Coco

Coco's day begins around 7am. She says hello to everyone, heads out for a bathroom break and conducts her morning patrol before deciding whether she's joining the pack walk through the rice fields or staying behind to patrol the garden. Either option seems perfectly acceptable to her. Once everyone is back, she plays, then finds whoever is cleaning and follows them around like a shadow. Later she'll locate somebody having a break and make sure they understand that breaks are significantly improved by petting Coco. She's more of a couch potato than many of the Baan Maa dogs but still enjoys her exercise. Around an hour a day is plenty, and she'd make a lovely walking companion without her family needing to organise their entire life around exhausting her.

Coco loves everyone: men, women, children, strangers and visitors alike. Visitors may initially get a bark because she's excited somebody new has arrived, but she doesn't need a lengthy introduction. She makes friends straight away and is very happy being cuddled and handled.

Coco gets along with most dogs provided they aren't overly dominant or confrontational. She won't go looking for trouble, but she will stand up for herself if another dog challenges her. She adores puppies. After spending so much of her previous life having litter after litter, that maternal instinct is still very much part of her, and give her a little dog and she seems to immediately appoint herself as mum. She hasn't been tested with cats.

Coco has plenty of useful skills. She's lead trained and crate trained, travels well in the car, has good recall, understands basic commands, and has good food manners and knows how to wait politely. The main thing still to work on is toilet training. She currently sleeps overnight in a kennel and can have accidents, so her adopter should expect to teach her the routine of living inside a home. Her existing training will also need the usual reinforcement while she adjusts to an entirely new environment. She's still getting used to busy roads and traffic, though motorbikes don't bother her. Thunder and fireworks aren't her favourite things, but she doesn't completely panic. She has limited experience with crowds, although her love of people means she's generally more excited than worried around lots of humans.

Dogs moving into a new home often regress a little at first, even on things they'd already learned. That's normal, not a step backwards - a bit of patience and the same consistent routine soon has them back on track.

Coco is vaccinated and sterilised, and is doing very well following her recent eye surgery. Her lower eyelids were inverted, causing her eyelashes to continually rub against and irritate her eyes, so the affected portions were removed. Her eyes are now much clearer and more comfortable. She's currently using antibiotic ointment while they finish healing, and may need another procedure on her eyes in the future, which is described as a simple cosmetic one. Otherwise, she has no known allergies, mobility problems or other ongoing medical needs. She is not microchipped. Vet visits are almost comically easy: she recently had the stitches around her eyes removed without sedation or restraint, apparently smiling throughout. She enjoys grooming and absolutely loves baths, and is still becoming more comfortable with having her paws handled for nail trims.

There are a lot of homes in which we could see Coco being happy. She could live in a house or an apartment; a garden would be lovely but isn't essential, provided she gets her daily walks and regular chances to go outside. She could be an only dog and soak up all the attention, or live with a compatible, non-dominant dog. She'd suit a first-time dog owner and could be a wonderful companion for a family with children, a couple, a single owner, retired owners, someone working from home, an active family, or a home with a younger compatible dog. What matters far more to Coco than the shape of the family is whether they have time for her. She wants someone who will dote on her, give her daily affection, and let her finally experience what it's like to belong to a family rather than simply produce puppies for one.