Handsome boy! Hats off to you for aiding the cause of rescue! I have two rescues right now and it's the only way to go. My black male came from a local shelter and was completely housetrained and obedient the day we brought him home. My other rescue is a doberman/greyhound/shepherd mix who spent five long years in a no kill shelter. This shelter lacked a socialization program, so he lived in a small run with no attention, making him extremely withdrawn, he wouldn't even look at people and hadn't wagged his tail in the whole five years he spent there. He came to them as a stray when he was about a year old and was withdrawn then, so there's no telling what he had been through. We fostered him for a month and saw improvement. He is now learning how to be a dog. He didn't know how to mark territory (or lacked the desire), was completely illiterate, which showed he was never talked to. He has learned a lot about being a dog from our other dobe and he is coming along nicely and even bonding with us, although he's still leary of strangers. He will peek around the corner at them, which is cute. Our dobe was about five years old when we adopted him and our dobe mix was about six years old.
Oh look at me, I could go on and on about dobes and rescue. Congratulations and may you have many, many healthy years with your boy!
