Lilly is a spayed female who came into RAGOM because her owner went to the hospital and could no longer take care of her and her siblings Jack and Daisy. Lilly came to us on Wednesday evening after a 1.5 hour long car trip from Iowa City to Polk City. She was excited to be sprung from the shelter and rode very well for me on the car trip. She sat up in the passenger seat (tethered) and quietly sat there for the rest of the trip. She even let me eat my fast food dinner without bugging me…much. Since arriving Lilly has settled in nicely over the last day and a half. She was a little nervous the first 12 hours, but that is totally normal for a dog that has gone through so many changes in such a short time. She will see the vet on Monday for a check-up and some vaccinations and then she will be ready for her furever home! Here is what we know about Lilly so far….

• She appears to be housetrained. We had a couple accidents in the first 12 hours, but I am going to attribute those to nerves and getting used to each other’s routines. Since then she has been accident free! Yay Lilly!
• She gets along well with other dogs. She lived with two other Goldens in her previous home and lives with a Golden, and two herding breed mixes here and gets along great. Two of my furry girls can be kind of snooty and she completely respects them and their space.
• She met our two cats with no problems. She is cat tested and approved.
• She seems to love everyone she meets. She is a happy go lucky Velcro Golden that wants attention and would love it all the time. I also have a 6 month old and so far I have seen no problems with Lilly around her. Lilly does have a tendency to jump when first meeting new people so she may knock small ones down. We will be working on the jumping as we go along. Once she calms down she is fine.
• I would say Lilly is medium energy. She settles down really nicely and just lies around with the rest of my crew, but she definitely enjoys the outdoors and needs daily play time or a walk. She needs to lose about 5-10 pounds to be at an ideal weight so walking will definitely help her with this.
• She pulls hard on the leash and is strong. We will be using a Gentle Leader with her and I will report back on how she does with it.
• She knows sit, down, and stay (though her stays could use some work). She only comes about 50% of the time so we will be working on that as well. She is very treat motivated so I think she would do great in an obedience class to help her brush up on her skills.
• She has tried to get on the furniture and the bed a couple of times, but is easily redirected to the floor. We have several dog beds to lie on though she seems to prefer the wood floor.
• She has only barked a couple times since being here. I am not sure if this will increase once she is comfortable or if she has always been a quiet dog.
• She was reported to have free roam in her previous home. Here we are working on crate training her as we crate train all new fosters until we know they are trustworthy. She doesn’t really want to run into the crate, but once in she does fine.
• We have seen no aggression or any resource guarding from her. She lets us mess with her bowl and eats right next to our other dogs with no problems.
• So far she isn’t very interested in toys or balls. She will run after the other dogs once in awhile when I am playing ball with them, but is content to usually just watch.
• She enjoys looking out the windows when she is not napping.
• As far as undesirable traits (as we all have them) I have caught her with her paws on the counters once or twice so we are being very diligent about keeping anything desirable away from her reach and making sure she stays down. She also is a nibbler when excited and likes to nibble on your hands which may be scary to some people.

So that is what we know about miss Lilly. She is very sweet and would fit into about any home. She loves people and gets along well with other dogs though I don’t think she necessarily needs one in the home and as far as I can tell would do well with cats too. I will update more after her vet appointment but wanted to share a few pictures from her first couple of days with us.