Harmon (Biscuit 11-373) [1]

Please help me welcome Biscuit to the RAGOM family. Biscuit or as I like to call him "Mr. Legs" is a 13 month old pure bred male Golden Retriever. He is a beautiful red haired boy and is long and lanky. He is current on all vaccinations and is neutered. Biscuit is a very sweet, handsome boy and is a very high energy guy who gets along great with all the dogs at my house. He and Raven, my 2 year old adopted RAGOM boy play for hours and will wrestle until I put a stop to their play time. He is respectful of the older dogs at my house and does listen to them when they say enough is enough. Biscuit does not display any resource guarding with toys or food and is crate trained. He is housebroken and has not had any accidents at my house. He walks fine on a leash with a Gentle Leader....I've not tried him with just a flat collar. He is a smart boy and does want to please his humans. This is the good stuff about Biscuit. Please read on......

Before you rush to call your placement adviser for this handsome boy, you need to know that Biscuit needs a lot of work and a very experienced owner. His new forever family can not have children under the age of 15....preferably an adult only home unless the teenagers are very dog savvy. Biscuit will need an owner who loves and wants to train a dog.....not someone who will take him to an 8 week course and expect to be done training him. He will need on going training to help him over come his lack of socialization and to form a bond with his humans. He will need an owner who is able to provide tons of consistent exercise, a runner would be great or a family with another energetic dog and a fenced yard so he can run off some of his energy. Mr Biscuit spent the first 8 months or so of his life tied to a tree with minimal human contact. He was then surrendered to an all breed rescue group where he spent a month or so in foster care before being adopted out to a family. Unfortunately this family could not deal with Biscuit's behaviors and his original rescue group did not have an open foster home with enough experience to help Biscuit so he became a RAGOM dog. He was in a foster home when he first arrived at RAGOM but was too much for the other dogs in the household and so he spent 16 days in boarding. He has been at my house for 5 days. He is a handful and a challenge.

Biscuit is very much like a 8 or 10 week old puppy in his behaviors but in an adult dog body. He has zero manners. He has not learned that all four of his feet need to remain on the ground and that mouthing and humping people is not acceptable. He does mouth hard enough to cause bruises but has not broken skin. He counter surfs and chews everything he can get his mouth on. So far we've lost one harness to him....forgot to take it off when I put him in his crate and when I went to remove it a couple minutes later it was in 6 pieces!! He has also broken a lamp when he tried to jump onto the entertainment center to grab my hat. He loves to grab anything and everything and will run around with said items wanting you to chase him. Needless to say, Biscuit is kept on leash and tethered to me or crated when he is in the house. He is like a tornado when left loose in the house if he is off leash. I use a Gentle Leader and or an Easy Walk harness with Biscuit and that seems to help calm him down, or at least I have control over him. Biscuit does appear to have some irritation or damage to his trachea area which I suspect is a result of his being tied or restrained with a collar. I only notice it when pressure is put on his neck or upper chest and then he will produce a raspy cough. It does not appear to bother him at all. This does seem to have improved since he has been with me and I am using his flat collar only for his identification tags.

Biscuit needs his next home to be his forever home. By my count this 13 month old boy has been in 7 different homes already so he needs stability and someone who is 100% committed to his care who will work with him and help him so he can become the wonderful Golden we know he can be. I do see potential in Biscuit and I do know that some of his behaviors are just that of a young dog who needs time to grow up and mature. His behaviors are worse when he is excited or stressed. It is almost like he looses the ability to control himself and focus when he gets excited or over stimulated. His new owner will need a ton of patience and will need to employ positive training methods. Biscuit does not need someone to dominate him or teach him who is boss. He needs someone who can train him and teach him what is expected and required of a family dog. He will be a work in progress and I do expect it to take months of work to train him.

If you think you have the patience and skills needed to help Biscuit grow and flourish please contact your placement adviser. He is a diamond in the rough and will be worth the work you will need to put into him.