Rodeo Rex is ready for a home of his own
Rodeo Rex was found as a stray in the Indianapolis area towards the end of October. He was microchipped but his owner didn’t respond to any messages from the chip company or any online posts. He has been in a foster home since.
The vet estimated him to be between 4- 6 years old and weighs about 50 lbs. He loves to just be with his people, he will sit for hours just letting someone pet him and sit with them on the couch. He is a dog of comfort and prefers to have a big squishy place to sleep. Inside he is mostly a quiet relaxed boy that gets his zoomies and plays as nicely as a bully can play with toys. He talks constantly when he is excited or really happy, he quiets down when asked to though. He loves fetch and will mostly bring the ball back. He is the kind of bully who will play for about 30 minutes and then take a 4 hour nap.
He is very well crate trained. He knows his routine and goes into his crate when directed to it. Once he’s in he just sleeps. He hasn’t ever attempted to eat his pillow that is in his crate. He is crated when his foster is not home or when supervision is not available. He is fed in his crate and the fosters can reach in and take his bowls without any issues.
He is generally potty trained and vocally lets you know when he needs to go out to pee. He has a schedule for his potty habits and if that is followed, he does great.
He does know how to sit and his fosters have been working on down, stay and “waiting” at the doors/gates. He typically isn’t a door dasher but they are working on leave it as well for all things including other dogs while on a walk.
He does alright for baths but isn’t a huge fan. He is squirmy when his foster mom dremels his nails but he tolerates it and it isn’t too much of a challenge. He loves to be brushed. His skin will need some continuous TLC. The hair on his tail is slowly growing back and his itchiness has improved since coming into rescue but hasn’t completely disappeared so he will probably need to continue with Cytopoint injections or Apoquel. He gets a medicated bath once a week.
All of his vetting is up to date. He had a dental and the poor guy had to have a few rotten teeth removed which had to have been pretty uncomfortable as they were infected. He is all healed up now and feeling much better. He has behaved great at each of his vet visits.
The areas that Rodeo Rex could use some continued work on are the following. He currently takes treats like a shark. He is a foodie and initially ate through the container that held the dog food and will counter surf if given the opportunity. The first week in the home, he did display some food resource guarding with the dog food container where he growled, postured and snapped at the humans. This happened one time and hasn’t happened again but we believe in transparency so felt the need to share that.
He does not do well with other animals so he will need to be the only pet in the home. It is interesting with him though as when he is in a fenced in yard or when there is a gate between him and another dog, as long as a person isn’t standing right there, he greets the other dog nicely. The neighbors large German Shepherd has come up to the fence snarling at Rodeo Rex and he just looked at him without reacting. However, he is reactive when he sees other dogs on walks. Otherwise, he walks nicely on a leash. Although a fenced in yard is not generally a requirement to adopt from us, in Rodeo Rex’s case, we feel he should go to a home where he does have a fenced yard so that he can just enjoy himself outside without the added stress of seeing other dogs on walks. His foster mom has made some adjustments with how she walks him and with her choice of collar for him and that has seemed to help as well. She feels that with a firm handler and a lot of consistency his reactivity will dissipate. He has never made any attempts to escape the fenced in yard at his foster home.
Rodeo Rex takes the NO cat thing a bit further than most bull terriers. Besides not liking real cats, he will try to go at a photo of a cat or something shaped like a cat. He has walked past the pet birds in his foster home and ignored them completely aside from being very confused as to why one of the birds was laughing and talking to him.
Children 14 and older.
Overall Rodeo Rex is a big love bug who just craves human attention, touch and love. He has been in the foster home where there are a lot of other animals which isn’t an ideal environment for him. We would love to get him into a home of his own where he is the center of attention and doesn’t need to worry about any other animals in the home. Although he needs to be the only pet, that fact shouldn’t preclude you from considering at him to your family as he will love you unconditionally and make you feel like the most important person in the world.
If you live within 6 hours of Noblesville, IN (or further but are willing to drive a bit extra) and can offer Rodeo Rex the home he needs, please either message our main inbox or Lisa Taubman Blount directly.
