Maya is from Todos Santos, Mexico. At eight months old, she was found living the beach dog life, happy, but somewhat malnourished, in need of treatment for a tick born illness, and likely soon to become pregnant if she didn’t get spayed. She was brought to Oregon, and at nine months old, our family adopted her. We adore her, but it has become clear that she is not the best fit for our family. Her needs are not matching up well enough with our family’s needs.
She seems to view our two and four-year old as litter mates, is very tolerant of them and never aggressive with them. However, her energy is often too much for them and she accidentally knocks them over. She requires a lot of exercise and as much as we’d love to take her on long, off-leash trail runs every day, we don’t have the time. Maya loves running in the woods, lying in the sunshine, playing fetch with sticks in the ocean, being the copilot on car rides, and belly rubs. She also loves playing with other dogs. She can be reactive towards other dogs when on a leash, but off-leash, she’ll play and play and play.
Her on-leash reactivity is improving with training, but she still needs more work. Same with her recall. Her recall is decent, but she could still use more training. Not sure how she does with cats. As a hound dog, she has quite a prey drive, so we have tried to avoid cats. She has some protective/guard dog tendencies that perhaps come from her early days surviving on the beach. Her Baja beach days also made her quite independent, and she seems happiest when she gets to spend some of her day doing her own thing.
She is a high energy, very active dog, but after activity she enjoys just relaxing. One of the places she does her best relaxing is at the massage studio. Maya has become a great massage dog, greeting clients and then just lying calmly and quietly on her bed the whole session. Perhaps, she would do well accompanying her new owner in other similar job settings. She is sweet and loving towards most people she meets, but she’s not necessarily the cuddly type. We see her thriving on a big piece of property where she can roam, or perhaps a ranch where she has a job.