Meet SJ!  He is a very handsome 4 year old purebred Golden Retriever. He was surrendered to RAGOM after his family moved from a farm, where he primarily lived outside, to a house in town without a fenced yard, which meant SJ had to be on a tie-out when he was outside. They felt it was in SJ’s best interest to find him a new home that is able to exercise him more and spend more time with him.  I know it wasn’t an easy decision for them to surrender SJ, but we promise that we will find him a wonderful family that will love and spoil him forever!  He has lived with kids, dogs, and cats, and has gotten along great with all of them!  He was very interested in our two cats the first few days of him being in our home, but now he ignores them completely.  In his temp foster home, he did mark a few times, but we have watched him closely and have not had an issue with that here.  In fact, he has had no accidents here, so I would consider him housebroken.  SJ has gotten along perfectly with our 3 year old Golden, Finn, and my 9 year old daughter.  He also did great with our other foster puppy, Vinnie 14-094, for the few days that they were here together.  Although he has always lived with dogs and gets along great with them, we think he would do great in a home with or without another dog.  SJ just really loves his people and that’s what is most important to him!  He is definitely a “Velcro” dog and always wants to be near me.  Because of his desire to be near his people, we think he would do fine in home without a fenced in yard as long as he was taught boundaries and he is not outside unattended so he could roam around.  He is an active dog and will need daily exercise to keep him happy. 

At his vet visit last week, SJ weighed in at 75 pounds (needs to gain about 5 pounds) and he stole the hearts of everyone at the office!  He was already current on a few vaccines, so we just needed to get him the bordetella vaccine.  He also had a heartworm test that was negative!  We weren’t able to get a fecal sample that morning, so I’ll drop one off at the vet this week.  We did find a few issues during his visit.  He has an infection in both ears, which we are treating with a once daily ear medication for 7 days.  His temp foster noticed a white growth on the inside of his cheek, which the vet diagnosed as an oral papilloma.  There were a few small ones on his cheek and one on his gum.  Viral oral papillomas usually affect puppies and young dogs and can flare up when a dog gets vaccinations (SJ was vaccinated in March.)  Unless there are large amounts of them in a dogs mouth that affect eating, it is not necessary to have them removed.  They usually spontaneously fall off and are not painful to him. In fact, three of the ones on his cheek already have fallen off, leaving just the one on his gum left.  It is contagious to other dogs (not people), but only puppies or young dogs without good immune systems usually contract the virus.  (The vet described it as like a cold sore in humans, a person will always carry that virus, but not always have a lesion or be infectious.)  Healthy, adult dogs usually have been exposed to the virus at some point in their lives and have built up immunity to it. Our resident dog, Finn, is almost 3 years old and my vet is not concerned about him contracting the virus from SJ.  Also at the vet visit, the vet found a few issues with his eyes.  He has mild entropion (where his eyelids roll in) on the bottom lid of both eyes and also distichia (small, stiff hairs growing on the inside of his eyelids.)  We have a consult with the ophthalmologist next week to see what the best options are for SJ.  He does have some eye discharge and he squints them a bit, so we are happy that RAGOM is willing to get him the help he needs by going to see the specialist!  Other than these minor issues, he is in good health and will be as good as new as soon as we get everything taken care of!  SJ was neutered a few days ago and is healing nicely.  He’s not a big fan of the “cone of shame,” but it’s been necessary for him to keep him from licking at his incision!

SJ would definitely benefit from obedience training.  We are working on it every day here and also teaching him how to walk nicely on a leash.  He has already figured out that he needs to sit and “wait” before he can eat and he has quickly adjusted to our schedule and routine.  SJ does like to pull and cross behind me when we are walking, so we are using a gentle leader and it’s working very nicely!  He does not jump up, but sometimes he does get excited and bounces around (especially when he sees the leash and he knows we are going for a walk)!  In his excitement, little kids could definitely be knocked down.  We are used to big dogs here, so that is completely normal to us, but some families with little kids might not be okay with that.  SJ respects baby gates in the house and so far hasn’t tried to counter surf or get into anything that he shouldn’t!  We do crate him while we are gone at work during the day to make sure he stays out of trouble (and to keep him quiet after his neuter surgery.)  SJ has shown no interest in getting on the couch or any other furniture.  While we don’t mind pets on the furniture here, some adopters don’t want a dog that gets on furniture, so I tend to not encourage it if they aren’t already used to being up on the couch.  SJ is completely content curling up on a dog bed on the floor.  At night, he sleeps on a dog bed on the floor of my bedroom and is happy to sleep until I get up.  He was used to having food out for him all the time, but has quickly adjusted to getting 2 meals each day.  I feed both dogs in the kitchen, about 5 feet apart, and there has never been any indications of resource guarding. 

SJ loves attention and is just the sweetest boy!  He really enjoys being groomed and having people pet him, especially belly rubs.  He did great for his nail trim and bath, too!  So far he hasn’t been too interested in toys, although he will occasionally pick one up and carry it around.  His will play fetch, but won’t race other dogs to the ball.  Instead, he’ll let them take it. If no other dogs are around, he’s happy to trot over to the ball and bring it back.  SJ really enjoys going for car rides and sits quietly in the back seat.  We take Finn and SJ with us whenever we can, so SJ has been exposed to a lot of different things (kids activities, hiking, lots of walks in town and in the country, etc) in the short time he’s been with us.  He has taken everything in stride and loves all of the attention he has gotten!

SJ is a wonderful dog and will make some lucky family very happy!  He would do best with an active family that is dedicated to daily exercise, obedience training, and involving him in daily activities. Don’t miss out on this amazing boy!