Chance 12-021 [1]

February 5, 2012

Chance, 3 year old, AKC golden retriever and love bug extraordinaire. He is getting a second Chance at a good life in RAGOM, as he has been neglected for some time. He was left to live alone with someone coming to feed him and let him out once a day.

He is resilient and has adjusted to foster life with “big brother”, Tyson. They are exactly the same age, but Tyson is 20 pounds heavier than 60 pound Chance – he is Tyson’s minime. He acts like a puppy still, he kept after Tyson the first few days, running, chasing and nudging him to play. He has now learned Tyson’s signals when enough play is enough, a little slow on picking up the signals. They are playing well together, take away, keep away and tag you're it.

Snuggling with Tyson at bedtime

Chance thinks he is a lap dog, he will walk up to you and crawl on you to sit in your seat on the couch.

Really, I am meant to be a lapdog

He doesn’t jump on the furniture or bed (yet) – correction, FD had to lift him onto the bed and now Chance knows how to get up and it’s a great place for snuggling (Bad FD, usually it's Bad FM).

When we are gone, we have gated him in the hallway and he doesn’t jump the gate. He is not used to the crate, but settles down after a few minutes. Ironically, he is not treat motivated – at all! He knows several commands: sit, down, stay, no, come. We are working on leave it. He rides nice in the car. He has lived with little kids and cats. We don’t think he has had a lot of exposure to living with other dogs, so he would need a patient (not grumpy) partner in play to teach him the ropes. He has not had any accidents or marking in the house – yeah given how he was left to himself all the time. He loves running in our fenced in back yard. He has too much energy right now and will bolt, if given the opportunity. He had his neuter surgery on Wednesday and is ready to meet his forever home. He is up to date on his vaccinations, microchipped and ready to take some belly scratching.