Bonnie is having a nice relaxing evening with us as usual. Her spot on the couch let's her keep an eye on me and watch TV. Animal Planet is her favorite!
Bonnie 15-029
At a Glance #15-029
| Mixed Breed | Born: August 2014 |
| Female | 45 lbs |
Status: Adopted
Profile
Updates
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
Anyone up for a game of fetch? Bonnie is at the ready any time when it comes to tennis balls!
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
In honor of our boy Tonka (#15-209 TD) and his first Christmas with us. We are so grateful to RAGOM!
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Given the weather of late, Bonnie is getting two walks per day and loving every minute of it! Her second most important activity is squirrel patrol. She is very vigilant about sitting by the sliding glass door and making sure no squirrels get into the can full of birdseed. Bonnie is such a happy and easy going dog. She reminds us to live in the moment and is a joy to have in our home. Please consider her for yours!
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Bonnie is a wonderfully behaved sweet dog! She has really settled into our routine. She has a lot of energy so her morning walks are important. If she meets a dog on the walk who is willing to play, she happily does so. One morning we met horses on the trail, she was very good, sat and watched them with no outward reaction but definite interest as if to say 'what in the world is that??' The rest of her day is spent watching squirrels through the back sliding door and naps. Late afternoon is playtime again. Games of choice involve our throwing tennis balls or she will play on her own carrying around chewed marrow bones.
Bonnie would do well in a home where she can burn off her energy with walks or jogging, swimming in summer. She is a sweetie that would do well with an active family!!!
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Bonnie has been in her new foster home for almost one week. The ride home was a little stressful for her but she settled into our home in about 3 hours, ending with a tired sprawl on the couch. Bonnie is so easy going, gentle and smart. She is good on the tie out and let's us know she is ready to come in with one paw tap on the sliding glass door. She has free roam in the house with no incidents. The weather has not been agreeable to long walks but she loves getting out for any amount of time to burn up some of that endless energy. Our indoor replacement exercise has been tennis balls. We throw them, she pounces and retrieves - I believe she could play the game for hours!
Thursday, October 13, 2016
In the last week Bonnie has continued to adjust to life here in her foster home. She has been making great progress in wanting attention from her fosters. Her barking has greatly reduced as she adjusts and she seems to be getting along better with the small RD. She still loves to play with the resident Golden Doodle and they enjoy running back and forth across the yard and wrestling. She would probably make a good hunting dog as she loves to chase squirrels and birds. She is a sweet and loving dog, who needs her daily exercise and attention. Bonnie knows “sit” and “down”, but would do fabulously with some obedience training.
Bonnie likes to snuggle up with her foster sister. She also likes to help her with her homework.
She would make a great best friend/homework helper for anyone!
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Bonnie has been with us for about two months now, making her around 8 months old. The vet said she was too young for an accurate test when we first got her, but to bring her back in April. So she is going to the vet next week to get her heartworm test, and then will be put on heartworm preventatives.
She has been to several Meet and Greets, and loves the attention she gets there. She was afraid of the car when we first got her, and would try to hide her head under a seat. But now she hops right in, settles down and rides very nicely. At one of the Meet and Greets, the daughter of another RAGOM volunteer gave Bonnie a beautiful fleece blanket. Bonnie wants to thank her for that nice gift! I included a picture of her with it. What a pretty pose.
Bonnie is getting better with her ‘mouth-iness’. When she is playful but too excited she will still try to grab at you. She never bites, and can be easily distracted just by giving her a soft toy or tossing a ball.
She is of a perfect age to start going to obedience classes. These classes are such a wonderful way to bond with a dog, and of course, to bring a dog’s behavior in line with where you want it. We hope she finds her forever family soon. She thinks she is home now, but she re-homed very easily here, and she will re-home well to her forever home as well. If you think Bonnie might be the dog for you, please contact your placement advisor. She is waiting for you.
