I've found my furever family!

5/20: current weight is 60.2 lbs

Foster update: Bartolo loves affection, and when you stop petting him, he will lift one paw to ask for more. He’s very calm in most situations. He is still coming out of his shell, but occasionally gets in high spirits and does zoomíes, running around or tossing his chew toys. He is submissive and seems easy to train. He gets along well with most other dogs. He did go after one poodle who is visiting our house and who had just started begging for food from me. We have not re-introduced them without food to see if that was the trigger. He’s pretty non-reactive to visitors and most strangers on the street. I think we’ve heard him bark about once a day at something or other. We’ve done one hike together with another couple and their Labrador, they got along well and he returned on command from up to 100 yards away. He has shown an interest in my shoes, he does appreciate having toys and things to chew on. He gets bored sometimes during the day, and will let you know by asking for attention or a walk.

When Bartolo first came to us he was very timid and submissive, I guess the honeymoon phase. He did well with all other dogs and was under decent voice control off leash. But his confidence has grown and dominating behaviors started to emerge. He is still very eager to please and very trainable but we can no longer have his off leash around other dogs. So the next training to do is the basics sit, stay, off, leave it. He also gets super excited to the point of quivering when he sees other dogs and birds. Even with well understood commands like sit are difficult until we remove his from the stimulation. He does pretty well hiking on the trails, alone or with one other dog so that is a situation where he can be successful off leash.