~4 years old. Good with older considerate children and large dogs; small dogs TBD; not good with cats.
Introducing Omar the Magnificent! Omar is a very large, exceptionally handsome young boy who fits the label “gentle giant” to a T. At 96 lbs you can still feel his ribs too easily, so a healthy weight for him will be in the 103–105 lb range. He wants nothing so much as to lean against his person and be petted, his tail gently wagging. We know he was treated badly by at least one man in the past, and he’s distrustful of most men initially. He gets over this quickly with some men, but a gentle manner will be especially important to men trying to win his trust. He is less fearful of women, although still a little timid initially. He is housetrained and appears to be nondestructive in the house. We discovered this sooner than we really wanted to because he objects strongly to being crated and made short work of several sturdy crates that we tried him in! That doesn’t mean he can’t be crated, but the crate would certainly need to be well built. And large. ;-) Omar is good with other dogs and has been a little playful with his foster brothers in just a few days, but in general he’s far more oriented to people than he is other dogs. He is a low-energy boy who wants most of all to spend time with his person, so a home where people were home during the day would be ideal for him. Despite appearing to know NOTHING about walking on a leash, Omar walks along pretty easily once you’re underway, curious about what he’s seeing but not pulling hard to go his own direction. He also appears to know no basic commands. We’re starting to work on this, but a commitment to ongoing patient, gentle training and confidence-building will be needed by anyone who adopts him. The reward for doing this -- helping this magnificent dog become all he can be -- will be priceless. Omar is pretty new to GSRA and is still coming out of his shell, so look for an update in a few weeks when we’ve learned more about him.
Mid-January update: Once Omar really settled in and became comfortable in his foster home, he became “a wee bit” mischievous in the house when “the cat was away.” :-) This prompted us to revisit crate training, with good success. He is probably not a dog who will ever love his crate, but he can tolerate it as a necessary evil if he has to. The other big change since we posted about him initially is that Omar has become a lot more playful with his foster brothers. Check out the video below to see Omar duke it out with his foster brother Chester to see who can get the upper paw. Notice that things get a little out of hand for a moment near the end of the video, but both dogs dial it down right away—an excellent example of a healthy interaction between well-balanced, well-socialized dogs.
More about Omar
Good with Some Dogs (No small dogs), Not Good with Cats, Good with Older/Considerate Kids Only, Leashtrained, Gentle, Not good with small dogs
For more information on our adoptable pet list please visit: Adoptable Pet List