Bonnie posing with her gift blanket
With resident Shih Tzu, Benny
Backyard play - Bonnie and resident dog Lucy
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
It is time for a quick update on Bonnie. She is getting better on many fronts. She waits nicely for our resident dogs to be fed first, and will ‘sit’ on command before getting her food. She has really toned down on the counter surfing – I have seen her sniffing (no law against that!) but she hasn’t taken anything from a counter for a while. She goes into her crate very willingly with just a ‘kennel up’ request, and spends the time there very quietly.
Bonnie has been to a couple of Meet and Greets, and is going to another one (in Shakopee this time) this Saturday. She has been such a well-behaved guest – meets other dogs appropriately and happy to meet people and be petted. She discovered that FD’s lap was a nice place to sit and enjoyed spending time there. At home, she tried FM’s lap, but FM thinks she is a little big to be a lap dog!
Bonnie loves to chew on bones, shake soft toys and plays with balls. She is a youngster with lots of energy and sometimes just runs around the backyard on her own. She needs training and exercise – and love! – and is going to grow up into a very nice family dog.
If you are interested in meeting Bonnie please contact your placement advisor. Or come out to the SaturdayMeet and Greet and see her there. We hope to see YOU there!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
We are surprised that Bonnie is still with us. Usually a young, healthy dog with no big emotional damage is pretty quick to move out of foster care. She has really impressed other RAGOM volunteers she has met, and I am sure she will make a wonderful pet for the family who will someday discover her.
Bonnie does tend to be shy around new people here at home. Recently, FD was out of town for a couple of days, and our daughter spent quite a bit of time here with me. Bonnie didn’t totally come out of her timidity all weekend, even though our daughter is very dog savvy and approached or didn’t approach appropriately. It was kind of funny, Bonnie would be settled by our daughter getting petted, and then all of a sudden she would realize it wasn’t one of us and she would run away. Then on a later day, our daughter came over with her husband, who had also met Bonnie a few times, and Bonnie was shying away again. I decided to put her on a leash in the house, and she was a different dog! She apparently got confidence from being leashed – maybe because choices were taken away – and she went up to both of them, tail wagging, sniffing them over and happy to be petted.
FD took Bonnie on a couple of excursions, most notably this past weekend when he went to pick up some dog food that had been offered to RAGOM foster families. There were about 20 RAGOM volunteers and about 10 dogs in a fairly small room. Bonnie did great – met people and dogs appropriately. Several people commented on what a nice dog she was. We felt pretty proud of her.
Bonnie continues to do very well in the crate while I am working. I wish we could give her free roam, and I am sure she will get there someday. As of now, though, she is still quick to try to play with throw pillows or shoes or whatever … when we are careless enough to leave them out. She is doing less counter-surfing; either she is getting the idea to leave that alone, or we are getting better about moving things away from the edges of the counters :-)
Bonnie also went back to the vet this past week for her booster shots, and will get her heartworm test next month. The vet also commented on what a nice dog she is. She does still have some annoying puppy habits, but we think Bonnie is going grow into a real winner of a dog.
She will be at the Meet and Greet in the Edina Chuck and Don’s on Saturday, March 7th from noon to 2pm. For more information on this Meet and Greet look at the “News and Events” link on the RAGOM home page. Come on out and meet her!
Friday, February 20, 2015
Here is an update on Bonnie, who has settled into our house and routine very well. Bonnie is a very sweet dog, friendly as can be. Just tonight she had something small in her mouth (turned out to be a little chunk of tennis ball that she had chomped up), and I had no fears about opening her mouth and getting it out. She is completely house-broken, which is always a plus with a new foster dog. She is still a puppy who wants to get into things, so she is crated during the work day. Luckily for her I work from home most of the time and she can come out during my lunch break. Then FD works an earlier shift than I do, and he is home in the very early afternoon to let her out. I have to go into the office occasionally, and we have a wonderful son-in-law whose schedule allows it and who is happy to come over to give her a break from the crate. In our last update I said we were keeping her confined in the foyer, which is much roomier. However, she somehow managed to get out – twice – over a 3 ½ foot wire gate, and starting from a step below the gate. I didn’t see how she got out, but I imagine a jump/climb combo. At first it was a bit of a struggle to get her to go into the crate, but she now goes in just guided by her collar. Since I work just down the hall from her, I know that she is mostly quiet in the crate. Every now and then I hear a little whining, but for the most part she is perfectly quiet. When I walk past for a cup of coffee, she is usually just lying there, although there are toys to play with. I occasionally pass her a chew stick or Kong toy with a bit of peanut butter.
