Gretchen 18-221
At a Glance #18-221
| Golden Retriever | Born: October 2012 |
| Female | 69 lbs |
Status: Adopted
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Updates
Thursday, February 7, 2019
Gretchen has been adopted by a wonderful family and will have a fur sister to romp around and cause some havoc with. I'm sure she will be treated like a princess and spoiled rotten in no time. Gretchen deserves that! Congratulations BM, PS, and Gracie! You have adopted one special, sweet, gentle girl who has a ton of potential and a spark of fire in her eyes.
Monday, January 7, 2019
Gretchen has made great strides since arriving. She is learning to trust her humans and enjoy pets from them. Even the tall 14 year old in the home who used to send her running when he would enter the room can now coax her over for some ear scratches.
We are still waiting for her to relax enough to get a full-on belly scratch, but that will take time. When the resident dogs get their daily tummy scratches, Gretchen is right there pushing into the middle to make sure her ears and back also get scratched.
Gretchen has graduated to free roam of the house 100% of the time. She has not been destructive of anything nor had any accidents. She is alone an entire work day with no issues. She will lie on her blanket, but has not tried the fluffy dog beds yet.
We have found that she likes her humans so much that when they go to the scary basement and leave her upstairs with her fur sisters, she howls until foster mom either yells up to her that she is still in the house or until she comes back upstairs.
We don’t know if she does this when we leave for work or not, but when we get home she meets us with a wagging tail and smile from the top of the stairs or in the foyer with her fur sisters.
Gretchen has also experienced some scary things that she has slowly adjusted to, like twinkling Christmas lights in her yard and the lit Christmas tree in the living room. She no longer runs for a safe spot when she sees these, but will lay right next to the Christmas tree in the middle of the room or watch the lights when outside.
She also is not fond of the vacuum cleaner and will look for foster mom or lay in a corner of the living room, keeping an eye out for the noisy monster.
She has also tolerated the installation of some new hardwood flooring on one level of the house, along with the noise and chaos that brings. She doesn’t like it and stays behind the recliner, watching the whole process without being overly stressed, or she sleeps. She bounces back to her normal goofy self when the noise ceases.
We have found that Gretchen is not a big fan of change. She scares easily when things get off schedule or new objects come into the house. She will venture out with curiousness if Zelda and Sadie aren’t fazed by the change or object in question.
For this reason she will need to have another dog with her in the house to take her cues from and to learn that change is not bad. With time, repetition, and more socialization, Gretchen will be scared of fewer things and situations and adjust more quickly.
Gretchen will take treats from foster mom. She will run up, gently take the treat, and run back to the other room to enjoy it before coming back to lie down in the bedroom for bedtime. All we need to say is “time for beddy-bye” and all three dogs race for the bedroom to the treat container.
I have found that she loves to play tag with her humans and fur sisters when she is out in the yard. She will run ahead, turn towards me and play bow, then whip around and run away expecting me to chase her.
When I oblige, she gets a big grin on her face and keeps watch to make sure I am chasing her. When I stop and run the other way, she turns around and chases me. This continues until Zelda and Sadie join in and then off they all go to romp in the snow and play together.
Pictured below: Gretchen (with the shorter hair) and our resident RAGOM girl Zelda 14-168, playing together outside.
Monday, November 26, 2018
Welcome Gretchen to the RAGOM family. This scared, shy, 6-year-old girl with a spark in her eyes has landed in the right place to be spoiled and loved.
Because of her time as a commercial breeder, Gretchen must learn what being a pampered pet is about and boy did she land in the right foster house. It was like a family reunion between her and her foster sister, Zelda, on October 28, 2018, when she arrived to my home.
She did very well meeting both of her foster sisters, Zelda and Sadie. Zelda (a retired commercial breeder herself), knew that Gretchen was scared and jumped right in the transporter’s SUV to reassure Gretchen that her life was changing for the better. With gentle coaxing, Gretchen was lifted out of the SUV and able to truly see what life was about to hold for her.
After a couple of chill days and gentle nudging from her foster sisters, Gretchen perked up and decided it was time to explore this place called home. She was mastering these things called stairs and learning that if she felt the urge to relieve herself, going outside was a must.
We also quickly observed what a fast learner Gretchen is and what a good teacher Zelda has become over the years. When Zelda put her feet up on the retaining wall looking for her chipmunk friend, guess who followed suit so she didn’t miss out?
Why, Miss Gretchen of course! This is how we learned of her motto: See one, do one; which she has done on many occasions with all of her new experiences. This is also why Gretchen must live with another medium or large dog to show her the ropes and to help her get over her fears.
Gretchen also got another car ride to the vet to get checked over and up to date on her vaccines. She handled it all like a champion, even the medicine she received for her ear infections. We found out that our little girl was 74.1 pounds, which is at the upper most range for her frame.
She heard foster mom and the vet talking and was wondering what they meant when they kept mentioning coming back for something called a “spay appointment” and what the word “diet” meant.
Gretchen found out the answer to this the following week when she went back to the vet for her spay. She bounced right out of the truck like she had been doing it for years and pranced right in the doors of the vet’s office.
The amazing thing was that Gretchen had already lost 2.6 pounds and she hadn’t found out what “diet” meant yet. I guess all those stairs and that big yard are helping Gretchen out.
Poor Gretchen wasn’t prancing when we picked her up that night. She had a very quiet night resting and was ready to go again the next day. One important finding during her spay was that Gretchen had a blocked tear duct.
This was likely caused by an allergen and it was recommended that we give her Zatidor eye drops daily during her allergy season when her eyes are running. These are over the counter antihistamine eye drops that you can find in any department store like Target or Wal-Mart (generic is fine). She has been letting us administer the drops with no issues so we’ll see if these help out.
Gretchen is in her kennel when we are gone from the house. She has gotten into the household routine very quickly and with some direction from Sadie.
When we get home she is standing in her kennel barking and making circles with Sadie on the outside trying to dig her out. When the door opens, Gretchen hurries down the stairs with Sadie to meet Zelda at the door for their race around the fenced in yard.
We also learned over the next few nights that Gretchen has a very insistent and unique voice. We now know what wolves sound like howling at the moon.
Needless to say, she is now a bedroom sleeper at night so that her human foster mom and dad can get some sleep, too. We have only heard her voice when she is disagreeing with what is happening or telling us to hurry up.
Gretchen has begun to chew on Nylabones and play with other toys while relaxing in the house. This is good for her to occupy her time and to help clean her teeth. She also is becoming interested in balls and noses those around as long as no one is watching her.
