Izzy came to Yappy from a family who were moving and could not take her to their new home.

She is 15 months old so still very puppy like. She is an anxious and timid girl so when she meets new people or a new situation she will bark and need lots of reassurance. This is getting better and we have found the best way to help her is to ask the new person to just ignore her whilst we reassure her. This then means that she can have the space to assess the situation and come to them when she is ready. It is important that her new owners are prepared for her to need time and patience to carry on building her confidence and are aware that she may bark quite a lot at first until she is not scared. When we first met her she barked and growled at us but it is purely fear and once she is settled she stops and is the most loving little girl.

Izzy has lots of energy and gets on well with our two resident dogs. She does want to play a lot though and will bounce and bark to get their attention so she needs a companion who would enjoy play and join in or be happy to ignore her so she understands they don’t play! (Our older dog is 10 and she just watches which Izzy seems to accept whilst our younger one is 6 and playful so Izzy does her bouncing around her!).

She also loves a game of ‘get the human to chase me’! She achieves this by grabbing something, like a t-towel or a shoe, and showing it to you then running off with it so you chase!

She came from a home where she was the only dog so she would be okay on her own BUT she would need a lot of human time if she was the only dog. Additionally, she gains confidence by being near our two dogs (she likes to walk between them when out for a walk) so if she were a lone dog it may take a little longer for her to feel secure.

Izzy’s original family included children and we are told that she is good with children however whilst being in foster we have not seen her around any children and feel that because of her nervousness and barking when she is anxious she needs to go to a home with older dog savvy children or an adult only home.

She loves walks, being outside and is full of fun. She has not been off lead away from home so she will need to have work on recall before she is allowed off the lead. Where we live there is a lot of fenced space for her to be off lead and she loves to explore and run around. Her recall when running around at home is mixed, depending on how interested she is in what she is doing! So definitely more work needed with recall.

She is fully house trained. We have had no issues at all and she goes through the night without needing to be let out.

We have found that at night time it has taken her a while to settle and go to sleep. We have not let her in our bedroom to sleep so she sleeps in the living room with our dogs. It has taken her a little while to accept the separation from us at night and we did have a few nights where she barked but we have been consistent with our expectations and she is now happy to sleep on her bed and not get upset when being left in a different room. Her new owners will need to be prepared for a few unsettled nights while she settles but once she has settled in she is a really good girl at night.

I get up quite early though so her current routine is to be out for her first walk at about 6.30. This is because of my routine though so in time she would easily adapt to a more leisurely start if necessary!

She is still very young and puppy like so she has chewed a few things (nothing terrible though- a toilet roll or two, some paper and the odd sock) and she is inquisitive so will put her feet up on a work surface but she gets down when she is told.

We have not left her alone during the day for longer than 2 and a half hours so her new owners will need to be around at home most of the time at least until she is well settled.

Izzy has had her booster jabs and a full vet check. She had no issues apart from waxy ears so the vet cleaned her ears and advised that her ears were checked every week and cleaned if necessary.

Izzy is good in the car. We recently went on a two and a half hour car journey and she slept happily.

Izzy has been on pub visits (a vital piece of training!) and been happy to lie under the table observing! She is so beautiful that everyone wants to stroke her so it’s important to let them know that she prefers to decide when she wants to say hello.

Although humans make Izzy a little wary she has been happy to meet any dog and has been friendly and keen to play/say hello.

At mealtimes Izzy is really good. She will sit and wait for her human to put down her meal and tell her she can go. She isn’t greedy and at first wasn’t interested in taking treats from us as a way of breaking down barriers. Our two eat anything and especially love a carrot as a treat but Izzy will look suspiciously at the carrot and eat around it if it’s in her food! So she is a little different to other Labradors I have know with her food habits.

She will need to be close to Derby, Nottingham, Burton or Chesterfield for being spayed as we pay for this to be done.