Maren 06-437

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10/12/06: Meet Maren! (Mar rhymes with car). Maren comes to RAGOM from a loving home where she's lived since she was a puppy. Unfortunately her elderly parents could no longer give her the best life possible, so they made the difficult decision to allow us to find the perfect forever home for Maren.

This sweet girl turned 3 last week -- Happy Birthday to you! -- and is the kind of Golden every family wants to adopt. She's a classic purebred Golden beauty, with a fun-loving, playful, attention-seeking Golden personality. She's housetrained and well-behaved, with just enough puppy spunk left in her to keep you entertained.

Maren's only challenge is that she suffers from separation anxiety. Apparently this has been a problem since she was a puppy, and has been managed, but not entirely overcome. She is crate-trained and does best being crated when left alone. More details to come as we get to know her better and understand the extent of the problem. I will be interested to see if Mason, the resident Golden, can help to put her at ease. So far she is a doll!

Maren Maren

At a Glance #06-437

Golden Retriever Born: March 2004
Female Weight not specified

Status: Deceased

Profile

10/12/06: Meet Maren! (Mar rhymes with car). Maren comes to RAGOM from a loving home where she's lived since she was a puppy. Unfortunately her elderly parents could no longer give her the best life possible, so they made the difficult decision to allow us to find the perfect forever home for Maren.

This sweet girl turned 3 last week -- Happy Birthday to you! -- and is the kind of Golden every family wants to adopt. She's a classic purebred Golden beauty, with a fun-loving, playful, attention-seeking Golden personality. She's housetrained and well-behaved, with just enough puppy spunk left in her to keep you entertained.

Maren's only challenge is that she suffers from separation anxiety. Apparently this has been a problem since she was a puppy, and has been managed, but not entirely overcome. She is crate-trained and does best being crated when left alone. More details to come as we get to know her better and understand the extent of the problem. I will be interested to see if Mason, the resident Golden, can help to put her at ease. So far she is a doll!

Maren Maren

Updates

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

With the adoption of a rescued dog, who is luckier- the dog, or the family who adopts it? The answer is--- BOTH!---and in our case, even more than that when we adopted Maren- RAGOM # 06-437.

Through local personal contacts, we had adopted our previous golden, Shelby, from a family with young children who were allergic to dog hair. She was a wonderful dog for many years, but sadly had to be put down for health issues which were terminal. I told my wife we should wait at least six months before we tried to fill the void created with Shelby's passing.

Perhaps within six days, she was on the internet looking for rescued dog organizations for Golden Retrievers and discovered the RAGOM website. To make a long story short, several weeks later we traveled 5 hours to Minneapolis with the kids to meet and adopt Maren. So delighted and impressed with our fur-ever find, we soon became RAGOM volunteers to be transporters, conduct home reviews, and also be a foster home.

Maren has not only become a member of our family, but also a PERFECT foster sister and model for our many foster dogs. They have come into our home as RAGOM rescued dogs and left our home as well-mannered new members of happy and loving adopted families. Maren welcomes them all in and helps to train them how to behave, where to potty, and how to walk nicely on a leash. We could not do it without her.

She is happy, we are happy, the adopted foster dogs are happy, and the adopting families are happy.

.............and it all started with RAGOM!

Thank you, RAGOM, for being the vehicle which brought Maren into our lives and indirectly into those of so many others. Without you, we would have never known Maren, all the fosters, their wonderful adoptive families, and the latest addition to our own family, Gunner (RAGOM #09-486).  But you will have to find out about him on his own future "happy endings" story. Since this one is long overdue and deserving of Maren, we thought we should send it first!

Pete and Kris L.


Gunner (09-486) with Maren

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

I promised an update right after Mar's vet appt and I'm 2 days late... maybe because subliminally I'm in no hurry to get her adopted. I never thought I'd say this, but Maren is one of the easiest (and sweetest!) dogs I've ever fostered. Seriously! She does not have a single bad habit that I've found, and her separation anxiety really has not reared its ugly head. I've been trying to figure out if I'm just that brilliant as a dog trainer, or if perhaps she finds me really annoying and is therefore relieved when I leave the house :) Joking aside, she is a dream dog!!!

Now for the health facts... vet appointment was good. She gave the vet kisses in between each poke and prod -- how sweet is that! She weighed in at 79 lbs which surprised me. She doesn't look that big, but she does have a little extra around the middle, so her ideal is probably more like 70. She is the first foster I've ever had to NOT have ear infections (needless to say, I brought Mason in too because his ears have been gunky, and of course HE has double ear infections!). She does, however, have the other Golden nemesis -- allergies. Not sure yet if they are seasonal, but the vet recommended a short course of steroids to really kick 'em in the butt (pardon the expression), with the hope that she won't need any further treatment. It was a tough decision to go with the steroids vs just starting an antihistamine, but the vet really recommended it based on how itchy she was. My biggest concern was that the steroids increase thirst, causing the subsequent need to urinate. That, in itself, could be enough to induce anxiety if she had a hard time holding it while I was gone. I decided to go for it, with the hope that we can nip it in the bud, quickly make her more comfortable, and the whole thing will be done in 10 days. Plus, I am only leaving her for a max of 4-5 hours at a time so I just make sure she potties right before I leave... and so far no problems. And she is MUCH less itchy! Other than the allergies, she got a clean bill of health and rave reviews from the vet staff!

