Stella 13-003 [1]

January 12, 2013

Please welcome Stella, a 2 year-old, pure-bred Golden Retriever beauty who weighs 56 lbs. She has a graceful appearance with her long feathers and thin facial features. She is spayed and current with all her vaccinations.

Stella’s loving owner worked at the pet store where Stella was for sale. It broke her heart week after week to not see this adorable puppy adopted, and when she was 4 months old she adopted her. She did a beautiful job training her (basic and intermediate obedience), socializing her to people and other animals, and loving her like none other. She recently went back to school full time and had a change in her living situation. She wanted Stella to have the best life possible so made the very difficult decision to surrender her.

Stella acclimated to the daily rhythm of our household really quickly. Stella gets along with the two female resident dogs, and within a day learned the ropes for interacting with cats (she had never been around cats). She is crate trained but has been doing excellent with free roam of the house. She is fully housebroken. She sleeps through the whole night without a peep. She is a total sweetie !

Stella has grown into a beautiful dog. She is happy and easy-going, and usually has a smile on her face. She loves pets and getting attention, but is just as happy to grab a bone to chew on, or she’ll crawl up on one of the couches to take a snooze. Her biggest hurdle is that she lacks confidence—she needs to warm up to and get familiar with anything new. If she is in “this is new” mode, she shifts into hyper-alert and can be skittish and afraid of sudden movements and loud or abrupt noises. She will need a person or family to continue building her self confidence so she can develop into the best dog she can be.

We haven’t seen any sign of resource guarding over toys or food. We have her going out on a leash to do her business, and she is doing great with that. She has excellent recall, so if she gets plenty of exercise she will not require a house with a fenced yard. The previous owner said she loves kids, and I will test her with that in the next few days. She will thrive in a home with another medium or large dog to model confidence, but she will do great in a home as the only dog too.

Here is Stella and her favorite buddy the resident Golden (Stella is on the left).

It has been such a joy watching Stella come out of her shell as she gets more comfortable. We are out in the country, and the other day I was telling a friend that I am trying to bring out Stella’s inner tomboy. She added that she is a girly-girl, so she’s a ‘ponytail tomboy’ :-).

If you think you may be a good match for Stella, please contact your placement advisor. We will update as we learn more about her!