Mouse King is one of the Nutcracker Suite puppies who looks more like his dad, a purebred Komondor, than his mom, an Anatolian Shepherd. In their first home, these puppies were living with chickens, ducks, geese, a couple of goats, dogs, barn cats, and a few assorted other animals so they have had a great diversity of exposure.

When he was VERY young (just a few weeks old) Mouse King suffered a traumatic brain injury believed to have been caused by a goat either kicking him or head-butting him when his skull was still puppy-soft. He seems healthy and robust, and he is growing like a weed, but his intellectual development seems delayed compared to his siblings. For example, he loves taking treats from my hand, but he doesn't seem to comprehend the concept of SIT, which his sisters learned in just a couple of days. Mouse King is really playful with other pups and sometimes seems a little more rambunctious than they are, as though he has no inhibitions. If another pup corrects him to tell him he's being too rough, he cries and backs off. He settles very quickly in the barn, but is more rowdy when outside.

With all of this in mind, we don't think Mouse King should be adopted as a future LGD. He could be a wonderful PET on a small homestead where he could live around livestock. But he could also go to a traditional suburban home with no livestock, with another playful dog as his companion. In our experience with another dog who had a traumatic brain injury as a wee pup, her developmental delays did not inhibit her house/potty-training, so our expectation is that Mouse King could learn house manners too.

If you have a heart for special needs pups, we hope you'll consider Mouse King. In our experience, the only real accommodation needed was to keep expectations reasonable -- to be willing to love the pup and not worry too much about obedience training. You can complete the application on our website.