Courtesy Adoption Listings

Courtesy Listing for Galgos del Sol -- GAGR has no info, please contact the foster -- info is at the end of this post

Meet Neon — a six year old galgo from Galgos del Sol rescue in Spain and my present foster dog. Neon has been with me since April 29th and has come a long way since his arrival. Neon is ready to find his forever home in the Rochester, NY area!

A little bit about Neon — Neon was turned in by his galguero (hunter) in December of 2018 and had been at GDS since without a single inquiry. Neon is a shy dog by nature but because of his past treatment, he is also quite nervous of us humans. He had made some progress with the volunteers at GDS, but kept some distance between himself and people. In order to progress, he needed to be in a home and that is where I came in. I reached out to GDS and asked if I could foster him.

The first couple of weeks with me, he was quite terrified of just about everything except for other dogs — Neon loves other dogs! He was comfortable right away with my galgo, whippet and pug, watching their every move. It is crucial that Neon be adopted into a home with at least one other confident dog. After about three weeks he was happily running around the yard with my dogs. He is not overly playful — after 5 minutes or so of running around he is ready for another nap! I took him to one of our sighthound playgroups and although he kept his distance from the people, he was definitely interested in watching the other dogs interact with us and he absolutely loved being with all of them.

With me, Neon kept his distance for awhile; if I walked toward him, he would back up keeping his eyes on me at all times. I would talk to him but I didn’t try to forcibly pet him, I just let him relax, decompress and settle in. It took him about two weeks before he started to trust me and now at week five, he comes right up to me for pets and always has a waggy tail for me. The same thing will happen when he goes to his forever home, although it may be sooner — he will need time to adjust to new people. Neon is an absolute sweetheart — very gentle. I have taken him to my friend Karen’s house and while Karen wasn’t able to pet him, by the second visit he was taking treats out of her hand. He so wants to trust people, he just needs to do it in his own time.

Neon quickly learned about going outside to go potty thanks to my crew, but if something frightened him outside he would run back in the house and go inside. There may be a relapse when he goes to his forever home and his new adopters will just need to give him time. He is a smart boy and will learn once he trusts the new environment.

He LOVES going for walks but is very nervous when we see other people. At first Neon would quite literally either put himself flat on the ground if it one person came near or would try to get as far away from the person as fast as possible at the very end of his leads. This is why with dogs like Neon it is so important that they wears a 3-point Ruffwear Webmaster harness along with a lead attached to a martingale collar. There have been several times where he was so upset that he would have gotten out of any other harness and collar. He does have a pretty strong prey drive which is another reason for the Ruffwear Webmaster harness and martingale. If he sees a squirrel, cat or other small animal he will pull in that direction pretty hard and if you are not prepared it could be a problem! Since his arrival and having daily walks he has gotten much better. With people he has met before, he will calmly just stay at the end of his leads but will still panic depending on the situation. We have also been on walks with friends and their dogs and by the end of the walks he was quite relaxed with all of the humans. Although not ready for other people to pet him, he is definitely comfortable and not afraid.

From day one, Neon has had no issues with separation anxiety. I started leaving the house for small amounts of time, slowly building up and he was absolutely fine. At this point I have left him at home with my dogs for as long as three hours without an issue.

Regarding Neon’s health, he is in great physical shape, no old injuries or anything like that, but he did test positive for Leishmaniasis when he arrived at GDS. Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that is found in parts of the tropics, subtropics, and southern Europe. Leishmaniasis is caused by infection with Leishmania parasites, which are spread by the bite of sand flies. He was initially treated at GDS and has basically been in remission ever since. He does take a maintenance dose of Allopurinal twice a day — 150 mg every 12 hours. He was retested for leish before he came to the US and according to veterinarian Dr. Couto, the US expert on leish, all of his labs look good but he had a “borderline” Leishmania titer which may not be clinically relevant. To be on the safe side, Dr. Couto recommended we keep Neon on the Allopurinal for three more months and then repeat the blood tests. It may be that he will need to stay on the maintenance dose for the rest of his life, but we won’t know that until August when he is due to be retested. Allopurinal is relatively inexpensive and easy for US vets to source.

If I could have another dog, I would keep Neon in a heartbeat! I am absolutely in love with this guy. There is something very special about earning the trust of these shy dogs! This wonderful, sweet, quiet boy is ready for his forever home. If you have any questions about Neon please email:

wendy.galgosdelsolusa@gmail.com