Champ 14-041

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Profile

In addition to LOVE this dog has the following requirements:
Entered Foster Care Fence Kid Friendly Another Dog Cat Friendly
February 17, 2014  not required  yes  optional  yes 
This is the most recent information available; however, it may change as we learn more about the dog.

Let me introduce you to Champ, who arrived at our house on President’s Day. He is a 2 year old pure-bred who was surrendered by a family with young children who found that they just didn’t have enough time for a dog. He was kept outside in a dog run and slept in the garage. The family said he loves kids but can get over-excited (so maybe best with bigger kids), likes to swim and chase tennis balls. He has not been around cats and has never seen a crate or baby-gate.

We took him to the vet to get him microchipped and UTD on vaccinations. He weighed in at 91 pounds. He is a big boy! His coat is super-thick due to living outdoors.  The vet said it was a little hard to tell with his thick coat, but that he seemed to have good body shape. So he is 91 pounds of pure dog! and is a very handsome fellow.

It took him a while to warm up to his new environment. (Well, seeing as he has moved indoors and he has that thick coat, he probably warmed  immediately J  )  So let’s say it took him a while to become confident in his new environment. He was SO scared when we first brought him inside. He belly-crawled into the entryway, and no way was he going to go up the steps. We have a split-entry house, where you come into a small entryway (grandly called a foyer), and then there are steps going up or down. He has a dog bed sent by his surrendering family, and as soon as I laid it out in the foyer he settled down and looked more at ease.

He was very friendly with us right away – seemed to appreciate the time we would spend in the foyer with him just talking to him and petting him. After a couple of days he ventured upstairs for a minute or two at a time, and pretty soon the minutes gave into hours. Now he is fine being upstairs.  He has that sometimes endearing, sometimes annoying trait of knowing how to use his nose to nudge insistently for petting – and, boy, he sure does loves that petting.

We have two resident dogs – a little Shih Tzu boy (Benny) and a 2 year-old Golden Retriever girl (Lucy). The latter is very playful and very, very exuberant. Champ started out being very nervous around her and wanted nothing more than to keep his distance, while she was begging him to play. Our Lucy left one afternoon for a playdate with our daughter’s dogs and ended up staying overnight. With Lucy gone, Champ really came around. He was confident enough to explore the upstairs and just loved being close to us. I hoped that his confidence would carry over after Lucy came home, and I am happy to report that it did. The two of them are now playing – wrestling some indoors and wrestling and chasing outdoors. He is fine with little Benny also.

So far he is not food motivated, but he loves attention and I think that is what will motivate him for training. Also, he has shown quite a bit of interest in the various dog toys we have scattered around. He does ‘sit’ and ‘down’ pretty well and has been coming when called. He would enjoy another dog for playing, but I think he would be just fine on his own so long as he has lots of interaction with his family.

He is learning to walk on leash. His former family said he never was walked on leash and rode in the car very few times. So far he has been surprisingly good on a leash – he has hardly pulled at all.  And he has been very good in the car. We have only had him in the car twice. Once while we transported him to our home, when he was definitely scared and wondering what was going on, and once to the vet. On the way to the vet he did not seem scared, and did lie down most of the way.

Whoever adopts this fine fellow will have to have a commitment to exercise him. He is a young dog with lots of energy. We are thinking now that a fence is optional. We have a fence and can’t imagine keeping a dog without one, but we have seen nothing to make us think he would be a flight risk. If he goes to a family without a fence, we will be looking for assurance that there is a plan for keeping him safely at home.

At a Glance #14-041

Golden Retriever Born: January 2012
Male 80 lbs

Status: Adopted

Profile

In addition to LOVE this dog has the following requirements:
Entered Foster Care Fence Kid Friendly Another Dog Cat Friendly
February 17, 2014  not required  yes  optional  yes 
This is the most recent information available; however, it may change as we learn more about the dog.

Let me introduce you to Champ, who arrived at our house on President’s Day. He is a 2 year old pure-bred who was surrendered by a family with young children who found that they just didn’t have enough time for a dog. He was kept outside in a dog run and slept in the garage. The family said he loves kids but can get over-excited (so maybe best with bigger kids), likes to swim and chase tennis balls. He has not been around cats and has never seen a crate or baby-gate.

