Murphy 11-009 [1]

February 20, 2011

Murphy came to RAGOM after being surrendered by his owner in southern MN who could no longer care for him and his brother, Yoseph 10-390. He weighs in at 73 pounds, is very tall and has a beautiful reddish coat.  Unlike most goldens, Murphy does not shed much.

He was very anxious at first about having to be separated from his brother and kept checking out our mirrors looking for Yoseph. In the beginning, Murphy paced a lot and would startle at every sound he heard.  We tried a using a crate when we were gone, but that only seemed to make his anxieties worse. Through much reassurance and TLC, Murphy has begun to settle down from those first few weeks.  Being an outdoor dog, he has learned to appreciate the good life indoors.

He is good about letting us know when he needs to go out to go potty, but is still having some problems with accidents when we are gone.

Murphy is a 'velcro' dog with foster mom, getting up and following her everywhere. He even hangs out with FM when she makes her quilts. He gets decorated now and then too!

He has his stuffed animals and brings them wherever he goes in the house.  At first, he was a little too protective of them, but is now willing to share them with us.

Murphy will be 3 this month, but still has a lot of puppy behaviors. We are working on his jumping up when he greets us and when we leave get ready to leave him for a few hours. He really craves the attention, and getting his ears scratched, so will sit with a few reminders. He also loves to chew on things, so we try to make sure he has appropriate chew bones to use.

Normally, Murphy will go outside on a tie-out, but he decided he wanted to go for a walk alone, getting loose somehow. After many anxious and frantic minutes by FM, Murphy was found and returned home safely.

One of the unusual tricks that Murphy does is mimicking emergency sirens when he hears them pass by.

What Murphy will need in his forever home is:

• Someone to give him love and lots of patience to help him to overcome his anxieties.
• A family with no small children as he may knock them over when he jumps up. He is fine with our 10 year old grandson and allows him to cuddle.
• Someone to teach him manners and probably obedience training. So far he sits and shakes hands.
• He would probably be best with another dog to help him learn good doggie behavior.

If you are interested, please contact your placement advisor.