Abby 18-242
Profile
Welcome beautiful Abby! Abby is a retired breeder girl who was due to be euthanized since the breeder no longer had a use for her. Thank goodness the vet was able to talk with the owner regarding Abby's great health and offered to find her a forever home with RAGOM's help. Abby is learning about life in a loving home and caring humans by following the lead of my resident dogs.
At a Glance #18-242
| Golden Retriever | Born: November 2008 |
| Female | 51 lbs |
Status: Adopted
Profile
Welcome beautiful Abby! Abby is a retired breeder girl who was due to be euthanized since the breeder no longer had a use for her. Thank goodness the vet was able to talk with the owner regarding Abby's great health and offered to find her a forever home with RAGOM's help. Abby is learning about life in a loving home and caring humans by following the lead of my resident dogs.
Updates
Abby has found her forever home! She will be in a home with a loving adoptive mom who is newly retired and will have lots of time to spend with her new sweet girl. Abby will also have a dog brother who will help her continue to gain confidence and learn that the world is not such a scary place. In her new home Abby will get daily walks and LOTS of LOVE!
Abby continues to grow in confidence. When I give my dogs medication each day, I let them lick peanut butter from my finger. At first when I offered peanut butter to Abby she would back away and leave the room. Tonight she stayed and licked the peanut butter from my finger!
I had a cold a couple of weeks ago and discovered that Abby is afraid of sneezes. Every time I sneezed she would run to her crate. She does not do it when I cough, just when I sneeze and my sneezes are not particularly loud.
Today there was a loud peal of thunder that scared her and made her shake, but she recovered from it quickly.
At night I have been putting a diaper on her as she has had accidents. While wearing the diaper she does not pee or poop. While it takes effort to do the diaper, I prefer that to crating her all night long.
Abby loved the snow today and plowed her nose through it with joy.
Today is Abby's freedom from staples and stitches! Since my last update, Abby had more staple activity. She managed to pull out all of the staples in her belly incision while wearing her NoBite collar. After that bit of work, I changed her to an inflatable Kong collar, Tshirt and Thundershirt.
This combination kept her away from her belly staples, but she was still able to pull out the stitches on her back leg. Luckily, the leg incision had already healed, so that did not cause any problem.
Now that we have survived the staples/stitches period we are both very relieved. She also got a clean reading on the two masses that were removed, so that is great news.
We have taken a few walks with my other dogs and it is obvious that she is more comfortable when she has dog companions along. She walks pretty calmly and follows their cues. When I take her to the vet where she is without her dog friends, she weaves back and forth and is much more unpredictable in her movements.
She continues to slowly gain confidence and improve in behavior. I get up in the middle of the night to let her outside. This has reduced the number of accidents that she has. Now it is about one per week.
She has become more of an attention sponge than ever. If I am petting any other dog, she comes right over and needs to get loving, too. She is a very loving girl.
Last Thursday Abby had two masses removed: one from her back left foot and one from her belly. The procedure went well. I feared that Abby would be terrified in the typical e-collar given out by vets, so I got her a Bite-Not collar. She was not happy with that either and just flattened to the floor when it was put on her neck.
I was able to coax her out to the car and got her home. She ate a little bit and was pretty subdued that night. I took the collar off when I could watch her and stop her from licking her incisions. On Saturday morning I was out of the room for about 20 minutes, and that was enough time for her to pull all of the stitches out of her belly incision.
I took her back to the vet and she put staples in the incision. When we got home I left the collar on Abby almost all of the time (except when she went outside). Saturday night I woke up to the sound of licking. Somehow she had wiggled her way out of the collar and pulled out two staples! I tightened the collar and put a couple of band aids on the her belly where the staples had been.
I have attached a picture of her in the collar. You can see why I was tempted to let her out of it. She looks pretty pathetic. She has slowly gotten more used to the collar, but still does not like it. We have had no more incision alterations, so I hope that is done. She goes back next week to get the stitches out.
The test results came back on the masses that were removed and the news was good. Neither one was malignant and both are not expected to return. Hurrah! Once Abby is free of the collar, she will be very happy and have her health concerns behind her.
We had a sad experience on Saturday. Abby was lying next to me on the bed and I was watching TV. On the show there was a bank robbery and one of robbers yelled in a mean, male voice "Get down! Don’t look at me! Do what I say!" Abby jumped off the bed and ran to hide in her crate.
The poor sweet girl has obviously been yelled at and terrified in her past life. I promised her that would not happen to her again, and that all she would get from now on is LOVE!
This week I have some pictures of Abby outside and showing more activity. She continues to gain confidence.
I took her for a short walk a few days ago. She met two new people and approached them closely. She does a belly crawl when approaching people, showing her submission and timidity. I was pleased that she approached them on her own. She is a crazy walker, zig zagging all over the place!
She still has an accident from time to time. She does not have a clear signal that she wants to go out, so I just put her out frequently. I also get up once during the night to let her out.
