Duke 12-165 [1]

Let us introduce Duke! He is a 6 year old boy who acts like a 3 year old. J We picked him up on Sunday after a long journey from boarding in South Dakota; thanks to a great transport team and a special thanks to the boarding facility for taking good care of him before we could transport him!

After picking him up from transport we headed to Bubbly Paws for a well deserved bath and by the end of bathing Duke was kissing the owner and receiving treats for being a ham.

Duke is really sweet and loves attention and giving attention back…even to complete strangers. Our first walk he kissed a woman sitting near the path talking on a cell phone. She invited him over to pet him and he slobbered all over her face. So cute! She loved it.

We have been told Duke is a Golden Retriever Husky mix. His tail is shaved right now because it was too matted to brush out; it will be interesting to see if his tails fills back in like a Retriever or Husky. That is if you can even see his tail…it is usually whipping back and forth. He has a muscular build and puffy soft hair, so it is hard to tell if he is at his ideal weight. His paper said he weighed 75 pounds, but we will weigh him when we take him in to be checked out.

He has been good with other dogs and rides nicely in the car. He is not a fan of the crate. He will go in, but he definitely doesn’t want to be in there. We plan to work more with him over the weekend to show that the crate is a safe place. So far we have not had any accidents in the house, although he did get sick, maybe from eating too fast or from playing too much and then eating immediately.

Duke is up to date on vaccines and neutered. His recent neutering incision is still mending so we are trying not to overdo things. I have taken him to two 3 mile walks and the first walk he spent most of it “marking” territory, sniffing and eating grass. Our resident dog Ally has some anxieties and will walk with her head between my legs. So about half way through the walk I came up with the idea of threaded Duke’s leash through Ally’s mid leash handle to keep them close to each other. Ally would keep trucking along and keep Duke from marking or eating grass and Duke would keep Ally from hiding behind me. They seemed to have a great time. You can see the picture of the two of them together on their jaunt. The second walk was a little more chaotic. Ally still wanted to hide for most of the walk and Duke would casually bark at bikes passing by; only if the biker didn’t smile. J I will find a path with less bikes.Last night I took Duke for a 15 minute walk around the neighborhood and he met a group of 4 kids. All were petting him and Duke administered a bunch of kisses and his tail was out of control. One of the girls could not get over how soft he was. He does need some manners and needs some training to not jump on people. We currently need to keep him from jumping up, so it may be wise for Duke to be with older children or at least dog savvy kids. Duke does know how to sit, but is not consistent. He jumps up and we will work with him on that. I think this boy would do well in obedience. He is eager to please and loves the attention.

Duke is not baby gate trained. He has jumped right over them. As of right now Duke would be best in a fenced yard, the taller the better, since he is so interested in what is going on in the surrounding neighborhood. We have a four foot fence and we feel he might be able to jump it. He puts his paws on it to look beyond so we don’t leave him alone. He did run away from his surrendering home in rural South Dakota numerous times and can reportedly open doors. Duke’s surrendering owners decided RAGOM should help find a new family to keep him safe. I am sure it was a tough decision, since he is such a sweetheart.

He does have a bit of a wheeze when he lies down, so we are keeping an eye on him to see if he might have a cold. We will report back soon with more photos and information.

This boy has come a long way to find his new family. If you think Duke is the dog for you, please contact your placement advisor.