We took him to the vet to get him microchipped and UTD on vaccinations. He weighed in at 91 pounds. He is a big boy! His coat is super-thick due to living outdoors.  The vet said it was a little hard to tell with his thick coat, but that he seemed to have good body shape. So he is 91 pounds of pure dog! and is a very handsome fellow.

It took him a while to warm up to his new environment. (Well, seeing as he has moved indoors and he has that thick coat, he probably warmed  immediately J  )  So let’s say it took him a while to become confident in his new environment. He was SO scared when we first brought him inside. He belly-crawled into the entryway, and no way was he going to go up the steps. We have a split-entry house, where you come into a small entryway (grandly called a foyer), and then there are steps going up or down. He has a dog bed sent by his surrendering family, and as soon as I laid it out in the foyer he settled down and looked more at ease.

He was very friendly with us right away – seemed to appreciate the time we would spend in the foyer with him just talking to him and petting him. After a couple of days he ventured upstairs for a minute or two at a time, and pretty soon the minutes gave into hours. Now he is fine being upstairs.  He has that sometimes endearing, sometimes annoying trait of knowing how to use his nose to nudge insistently for petting – and, boy, he sure does loves that petting.

We have two resident dogs – a little Shih Tzu boy (Benny) and a 2 year-old Golden Retriever girl (Lucy). The latter is very playful and very, very exuberant. Champ started out being very nervous around her and wanted nothing more than to keep his distance, while she was begging him to play. Our Lucy left one afternoon for a playdate with our daughter’s dogs and ended up staying overnight. With Lucy gone, Champ really came around. He was confident enough to explore the upstairs and just loved being close to us. I hoped that his confidence would carry over after Lucy came home, and I am happy to report that it did. The two of them are now playing – wrestling some indoors and wrestling and chasing outdoors. He is fine with little Benny also.

So far he is not food motivated, but he loves attention and I think that is what will motivate him for training. Also, he has shown quite a bit of interest in the various dog toys we have scattered around. He does ‘sit’ and ‘down’ pretty well and has been coming when called. He would enjoy another dog for playing, but I think he would be just fine on his own so long as he has lots of interaction with his family.

He is learning to walk on leash. His former family said he never was walked on leash and rode in the car very few times. So far he has been surprisingly good on a leash – he has hardly pulled at all.  And he has been very good in the car. We have only had him in the car twice. Once while we transported him to our home, when he was definitely scared and wondering what was going on, and once to the vet. On the way to the vet he did not seem scared, and did lie down most of the way.

Whoever adopts this fine fellow will have to have a commitment to exercise him. He is a young dog with lots of energy. We are thinking now that a fence is optional. We have a fence and can’t imagine keeping a dog without one, but we have seen nothing to make us think he would be a flight risk. If he goes to a family without a fence, we will be looking for assurance that there is a plan for keeping him safely at home.

Updates

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Champ has recovered nicely from his surgery and is perky and wanting to play. He does still have to be kept relatively quiet, so it is good that our Lucy has been away visiting during this time. However, Champ’s forever family has been waiting patiently for us to work through his medical issues. Today they came with open hearts to pick him up and he will continue his recovery in his forever home, where his new family already loves him.

 

Champ – we loved having you here, and wish you a long and happy life.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Well Champ has been through a lot the last week. Before I get into all of that, I want to say that Champ was very well received at the Meet and Greet last weekend. He was a little nervous coming in, but greeted everyone with great calm and friendliness. He was wonderful greeting small children and obviously enjoyed all the attention!

The rest of the week wasn’t as nice. Because of the frequent vomiting, and after all his tests came back negative, his vet took x-rays and then a series of barium x-rays. It turns out he had a partial torsion of his stomach and needed surgery to correct it. This apparently was the cause of the vomiting, poor boy. He had the surgery done on Thursday by the wonderful vet that does so much for RAGOM dogs, and he is now back home recovering. Dr. Rasmussen also did several biopsies for which we will get results sometime next week. She commented that his gut seemed sluggish, and I think she is looking to see if there is an underlying cause for that.

He will be on pain meds and antibiotics for a while. Also on a drug for GI mobility for about a month. He has to be kept quiet, so we have loaned our resident Lucy to our daughter for a while. Actually, she very generously offered to take Lucy while Champ begins his recovery. Lucy and Champ play very vigorously, so keeping them separated is good for him. He is supposed to be kept fairly quiet for six weeks, and that is longer than Lucy will be away. Maybe he will be in his forever home before long, although we will miss this sweet boy when he goes.

