Our Little Socialite OR Are there cultural differences between dogs?

As I mentioned earlier, Ashby is a Formosan Mountain Dog mix.
We didn't do much research before we got her, but the foster Mom told us that they are very hardy and healthy dogs, and can easily reach 15+ years.

According to Wikipedia, "The Formosan is a high energy, loyal, affectionate, and intelligent breed that learns very quickly. In unfamiliar situations, they tend to be wary of strangers and sounds, and they can become fear-aggressive. In new situations where the dog is fear-aggressive, it can take a few days before the dog will calm down.

If comfortable and well-trained, the Formosan will be friendly to people and other animals, though they tend to be a bit aloof or suspicious of strangers once they have bonded with their owner. Once bonded, they are extremely loyal and affectionate to their owners."

Supposedly, they also make great guard dogs. But not our Ashby. Our observation is that she is great with people - she is very submissive, but will always approach people, lick them, and generally be the greatest dog out there. 
With other dogs, however, she will at best sniff them, but is extremely cautious. And as soon as the other dogs play a little more roughly or worse, BARK, she is off in a different direction. She is really shy.
Here is about the best we get from her when there are other dogs around, note the hair still standing up a bit, not quite at ease:

She will also not play when the other dogs are around. But as soon as they are gone, she will go back to play ball, or run alongside me. Well, I guess at least I'm getting my exercise that way.

This made me think of our Asia vacation this summer: There were many, many dogs there, and they looked similar to Ashby. Some had owners, some were running around as strays. But I never saw any aggression in any of them. I didn't really see play either - the dogs just seemed to live alongside each other. I only once saw a dog walked on a leash.
Ashby spent the first few weeks at the foster Mom with many other dogs, so she should be very comfortable around other dogs. However, maybe not the dogs we have here. 
So this made me think: Is there a "cultural" difference between dogs? Does she have a hard time interpreting the rambunctious and sometimes borderline aggressive play of other dogs? And will this change, or is it just her temperament?

Housebroken

Ashby was housebroken before she came to us. But the system was different: All the dogs were in one room, and the room was next to a patio. There was a door separating the two, and it was always open. So the dogs could go to the patio to do their business any time. The big question was: How quickly would she figure out how things are going in our house?


When we picked up Ashby from the airport, she was exhausted, overwhelmed, and nervous.
So even though she had always been the leader of the two siblings, she was hiding in the crate. It didn't help that we HAD to get her out, because her brother Banksy was going home in his crate, whereas she had to be transferred to the crate we had brought.

At the airport:
"We had to wait FOREVER!!" -->>

When we came home, Ashby continued to be nervous, and between midnight (when we got home) and an hour later, she must have pooped and peed in the house about 4 times. Luckily, we have hardwood floors!

In the night, she whined a little, but the only time she completely panicked was when we locked the wire crate door, and I left the room to brush my teeth. That must have brought back memories of her and her brother being left behind in the mountains.
After some hand-holding, and with one person in the room at all times, she finally fell asleep:

We had to take her outside a two more times during the night, though. Baby times all over again! I felt like a zombie..I have never been good with sleep deprivation. 

The very next morning, she was curious and very calm. It turns out she is a very relaxed - and smart! - dog.

We watched her like hawks for signs of needing to go, and shooed her out for it every time. Big applause when she got it on her own for the first time!
She must have thought "have they gone crazy? But whatever, they feed me, and seem to be really excited about me".

And, knock on wood, no more accidents after the first day.
Now on to the next tasks...

Today's the day!

After months of searching, and weeks of looking at her pictures, Ashby is on the plane now.
After 'dog-sitting' a Lab for 6 months, we decided to get a dog of our own, and in the process of searching on Petfinders, came across ahan.org, an organization that mainly rescues pets from Asia (Taiwan), and has placed many of them in the San Francisco Bay Area.

So while there are plenty of dogs out here in the US, the problem is much worse in other places of the world, and there are so many unwanted dogs that the rescuers can hardly keep up.
Take a look at the heartbreaking stories on ahan.org.

Ashby was rescued together with her brother Banksy in a remote mountain, where they were left alone in a cage with little food. Luckily they were found, picked up and have now both found a new home.

From the moment they were rescued until we got her was a little over a month. On August 16, the wait was finally over!
Mary, her foster Mom, sent us some pictures of her, her brother, and an older rescued dog, from the airport, and then it was off on a roughly 12 hour flight to San Francisco.

I, meanwhile spent my day staring at this:

As if time would go faster that way!

She had been announced a week earlier, but her arrival was postponed by a week because of diarrhea. So we all had really waited a month, then a week, and now 12 more hours. It seemed more like 12 weeks, though.

Ashby was advertised as a "Lab mix', but she really is a Formosan Mountain Dog (or 'Taiwan Dog') mix, and I'm trying to learn all about it, in addition to becoming a puppy expert, at least on paper.

Formosan Mountain dogs are almost exclusively mixes, although there has been an effort to breed pure-breeds yet again. 

Ashby certainly doesn't fall into that category, but she has some traits of the Formosan: The smaller build (compared to a Lab, which she may have some in her), the triangular-shaped head, the bare belly (no hair) and, above all, the giant ears. We joke that she'll start to fly with them one day. 

All in all, probably 70% Formosan and certainly 100% cuteness!

Here she is on her first full day with us: