COBRA KAI - ADOPTED

Meet Cobra Kai! This pup is ½ Cane Corso, ½ Pit bull, and 100% a handsome devil. This giant boy is about 70 pounds and 7 months old (as of 1/28/21). The Cobra Kai way (referencing the great Karate Kid movies and comeback show) is: STRIKE FIRST, STRIKE HARD, NO MERCY! And our boy came with that motto ingrained in his brains. He lives for snuggles and scratchies, he loves to prance around and play, but he also enjoys finding all sorts of ways to keep us on our toes! 

He can snuggle next to you on the couch for hours while you nap; or you can wake up to a hole in his dog bed with chunks of foam covering the floor. He can keep himself entertained with his toys and stay on his spot like a good boy while you leave the room; or you can be gone for 2 minutes and return to a pulverized xbox remote. He likes to mix it up. 

Kai was surrendered to our vet at just 2 weeks old due an umbilical abscess. After surgery and a couple days in the hospital, he was taken home and bottle raised in foster care. Bottle puppies can struggle to develop normal social and emotional behaviors without their siblings and mother around. Kai started showing aggressive behaviors around 6-8wks old - protecting his toys, growling when disturbed, excessive mouthing, and other behaviors that may be understandable in some settings, but quite concerning for a young puppy. 

As a rescue, we elected to keep him (not post him for adoption) and continue his positive behavior training until his behaviors could become more predictable/controlled/stable. The last thing we'd want is for him to be adopted with mild behaviors, those behaviors intensify with a well-meaning but incapable home, and then he return unadaptable with intense and ingrained challenging behaviors. We feel that he's finally at a place where the right person(s) could take over from here and help him blossom into the squishy love-muffin he's meant to be! 

Through months of positive behavior training, Kai has become much more comfortable with - and often even looks forward to - people taking his bones and toys and tolerant of us messing with him whenever and wherever. He also continues to become less mouthy and develop more and more self control. He's definitely not perfect and since he's a dog, he never will be. His training will absolutely need to continue, especially as he matures throughout the next couple years. 

Kai currently lives well with 3 cats and 2 dogs and has had a several dog friends in the past. However, Kai is quite keen on cat chasing and has developed an large issue with meeting other dogs. Kai's cat chasing is currently easily curbed with a "leave it!" or a "come!" command. BUT, the behavior would need to be continually worked on and never tolerated nor trusted, or more simply, no cats allowed. 

Kai recently started lunging and barking angrily whenever he sees another dog. He does well with his foster siblings - a chihuahua and a pit bull, and had several dog friends of all sizes as a younger pup, but otherwise he hadn't met any dog friends over the last couple months. When we tried to introduce him to a dog friend last week, he started with lunging and barking and couldn't settle down to even officially meet. We've back-tracked a bunch to "below his threshold" to start working with him on this, but this is a big new behavior that will need to be continually worked with by us and then his future adopters. 

Kai has so much potential and he wants so hard to be a good boy. He'll need a very committed home dedicated to continuing his positive-behavior training and helping him be the bestest boy he can be. For further information about adopting Kai, please email MFdogadoptions@gmail.com or go to our website at MFdogrescue.org. Adoption application and approval required. We have an adoption fee of $350 which covers a small portion of Kai's medical expenses covered by the rescue. Kai is located in Christiansburg, VA.