Champ is checked out to a family. We met the parents at the Meet and Greet last week (he was already checked out to them and we were bringing him to the Meet just for the experience for him), and they were planning on coming over this past week with their sons to ‘officially’ meet him. That had to be delayed due to his medical issues. As soon as Champ is past the worst of his recovery and we can arrange a meeting with the family. And then – who knows? – maybe they will be his forever family. Whoever ends up with Champ will be a lucky family.

Lucy and Champ - see the size difference!

Recovering from surgery

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Time for a quick update as I have some things to report about this sweet dog. Champ is still as sweet as ever – and always looking for pets and attention. We cut some hair balls out from under his ears. FD was petting him while FM was clipping. It took a while because they were pretty big and close to the skin. He was so patient! I also had to cut some snarls out of his tail feathers. Again, FD was distracting him a little, but he was calm and quiet – so easy. (In direct contrast to our resident dog, who acts like she is on a fire-ant hill while we are working on her.)

We are still having potty accidents. Today he peed inside within 10 minutes of coming in. This will be corrected with time and training; it is going a little slower than I had hoped, but I am sure it will ‘click’ one of these days J

We are taking Champ out to a meet and greet today (sorry I didn’t get this out sooner in case some of you would have liked to have joined us and met him) just to give him the experience of mingling with people and other dogs. He remains somewhat fearful of new things, although seems to recover pretty quickly – taking confidence from his people.

 

The one thing we are concerned about is that he has intermittent vomiting starting a few days after he arrived here. He has vomited two or three times a week. At first we thought maybe we were changing his food over too quickly, or maybe the stress of being re-homed. But at this point we don’t believe it is caused by that. He has been to the vet and has had a battery of tests – all coming back negative so far. We are still working with the vet to see what might be causing this. He is active and playful and doesn’t act sick at all. He has lost weight, but that may very well be due to a reduction in the amount of food he is offered and an increase in activity. That is all I can say for now. Hopefully by the next update we will either have a solution for his GI issue.

Monday, March 3, 2014

We took Champ over to our daughter's house for a little cat test - which he seemed to pass enough so that she declared she would be comfortable with him around her cats. She held her cat, Cricket, on her lap and Champ sniffed her over a bit then moved off. When Cricket meowed (a little unhappy with being restrained there) Champ came back for another sniff, but that was all. Then she let Cricket off her lap, and the cat promptly left the room. Champ, who we had on a leash, did quickly try to follow her, but no lunging and didn't seem threatening. It was a very small cat test, but I think Champ could co-exist with a cat.

We did see, however, that Champ was again afraid to enter their home. Not nearly as bad as he was when he first came into our house, but we had to coax him, and he went down to his belly in the entryway as her dogs came over to greet us all, even though he had just been cavorting with them in our back yard the evening before. He was edgy in their back yard, but did become comfortable in the house after a pretty short time.

Champ is still learning to be an indoor dog. We have had several potty accidents in our house (urination only). He has not found a way to let us know that he needs to go out. He may not even know yet that he SHOULD let us know :)  If we are diligent enough to get him out frequently, he takes care of it outside, but so far it is on us. His adoptive family will have to realize that although he is two years old, he is still learning indoor manners.

Another thing we have observed in the last few days is a little counter surfing. The only thing he actually got into was a covered candy dish that sat on a low cabinet, but he has certainly been sniffing around the kitchen cabinets and table. No crime in that, but if I hadn't been right there to stop him, I am sure he would have done more than sniff. Oh, and there was the orange that he took off the table right before my eyes and just before I was going to eat it.

He is tall enough that he looks over the table just by having his head held up, and his nose is not far from countertops when he is standing beside them. A little attention to keeping things away from the edge of the counter may be all that is needed - but time will tell. Some vigilance in the meantime, and gentle warnings to 'leave it' if he approaches, are in order.

He is a warm, sweet dog. He has greeted everyone he has met with friendliness. He hasn't shown an ounce of aggression under any circumstance we have seen him in. He is truly a Golden - what else is there to say!

We will soon be in contact with people who have expressed an interest in meeting him. It is time to find him his forever home.