Harley

Gender: Female
Age: 1 year
Size/Weight: 36 lbs (could use a few more pounds)

Color: Tri-Color

Breed: English Setter

Good with Children: There are no children in Harley’s foster home.  She is very excitable and tends to jump up on people, so she would probably be best in a home without very small children.  She does get along with everyone, so I suspect she would be good with school aged kids.

Good with Dogs: Yes.  Harley lives in a foster home with 8 other dogs, and she gets along well with everyone.  She sometimes barks and nips at her siblings when she is wound up, but they either engage in play with her or ignore her.  

Good with Cats: Unknown, but probably not.  Harley does show a fairly strong prey drive and I would not trust her in a home with cats.

House trained: Yes, seems to be.  It has been quite a while since Harley had any accidents in the house and she does not mess in her crate. She generally gets out at least every 3-4 hours and doesn’t have any trouble with that.

Crate trained: Yes.  Harley will go into her crate to eat or for a treat, and she settles down fairly well.  When I come home from work or wake up in the morning and she has been crated for a few hours, she definitely barks to be let out.  She does well in the crate as long as she isn’t left there for very long periods of time. 

Leash trained: We have a very large back yard, so we have not worked much on leash-walking.  Harley is very excited by sights and smells and she pulls when she wants to investigate something.  She is pretty strong for a small setter, so her new family will need to work with her on this.

Activity Level: High Energy!!  Harley is a very typical young setter.  She has lots of energy and loves to run and run in the yard.  Once she has had a good run, she will settle down in the house, but Harley will definitely an active family and/or a large yard to keep her happy. 

Fence: Strongly preferred.  Harley is very energetic and needs to opportunity to run freely and explore.  She loves to chase butterflies and birds in the yard and run around after her setter siblings.  It would be difficult to give Harley adequate exercise without a fenced yard or frequent trips to the dog park.
Training/Behavior: Harley has not had a lot of formal training, but she knows her name and responds to it very well.  Like most setters, she can have selective hearing if she is busy in the yard, but generally she comes well when called.  She is very friendly with people and other dogs and is responsive to your body language and tone of voice.  She is still working on learning house manners (she still jumps up a lot) and she engages in typical puppy mischief like stealing blankets from crates and counter surfing if she sees something interesting.  Harley and her sister Baylee were very underweight when they arrived in rescue, so she is extremely food motivated.

Medical History: Harley is healthy, UTD on all vaccinations, and is on flea/tick and heartworm prevention. It has been an effort to get her to gain weight – and she still needs to add a couple of pounds – but she is in good shape and good a thumbs up from her vet.  

Foster Comments:
Harley came into rescue with her sister Baylee when their former owner moved away and left them behind with someone who also neglected them.  They wandered away and ended up on the doorstep of a kind rescue person.  The person who found them sent us this message….  

“These dogs have been on the run a while and they made it to my house. I talked to Bubbles and Bows who used to care for them. They know the owner. She moved away and her parents are caring for these. They escaped we are guessing and ended up 20 miles away at my house. She said they have always been together and can’t be separated. Someone is keeping them for me now. It’s been my lifelong desire to own English setters but I have 7 dogs and I’m not sure I can handle them too. What do I do? I’m in Mississippi.”

The original owner did not want them back and the parents were unable to care for them, so they came to A&B.  They have been with me now for about 2.5 months.  

Based on the feedback we got from their rescuer, we planned to keep them together and adopt them out as a pair once Baylee completes her heartworm treatment.  While Baylee is going through treatment, the girls have had to spend a lot of time apart since Baylee needs to stay quiet and Harley wants to run and play.  During this time, I have observed that they get along well, but they are not bonded, and both girls seem perfectly content to do their own things and be separate from each other.  Most of the time, they are doing their own things and, even when together, do not seem particularly attached.

Harley is a happy, high energy girl who wants a family to love her and play with her.  She loves to run in the yard and dances in happy circles whenever she has a chance to chase butterflies in the yard.  She also likes to go after the toads that come out at night, but I don’t let her do that.  She seems to have strong natural instincts and makes a beautiful point when she sees a bird.  In the evenings, she settles in very nicely and enjoys a good cuddle.  She is not as needy as some of her foster setter siblings, but she enjoys attention and is very responsive to her person.  Harley is looking for an active family who will play with her and continue to work with her on her training. She would like to have another fun-loving pup in the family to join her in her adventures!

If you are looking for a petite, beautiful, fun-loving and energetic girl, Harley is the pup for you!!

Adoption Fee: $300

Foster Location: Temperance, MI