My name is Apollo!

Apollo has no idea how big he is, but he knows he has a whole lot of love and joy to give to his forever family and we want to help him find them!
We originally saw Apollo on a trip to the ACC when we were looking for a dog to pull off the ‘at risk’ list and had already picked another dog to bring back with us but when we saw his sad eyes staring up from inside his kennel we knew he was coming back to the farm with us. It was obvious just how terrified he was there, shaking in his kennel and freezing whenever one of the staff would try to take him for a walk. He had been brought in as a stray and it was pretty obvious that whatever had led to him ending up in the shelter, he hadn’t had a loving family in a very long time, if ever.
When he first got to Wayward, he was a bit of a medical disaster. He originally had terrible skin and an ear infection - both in addition to a giant mass on his right hind leg that had the potential to be cancerous. Luckily, that came back as non-cancerous when it was biopsied, most likely being the result of scar tissue forming abnormally. When the mass was later removed, something similar to buckshot or a bb gun pellet was found near the mass, so it’s likely that he had been shot or pelted with something while he was on the street and the mass formed in reaction. We changed his diet to one that was fish based and his skin cleared up. All of those are taken care of now, but he does have some benign lumps that appear on his skin every so often that go away after a few days of medication.
Behaviorally, Apollo was also a bit of a mess when he first got to us. Since he had been brought in as a stray, we don’t know anything for sure about his history, but based on how he acted when he first arrived, it seemed unlikely that he had ever lived indoors or experienced the love of a family. He had really severe separation anxiety and had absolutely no idea that he wasn’t supposed to go to the bathroom in the house. He’s come VERY far on both of those issues with his separation anxiety minimal when he’s in a place he’s used to and he has far less accidents than he used to, especially when he’s kept on a strict potty schedule and is able to have someone keeping an eye on him. He will still have accidents if he gets excited or scared when he’s alone, so he would do best with someone who’s able to keep him on a pretty set schedule and someone who’s very understanding of the fact that he tries his best, he just sometimes forgets that that’s one of those things he’s not supposed to do in the house.
Since he’s been with us, he’s learned a ton and we’re able to see his true personality rather than the terrified dog that he was and it turns out that is true personality is that of a total goofball!
This big guy is an absolute sweetheart and will bond extremely close with his people and will love them to the end of the world, but he will also accidentally barrel into them in the middle of his zoomies because he doesn’t know how big he is. He’s a high energy dog who we’re guessing around 5 years old who would do best with a family without any young kids (mostly because he’s pretty likely to accidentally knock them over when he’s excited). Right now we’re looking to place him as an only pet, but that could change in the future since he’s been doing great with the other dogs in his foster home. He wouldn’t do well in a home with cats.
Apollo is neutered, microchipped, up to date on his vaccinations and is the biggest goober. We normally ask for an adoption donation of $250 when one of our adult dogs are adopted, but since Apollo is in our Underdog Program, we aren’t asking for anything and are instead hoping his family will be able to put that towards training or making his life great.
If you want to learn more about Apollo or are interested in adopting him, reach out to us at waywardranch.org!