Abby will get be getting the mass on her leg removed next week. The vet will also remove the mass in her mammary area. We hope that both masses are benign.
She continues to be super sweet and loves to spend time close to me. She loves to be petted and belly rubbed. Abby is also super happy about all of the snow (wish I shared her feelings).
Abby came to live with me last week. She moved from another foster home as she needed to be in a home with other dogs.
Abby has been through many changes in the last few months. The first two days at my house she spent most of her time in the crate. She is timid and easily startled. As the days have passed she has gotten more confident. She follows the lead of my two resident dogs and that has helped her confidence.
She loves, loves, loves the snow. I have a fenced-in yard so she can run around doing nose plows and snow angels. The first days here she was afraid to go through the door by herself. She had to be with one of my resident dogs. Now she rockets outside on her own.
She is still goes to her crate when she is scared, but spends most of her time out of it. She has the habit of closing her eyes when you pet her. I have not decided if she does it because she is relaxed or just shutting out the world.
She has a mass on one of her back legs and a small mammary mass. RAGOM is evaluating treatment plans for both.
At this point our focus is to build her confidence. We will go slowly and not throw too many new experiences at her.
Abby and I are back together—yeah! We thank Abby’s foster aunt for giving her the best care and for her three dogs and two cats who showed Abby what it was like to be able to PLAY!
I can’t tell you what a great feeling I had when I saw Abby wagging her tail and coming right to me after our three weeks away. I was afraid she would forget me. And then the sad looks on her three new dog friends faces' when she left. Thanks again, Auntie!
Since we have been back together, the routine has returned to the first days Abby arrived at our house in November. She spends most of the time in her wire kennel with all her stuffed animals (babies). I have to tell you the story about her babies.
The second night she was at our home, we left a basket of dog stuffed animals in the room with her. The next morning they were all in her kennel, tucked in the back corners. I thought, wow, she came out of her kennel! Let’s try this again.
The next three nights we left a toy outside her kennel and she again grabbed it and rearranged her kennel. We all looked at each other and said, wow, she thinks those are her babies. Being a mother for so many years, she wants to comfort them. It’s pretty amazing! What a sweet girl!
But back to her routine. Although she spends most of her time in her kennel, as soon as you're in another room and say "Abby, let’s go outside" or she sees me with my coat on, she runs to the front door. She loves to go outside, but we don’t have a fenced yard. We will run and play in the yard (on leash) where she feels safe, but she still doesn’t like to go on walks unless it is dark out.
Now to the break-my-heart part. After talking with her aunt (who was able to spend three weeks with her), I have decided Abby does indeed need a confident resident dog with her to continue her progress. My love and cuddling isn’t enough for her. I want her to be able to grow and have a yard to run in.
While away from me for three weeks, with confident resident dogs, she would bring toys to her auntie and get on the couch for belly rubs. She even showed puppy-like play energy. That never happened in my home.
If your home has a confident dog and you want a sweet girl, Abby is for you! Again, our family just wants the best for her and we have enjoyed every minute.
I just want to add that my college-age girls and I had no problem gaining her trust, but she is still shy around my husband. Now that the girls are back at school, Abby is alone for eight hours with free roam in our mud room and has never had an accident.
There is a spectrum of personalities and therefore, a different unique response by each dog from a breeding program.
Abby is a sensitive sweet girl. You can easily see what a wonderful, caring mother she must have been with her litters. Now, she is taking many baby steps to having her own Golden life in retirement from the breeding world.
I have been foster sitting Abby since January 13, and she has opened up to more new ideas. Her safe place is an extra-large plastic crate in my kitchen where her soft toys surround her. Here, she is exposed to new sounds every day and it is less scary!
The door is open while I am home and she is free to come out and explore. Day 3, she comes out to the living room in semi-crouch posture. Soon, she is over for pets and on her back for chest rubs. My heart melted!!
My resident dogs are A to Z in personality and size, males and female. Benjamin, the Golden male, is a mellow fellow and a calming influence on her. He was a breeder in the other life, too. Ben leads the way into the SUV. I also live with two cats and Abby respects them.
House training is being reinforced, as she was not a house dog in her past. She always keeps her crate clean and dry. Sometimes I have missed her signs when among my family. I take Abby out on a 15-foot line with close supervision. She receives positive reinforcement with mission accomplished. Sometimes, she needs a roll in the snow first and then, to business.
Abby has had an aversion to human males. My adult sons have been making her welcome--baby steps. Trust is developing.
Sudden movements are scary! I am trying to "slo-mo" myself. Her confidence is continuing to build. A paper falls off the desk and she scurries to her safe place. Soon, out she comes again.
I am happy to see the "inner puppy" come out. She played and then, destuffed a toy. She was giving the eye to the rag rug and chair ties, so I have found redirecting her works well. Rawhide retriever rolls are long lasting and satisfying that urge.
Abby needs patience and a companion dog to help her adapt to her new life. She has come a long way, but needs to continue her progress to be a happy, confident Golden—therefore, Abby is unavailable at this time.