Cooper (Burney 14-272) [1]

Welcome to 5-month-old, 27-lb. Burney 14-272, also known as Super Puppy! What are his super powers, you ask? Let me tell you!

1. He can spread his wing-like ears and leap large countries in a single bound! OK, it was several bounds, but he did manage to travel all the way from AL to Minnesota.
2. He can accumulate 20 dog toys on a single dog bed in the time it takes a human to go to the bathroom!
3. He can manage to run in a straight line despite his gangly legs flying in 4 different directions at the same time!
4. He can be incredibly cute and make people laugh even as he is doing something rather naughty.

Some of his less super but still really good traits include:

1. Housebroken: no accidents so far at my house, but he is closely supervised and I am diligent about frequent trips to the yard after meals, naps, play sessions, etc. Despite the fact that he is intact at this time, he has not ever attempted to mark.
2. Crate trained; whines a little at first (especially if you are home and it means he can't be with you), but settles well and is not destructive. Has kept the crate clean for 4-5 hours at a time during the day and for 7-8 hours at night.
3. He likes dogs, and for an untrained puppy, he is pretty good at reading signals (my resident girl is quickly teaching him some more manners in that regard). He would LOVE to have a playful big sister or brother to shadow and learn from in his forever home.
   Cats have not been tested, but he did meet a cat in a carrier at the vets and was curious, but not obsessed or aggressive.
4. He is very gentle, especially for a puppy. Everyone he has met has called him sweet. He has never mouthed me, even when nervous or scared. He gets upset if I raise my voice with my resident dogs. With his humans, he prefers snuggling to rough-and-tumble play. He does jump up when excited, but he is so small and he does it so slowly and carefully that you can barely feel him touching you (we are still working on correcting this). For this reason, I think that he would be fine around children, although little ones could get still get knocked over when he gets the excited puppy zoomies and he may be distressed by the noisy and rowdy play of younger children. As you can see from the picture, he enjoyed meeting one of the teenage neighbor kids.
5. He likes to chew and to accumulate items, but has no resource guarding and has thus far focused his attention mostly on the dog toys (give or take a shoe or two with particularly interesting laces and a stray napkin). Although at the moment I cannot locate my TV remote. :) He does show great counter cruiser potential. For these reasons, he is not ready for free roam yet and will need to be confined when alone, at least until he matures a bit.

Burney will be neutered this week and then will be ready for his forever home. Things that he will need to become the great dog he can be will include:

1. Plenty of encouragement and training; he is still a little scared from his tumultuous start in life and will need help to learn manners and to continue to gain confidence. He is cautiously trusting of humans and likes to please them, which will help make training easier and fun. He has virtually no training at this time, so his manners are rough and he doesn't have great recall, but he has very few bad habits and is learning fast.
2. Plenty of exercise and play time; a tired puppy is a good puppy. While he is crated for the work day with one break here and does OK, it would be great if his forever home had someone home more during this puppy period where bonding, training and socialization are vital.
3. A fenced yard would be great as he enjoys exploring and chasing other dogs around, although he may be OK with frequent walks, play dates and a tie-out.
4. A family that wants to include him as much as possible - he loves to be with his people and thrives on being a part of whatever you do.

A reminder that puppies are a lot of work. Burney has a great start in a lot of areas, but the first year especially with any dog requires a lot of effort, consistency, patience, financial investment, and mostly time. Burney is willing to return whatever you can offer him in triplicate!

Contact your placement advisor if you think your house could benefit from the powers of Super Puppy!