Bonnie loves to play with our resident Golden Retriever. They tear all around the back yard, and wrestle in the house. She has an appropriate level of play with our dog – i.e., nobody is getting hurt and both seem to enjoy it. Lucy doesn’t want to play as often as Bonnie, so Bonnie passes time well with the dog toys. She loves to chew on bones (we have several old marrow bones around). She plays with our collection of de-stuffed animals and fleece toys – tossing them around and adding to their wear and tear. She absolutely loves playing with a ball – especially if you are tossing it across the room for her. But she will amuse herself quite a bit just chewing and tossing it herself.
We are really enjoying having this dog – she is such an affectionate girl. But Bonnie is looking for her forever home. She is a energetic youngster and needs a home where someone will make sure she has plenty of exercise, and plenty of love. She has a lot of love to give in return.
If you think that Bonnie sounds like a good match for you, please contact your placement advisor.
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Original Initial Bio:
Bonnie came into RAGOM foster care at the end of January 2015. She is a retriever mix who came from a shelter in Alabama with her brother Clyde (15-030), where they had been surrendered from a family that no longer wanted them. She was said to be six months old when she came to Minnesota, so we picked August 1, 2014 for her birthdate.
Bonnie is a very nice dog – friendly with people, and gets along with our two resident dogs – a Golden Retriever and a Shih Tzu. We don’t know about cats at this point. She is a pretty girl and very affectionate. Like most rescue dogs, she is not perfect. But with Bonnie, it is mostly that she just has some growing up to do, and needs someone who is willing to spend some time patiently training her to behave better. Bonnie is still a puppy and young enough that she wants to get into Everything! She especially likes shoes and slippers (what is it about shoes and pups?), but will settle for throw pillows. She is also a world class, persistent counter-surfer. I think she is trying to earn a spot in the U.S.Olympic counter-surfer team! For this reason, she hasn’t earned free roam in the house. She does sleep on the bed with FD with the room door closed, and has been good at night. However, I work from home, and in order to be able to concentrate, Bonnie has to be confined while I am working so I am not worried about what she might be getting into.
She does not like to go into a crate, but we have crated her couple of times and once in she didn’t fight it, and didn’t fuss much. While I am home working, she is just confined to our foyer area. She does not respect baby gates, and we have had to be inventive to keep her confined, but she has learned to live peacefully with it. She gets a couple of breaks to go outside during the day, and is out over my lunch break. Then FD gets home in the early afternoon and she is free. Life is not too bad for Bonnie.
Bonnie seems to have been raised so far without a lot of boundaries. It is so much easier to teach good manners to a smaller (younger) puppy, because they are easier to control. Bonnie apparently missed out on that early education. She gets excited and jumps up and in doing so claws you. She also kind of ‘nibbles’ on you – sometime it pinches. We are working with her to get her to stop doing that, and have made a little progress. But for these reasons, I don’t think she should go to a family with very young children unless the parents are confident that they can control Bonnie so that she doesn’t scare or knock them down. I am sure Bonnie will grow up to be a very nice dog, because she is not mean-hearted at all. She is just an exuberant pup who has not learned basic manners.
Let’s talk about her health. Bonnie weighed in at a slightly lean 46 pounds. She is being treated for intestinal parasites. At six months of age, the vet said she was too young for a heartworm test to be useful. Bonnie should get her heartworm test sometime in April, and then go on heartworm preventative. Bonnie was spayed at the Alabama shelter and has healed nicely. She was microchipped when we had our vet visit, and she is ready for her forever home.
Does Bonnie sound like the dog for you? If you are interested in Bonnie, please contact your placement advisor.
