Happy Holidays, Macy, from the Chaudiors!

I’d like to introduce Macy, a sweet 3.5 year old purebred Golden Retriever. She weighs 66 lbs and has deep red coloring.. She had her well vet check and is UTD on all vaccinations and preventatives. She recently had a litter of puppies and is scheduled to be spayed.

Macy came to RAGOM from a commercial breeder. She is transitioning to living in a house beautifully—there have been no accidents, and she is responding to the day-to-day routine keeping right in step with the resident dogs. She has been here a little over a week, and she has made awesome progress. By Day 3 she discovered the dog beds, and she now rotates going from bed to bed throughout the day. On Day 5 she discovered the toy box and pulled out a couple of stuffed toys. She didn’t play with them, but I thought it was something to celebrate!  She also pulled out an antler and started chewing on that. Good girl! Probably the thing that I am most surprised by is how affectionate she is. From the first day she got here she openly received pets and affection from both of us. The resident dogs have a routine where they jump up on the bed after the alarm goes off for a few minutes of morning snuggles. Macy caught on pretty quickly, and she’d come to the side of the bed with her tail wagging 100 miles an hour. Now she is hopping right up on the bed with the dogs-she doesn’t want to miss out on anything!   This morning she was the first one to jump up–and believe me there is no sleeping through the alarm clock with her wiggly butt trying to get attention! She is a complete love bug, and just soaks up any and all physical contact.

Macy has had multiple litters of pups in her 3+ years, and she has quite a droopy tummy. She needs to firm up and build muscle tone, so we’ve been working on that with lots of walking.  She walks beautifully on a leash, and seriously, she walks better than my dogs. We go on different trails so she can experience new environments and new physical challenges. She enjoys going along on these adventures, so much so that now sometimes she’ll run to the truck when we go out to the garage. We do some walking in heel position, and we go for lots of walks in the woods by our house where she is encouraged to smell. Right now she pretty much sticks close to me (OK, she is glued to my side). I’ll know we are really making headway when she engages with her environment a little more! When we get back in the house after walking she goes to one of her favorite spots and usually takes a nap.

She wags her tail when the cat walks by, and the cat has taken a liking to her too and will groom Macy by licking her head. When she first got here we tried crating her and she got very anxious. We explored leaving her with free roam and she’s done really well with that. We’ve been gone a couple of times for 5 hour stretches and she does great. She comes running to the door excited to see us when we get back. I haven’t tested her with children but I anticipate she won’t like the fast movement so I have 10+ years for requirements. She is a timid girl, but meets strangers well. When we went to the vet office for her check-up she was very comfortable meeting the staff, and we’ve run into people a number of times on walks. She does very well meeting other dogs on our walks—she is passive and mostly stays close to me and lets them sniff her.

There’s been no resource guarding of any kind. She is completely housebroken and hasn’t had any potty accidents. This brings me to our main challenge we have with Macy: She can hold it for HOURS until she is darn good and ready to go potty. We’ve explored different approaches to facilitate this to make her more comfortable. We have a fenced in area and she much prefers going potty off leash. I usually have to walk really slow to get her up and moving around, otherwise she just sits down and looks off into the woods. If I leave her in the fenced in area alone, she stands at the gate wanting to get out. There are many trips outside to go potty that are a bust. So this is the main thing we are working on. She can also be a little skittish transitioning to go outside (ie walking through a doorway). Last weekend was deer hunting and I think she was a little spooked because of that.

Macy is shy and she lacks confidence. A perfect fit for her will be a family who gets her out for lots of walks, exposes her to new things, and enjoys the process (and rewards) of building confidence. She is so affectionate—it will be a joy to watch her grow and thrive. I think she’ll do best with the company of another dog. She enjoys watching the resident dogs play, and she’ll sometimes join in for a few minutes. She really likes their company and is a different dog when they are around her.

It will be so rewarding to work with Macy and watch this beautiful girl blossom. She is about as sweet as they come! If you think you may be a good match for Macy, please let your placement advisor know. We will update more as we learn more about her!