could fix the issue.

After several months of hydrotherapy, with Yoshi still skipping, the vet recommended the surgery. He had this in August 2023, spent three months recovering, and the luxating patella is now fixed. However, he still skips. OVS now believe that, as the luxated patella is fixed, Yoshi must still be suffering from some sort of ligament issue. As well as hydrotherapy, in December Yoshi had Platelet Rich Plasma treatment (PRP) which aims to soften the tissue around the knee. We will not know whether this has worked until the 6 week check up at the end of January. We were specifically told not to expect improvement before 6 weeks.
Yoshi has had periods on and off Meloxaid since October 2022. It has never had an obvious effect in improving the frequency of his skipping, but we have always followed vets advice.

It remains unclear whether Yoshi is aware of his skipping leg or whether he is in discomfort. He is still allowed off-lead and it should not impact his quality of life. He is not causing increased damage by
skipping, but the vet also encourages plenty of on-lead walks slow enough that Yoshi must use all four feet. This will ensure the affected leg does not lose muscle.

We await a further update on this after he has had his 6 week vet appointment later this month.
Yoshi is otherwise in perfect health. He is also on YuMove pills once a day.

Feeding – Yoshi eats two meals a day, in the morning and evening. Whilst he does eat some wet food pouches, he is mainly feed dry kibble. This is used as a training tool and for games. “Scatter feed” (scattering kibble in the garden for him to sniff out), “cardboard chaos” (hide kibble in cardboard boxes and other items at home), snuffle mats, and puzzle feeders. He loves using his nose, and this provides good enrichment. In addition to his meals, Yoshi gets treats when out on walks (if he needs to be distracted from something, or displays very good behaviour), a small lunchtime chew, and a Dentastix and a small Kong stuffed with a bit of kibble and peanut butter at bedtime.

Walks – he gets three walks a day. One in the morning before we go to work, this is a shorter walk of roughly 20-30 minutes, at a slow pace. On weekends this walk is slightly longer and (when we had more trust in each other) would usually incorporate an off-lead visit to the park to meet other dogs. His second walk is at lunchtime, roughly 1pm-1:45pm. His evening walk time is at around 6:30pm, but this can vary quite a bit. When it’s hot in the summer then this walk is much later on.

Neutered, chipped and up to date with vaccinations.

CRITERIA: We adopt our dogs to an area in England within a 3-hour drive of Cobham in Surrey. Any garden must be fully secure and have at least 6 ft boundaries. All our home checks are carried out virtually. If your initial application is successful, we will ask you for proof of ID, a video tour of your home and garden. Lastly, we carry out a video home check call.

If you feel you can offer the right home and you match our criteria, please complete our pre adoption form here: https://serbias-forgotten-paws.com/enquiry and press SEND. Please only apply if you are ready to adopt.

Home check and £400 adoption fee applies plus £25 for the safety harness that we insist all of our dogs are walked on until absolutely settled in their new home.

All of our dogs come with a pet passport, are vet checked before departing and arrive via a DEFRA registered transportation vehicle.

Serbia’s forgotten paws has been operating for over 10 years and has rehomed over 1,300 in the UK