Adoption pending - Estelle

Estelle is an exceptional little dog. We guess she is a Frenchie /pitbull mix who only weighs 32 pounds and only about eight months old. She loves all human beings and is great with other dogs! She would love a home with a playful, energetic, similarly sized male dog. She loves to go for a walks and adventures, but is equally happy snuggling on the sofa. She is very smart, attentive, and eager to learn! Estelle was rescued from a shelter in California and was in foster care for a while so we have some wonderful extensive notes about her temperament and personality, see below! We absolutely love this girl! Notes from Foster; Playtime! Estelle loves playing with her toys! She loves tug, and turns on a quite surprising garbly growl when she is in tug mode. She loves chews, and licky mats, and the towel puzzle where some treats are rolled up and she has to sniff them out. She actually ate all of her meals with us out of a rolled up towel! She also likes fetch… occasionally! While she’s not very destructive with toys, she loves shredding cardboard and finding a nice big stick to parade around with then monch into bits! One game I would avoid is chase/wrestly type play with JUST a human (no toy) - she can get pretty overstimulated and too jumpy, and it’s better for her little chompers to be directed at a toy instead of a stray hand… Parents with small children should be cautious of her getting overexcited. Cuddles and friendliness! Estelle is a fantastic cuddler! She likes to lay her head on your lap or curl up alongside you if allowed on the bed. Sometimes, she would seem sleepy but restless, and sort of pace around or paw at us and not just lay down to cuddle. BUT I discovered that she has a magic “off” switch in these moments! You just flip her on her back like a baby and rub her belly and within 10 seconds she is fast asleep :) While Estelle loves everyone she meets, she will also “alert bark” at deliveries or new people entering the space. This is the best of both worlds for many potential adopters! She generally does not bark persistently, but sometimes will continue to alert if the situation is not resolved. Training Estelle is very food motivated! She hasn’t learned much beyond sit, but it would be great for her new family to work with her on things like stay, drop it, up, and off. I’m not sure if “down” makes sense for her, she only lays with her back legs out in a “sploot”! So moving from a sit to a down doesn’t really work for her little body. At first, she doesn’t appear to have any leash manners. But we had some success with the method of U-turning every time she pulled hard on the leash. We never made it very far from the house! :) but would start to get some nice steps in with a loose leash and good eye contact once she tired herself out a bit. Potty, crate, and sleep habits Estelle potties VERY often! While she could be left crated for 3-4 hours without an accident, if she wasn’t crated she will go potty every hour or even more! We had nice weather so just left the door open… if she was stuck inside for too long and not crated she would have an accident. I think this will get better with age! We do a require a home with a fenced in yard for her. Her adoption fee is $650. Apply for her here - https://luvabledogrescue.org/how-to-adopt/