Duncan is without a doubt the easiest foster we’ve had--super low maintenance. He is mellow, goes with the flow, and is a complete love bug. He knows our daily routine and is right there to make sure we don’t miss anything. After last call potty, he’ll run into the kitchen and wait for his night-time treat. As he has gotten settled in, I am seeing what a gentle, quiet soul he is. I work from home and after the morning walk, he comes back into the house and hits the couch. He is content to sleep for hours until we take a break at noon. He is sooooo easy! He marches right in-step with the two resident dogs, yet doesn’t feel the need to wait for their lead.
When we go for walks, he has amazing compensation skills for finding his way and staying on the path. We’ve been using an Easy Walk harness and he is doing beautifully with that—stays right at my side. There is just a tad of pulling when he gets excited. He seems to see big forms and distinguish contrast in colors and bright lights. He has trouble seeing detail, though, and if we are walking in the woods, he’ll run into a tree branch if you don’t watch him. Around the house, he is excellent—makes his way around like there isn’t an eyesight limitation at all. Once in a while when he gets really excited, he’ll bonk into something. We use a lot of verbal cues such as “step up” when there are stairs right ahead. I didn’t realize how much he relies on scent cues when he is outside until we had a couple of different snowfalls. The snow covered up some of his scents and he was less assured where he was supposed to be going. He bounced right back, though, and gained his confidence back within a day. .
Duncan had his neuter surgery and he is all healed up from that. He was a lightning-fast licker and I didn’t think he’d tolerate a cone, so I used the good old cover-up method so he couldn’t get at his incision. He wasn’t too happy about wearing that, as you can see in the picture below, but he got used to it!
I had him on a tie-out yesterday while I cleared off the driveway, and he wandered around a little and then went and sat on the front stoop. I thought I’d see how he does on a tie-out in the much bigger (with more distractions) back yard. Again, he did really well and came every time I called for him. I decided to see how he’d do off-leash for the heck of it. He found a stick and it was a blast watching him tossing it in the air, and then finding it, and tossing it in the air again. He LOVED the freedom! I haven’t seen him so animated! I’ve explored this a couple of times now, and each time he didn’t go more them 15 feet from me, and if he did start to head away, I called for him and he immediately came back. He far exceeded any expectations I had for recall. I am changing his requirements to “preferred” for a fence, not so much that he’d be a flight risk or runner, but simply for his safety, so he can play with utter abandon and have that security of a physical parameter.
Mr. Duncan loves to be close to his people. When we are relaxing at night, he’ll lay on the couch, snuggled up next to us, At night, he’ll start out on the bed and will often jump down and sleep on the rug next to the bed. During the night, though, he makes his way back up and every morning when I wake up, he is plastered up against me. The only downside is he makes it hard to want to get out of bed! He is a snuggler like none other.
Duncan is engaging without being demanding or clingly. He wags his tail when we start talking and I swear his eye contact is better than many people’s! On many of the home visits I’ve done, people will often say their favorite thing about having a dog is the companionship. If you are looking for a loyal companion--you need to look no further! He’d be a fantastic therapy dog he is so affectionate and gentle. If you have a maturing dog looking for a companion, he’d be a perfect fur brother. He has an appointment with the eye specialist on 1/28. Stay tuned for the results!
Hugs to Duncan 14-417! Julie S. 
"Love to Duncan from Dennis, Joanne, Maggie (14-106) and Oreo" 