One last medical item, we decided to leave her on the Clomicalm for now -- that's the medication used for separation anxiety. I am not convinced that she needs it (neither were the previous owners) and neither was the vet, but we decided since we were doing the steroid treatment, and she has one more major transition ahead of her (to her forever home, of course!), that we would leave her on it for now. It certainly isn't hurting anything (no side effects), and we are giving her the lowest possible dose. So I'm hopeful that once she's adopted, she can ultimately come off it. She is really doing fantastic and displaying almost no signs of anxiety here. She continues to spend time in her crate with the door open, and when she is really tired, it's the first place she goes. It continues to amaze me that when I get ready to leave in the morning (or evening) -- first of all, there are no signs of nervousness when I put on my coat, pick up the keys, etc. (all classic triggers for SA) -- and not only that, but when she sees me going to get her a treat, she is already heading for the crate... and no more sad eyes like I got the first couple of times.

To sum it up, you won't find a cuter, sweeter dog than little Miss Maren! Every person is her friend, every dog is her friend, every toy is her friend, and yet she's possessive of nothing and loves to share. Ok, she also likes to tease Mason with a toy once in a while, but he deserves that. Overall, she is pretty submissive. I think she'd do well in a multi-dog household, and it might help to keep the anxiety in check. She is most concerned though with human attention, loves to be near you, and has amazing recall -- usually you don't even have to call her to you, she is already there! From what I've seen at the PetCo event and in the neighborhood, she's also great with kids, and I think a busy, active household would be good for her. In general, I think short, frequent absences are better for dogs with separation anxiety than long, infrequent ones. They just need the predictability to trust that you will always come back to them -- oh, and she also loves to ride along if you need a partner for running errands!

I could go on and on about this wondeful girl, but why don't you see for yourself? She is ready to meet her forever family, and to learn once and for all that there is no need to worry, that her family will always and forever come back to her. You will be amazed at the extent of her gratitude! Email placementatragom [dot] org to meet Maren.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Maren and Mason are playing this morning - yay! This is a big step for her. While they've been 'fine' together, she is now teasing him with squeaky toys, and they are running and chasing around the yard. I'm not sure she's quite as impressed with his repertoire of wrestling moves as some of our previous fosters have been, but he's being 'respectful' of her and refraining from tackling. It is so much fun to watch her come out of her shell!

Yesterday at the Petco event was the same way. She started off kind of shy and overwhelmed by all the people and dogs (she kept trying to drag me back down the treat aisle - go figure :) but by the end she was soaking up all the attention and even going up to newcomers for pets. I think she also developed a little crush on Buddy Lewis 06-177, and gave him lots of polite little kisses.

Maren had several families express interest in her yesterday. I'm thrilled that others see what a sweet, wonderful dog she is, but also want to make sure that her forever family is fully capable and willing to deal with her separation anxiety. When you are home, Maren is the easiest dog ever. She is happy to be near you, but will also entertain herself with toys, running around from room to room pouncing on her squeaky toys, which is the cutest thing ever! Surprisingly, she's not a total velcro dog, just as long as she can check in on you from time to time, she is fine. Putting her in her crate and going upstairs to take a shower, however, does not make her happy. She whines and cries like a little puppy -- but then again, a lot of dogs don't like being crated when their families are home. And luckily with Maren, there is no need for it -- she is totally trustworthy with free reign when you are home.

For now, Maren does need to be crated when you are not home. The great news here is that Maren actually likes her crate, which is unusual for dogs with separation anxiety. Usually they will associate the crate with being left alone and avoid it at all costs, but Maren will go lie down in her crate while I am nearby, as long as the door is left open. This is huge! She also knows the word "kennel" and will walk right into the crate on command, but she does expect -- and deserve! -- a treat for it. :) This makes life a whole lot easier than trying to get an SA dog into a crate if they fight it with all they've got. So, this is all really good news!

Once she is in the crate, I am practicing with being gone for short periods, and she's doing REALLY well. I am very low key about leaving and always leave the radio on with soothing music or NPR. I started by just going outside and listening for whining, and have been able to increase the time I'm away every day without upsetting her. Today I left to run errands for 2.5 hours, and came home to a totally calm dog... excited to see me, but in a normal happy way, with dry bedding (meaning she wasn't drooling) that was still neatly in place... all signs pointing to a dog that behaved completely normally while I was gone! I was SO proud of her, and she pranced around with her favorite toy in her mouth doing her happy squeal like she was also proud of herself! BIG STEP!!! So I'm very optimistic that with patience, structure, consistent exercise, and a lot of love in her life, Maren will overcome her anxiety at being left alone. It's very possible that having another calm dog around is helping her (Mason is Mr. Mellow while I'm gone and mostly just sleeps), and so I think that having a well-adjusted fur sibling would be a plus in her forever home.

Maren has a vet appointment tomorrow but we don't expect to find any major health problems. She has been well cared for, and came with her own 3-ring binder of health history, AKC registration papers, a bag full of products -- shampoo, ear cleanser, etc., and even pictures of her as a puppy with her littermates. She is already current on shots, and has been spayed and micro-chipped. This is not your typical rescue dog -- thanks to the W. family for taking such great care of her!!!

I do think she has some allergies, so we'll learn more about that tomorrow and report back. Her inner thighs on her back legs are itchy and look pretty irritated. I've been using the calming lotion and topical Benedryl her previous owners sent along, but I'm thinking she might need something more.

So, more tomorrow on little miss Mar Bar... email placementatragom [dot] org if you think you might be her perfect match

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