DERBY

🐾 Meet Derby 🐾

Derby is a 2-year-old Standard English Bull Terrier girl looking for a new home where she can enjoy a quieter life with someone who understands her quirks and is happy to continue her training.

Derby is a fun, affectionate and wonderfully bonkers Bullie who absolutely loves her person. She enjoys sofa cuddles, getting under the duvet, carrying sticks and logs around, and playing with her favourite Kong and egg toys. She can happily spend hours zooming around with her toys — although don’t expect her to give them back! 😂

She is friendly with people once she has had a little time to settle. She can be nervous when someone new arrives and may jump up and give an excited nip, but being ignored initially and calmly told “down” stops this. Once she has settled, she’s soon off to find a toy or stick to show them and will happily come back for cuddles.

Derby has lived with another dog, but unfortunately she has become too much for him during play, and what starts as fun can sometimes escalate. Because of this, we feel Derby would be best suited as an only dog where she doesn’t have another dog to overwhelm.

She has had limited socialisation with dogs outside the home and can react when dogs get too close, including snarling and lunging. At a distance she can often be redirected back to her handler with food, and her previous family have already worked with a behaviourist to help manage her reactivity.

Her new owner will need to continue this training, particularly working on focusing back on them when other dogs are around. Derby would benefit enormously from someone experienced who understands Bull Terrier behaviour and is prepared to keep building on the progress she has already made.

Derby is also a girl with some VERY strong opinions about household appliances! 😂

She isn’t keen on loud or unusual noises and can react to rattling trailers, loud exhausts and other unexpected noises. The vacuum cleaner is apparently a particularly exciting enemy, while hair dryers are considered something that must be hunted down and destroyed! A Nutribullet, meanwhile, apparently means ZOOMIES!

She can also become stressed in narrow alleyways and doesn’t enjoy busy or unpredictable environments. For this reason, we feel Derby would be happiest in a quieter, preferably rural home where she can enjoy walks without being surrounded by lots of noise, traffic and other dogs.

She travels well in the car provided the environment isn’t excessively noisy and is generally a good house dog. She can be left for up to around four hours and usually sleeps while she’s alone. She has access to her crate and is generally non-destructive, although every now and then a towel or blanket may mysteriously meet its demise!

Derby has no food aggression and is very motivated by chicken on walks, which has been useful during her training.

She loves a bath but isn’t a fan of having her nails done. Fortunately, her nails stay naturally short from all her running around, with only her dew claws needing attention.

🏡 What are we looking for?

Derby’s ideal home would be:

🐾 An experienced Bull Terrier owner

🐾 As an only dog

🐾 No small furries

🐾 Older children or preferably child-free

🐾 A quieter, rural environment

🐾 Someone committed to ongoing training and behaviour work

Derby isn’t a dog for someone looking for an easy, bomb-proof walking companion. She has some things to work on and will need patience, consistency and sensible management.

But underneath all of that is a loving, hilarious and affectionate Bullie who absolutely adores her person.

Give her a sofa, a duvet, a stick and someone to love, and Derby will be one very happy girl. ❤️