Bella - Rottweiler

This Rottweiler sees me, immediately starts butt wagging. I walk closer and its whole body starts wagging, swaying back and forth. I open its kennel door, crouch down to snap the leash on its collar and I get a wet nose planted onto my cheek. She's about to come in for another but I push her off and stand up. She rolls on her back, butt still wagging, looks up at me for a belly rub.

Later, I find out she's an owner surrender. In her profile, he says she is food aggressive but maybe his English wasn't so good. I bring out a snack. She smells it, sees it. No freezing, no anxiety. Continued good spirits. I move the snack towards her so that it's within reach. She doesn't even pay attention to it. I put it under her nose, offer it to her. She sniffs it, tentatively takes it, spits it out.

I try with a higher value snack: dried liver. Same behaviour from her. No freezing, no anxiety. Continued good spirits. This time she takes the snack, munches on it and eats it but it isn't a big deal. It's almost like she ate it only because she thought I wanted her to eat it, so she could get more belly rubs.

She doesn't seem food aggressive to me but she hasn't been in the shelter very long. It's a new environment. Dogs, like people, can behave differently in new environments. Someone will have to properly assess her once she's more settled in.

Fingers crossed that it was indeed a bad case of broken English.

For adoption information on this dog and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.