This is Rocco, an absolutely stunning lurcher who landed on his paws and found his way to SV in early 2024. 

Rocco was homed with us to a lovely family, who already had a reactive lurcher in the home. We homed Rocco to them as he was such an easy, submissive boy who we knew wouldn’t react to their girls reactivity if directed at him. What we didn’t predict was that Rocco did end up picking up some of her nervous, reactive traits, and started to become reactive himself on walks after a few months. No one is to blame here, it’s just bad luck, and Rocco’s previous family decided to return him back to Sun Valley as they weren’t quite equipped enough to handle two reactive dogs.

Since coming back to us, Rocco really has been a gem here at the kennels. He loves everyone he meets, and displays absolutely no reactivity with people here. He also has a few lurcher mates that he plays with in our field. We never, ever worry about Rocco taking it too far, he plays brilliantly with them. Rocco has had multiple kennel mates which he has thoroughly enjoyed having. 

He has been on many off site walks, sometimes alone, and sometimes with another kennel dog, so we can really get an idea of his reactivity. On his first walk, which was in a busy town, he did display some reactivity, but nothing that was unmanageable with a bit of correction and positive reinforcement. He has improved with every walk, and we feel that in the right home and the right hands, and behavioural issues that he picked up in his previous home can be totally managed and rectified. 

We have noticed when offsite Rocco feels the most calm and confident when he is with another dog or part of a group. We feel it would be within Rocco’s best interest to be homed with an older female who can settle Rocco’s nerves when in the big wide world. Rocco gets on with both male and female dogs, but does regularly goes off site and for sleepovers with a confident older female and we’d love for this to continue in a home. As iterated above Rocco would be a project due to his anxiety, which unfortunately is a result of situations he was exposed to. However, with a bit of patience and training Rocco would flourish. 

We’ll judge each application individually, and assess here at the kennels who seems like they could be the best fit for our boy. 

We can’t stress enough how utterly lovely, friendly and happy Rocco is here at Sun Valley, and we really want him to find the right home who will work with him, stand by him and be the loyal companion he totally deserves. Rocco is the most special, kind little guy who is ready to find his forever home and get back into the world.