Angel 12-289

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Profile

August 21, 2012

Angel joined the RAGOM family of wonderful dogs on Monday, August 13.  She is a sweet 3 year old purebred Golden, who has come to us from a family who has had her since she was 11 weeks old.   Angel's family, after much consideration, decided to surrender Angel because she has some resource guarding issues when it comes to giving up items/toys when she takes them into her crate.  Prior to surrendering Angel, there were two situations. Once was when Angel ran to hide under a bed with one of a child's toys, when the child ran after and tried to reclaim his toy, Angel snapped at him. The second incident occurred when Angel ran into her crate with an item that was not hers. When the owner tried to take the item away from Angel, she bit the owner.   The family had been able to reclaim items from Angel in other circumstance, including when Angel was visiting the neighbors.  The family thought that perhaps this behavior was unique to their busy household, with 4 kids, 2 dogs and 2 cats. 

     With that said, it is also important to note all the great characteristics of Angel. She gets along beautifully with our 3 year old male resident Golden.  She has NO resource guarding issues when it comes to her food.  She knows how to sit, shake, and lay down. She is good on her walks, and loves to meet other dogs.  She has been very well taken care of, and enjoys being brushed, and of course she just can't get enough affection. She gives kisses and will nudge for more pets.  She did get along well with her previous family's cats.

    While adjusting to a new home, she startles when she hears a strange noise or when she sees people walking by the house. She does let out a bark or two, and even a growl, but just until we tell her everything is okay. Then she is fine.  She does try to do some counter surfing, but gets down right away with a simple 'off' command.

    Angel is up to date on her shots, has been spayed, and graduated from 3 dog obediance classes!  She has had no accidents in the house.  When we are at work, she stays in her crate, but we are working on giving her free roam of the house, during very brief absenses.

More to come on that, in the future updates.  For now, because of the resource guarding, a home with no young kids would be best for Angel.  She is really a very beautiful friendly dog in every respect, aside from the resource guarding.

At a Glance #12-289

Golden Retriever Born: June 2009
Female 55 lbs

Status: Adopted

Profile

August 21, 2012

Angel joined the RAGOM family of wonderful dogs on Monday, August 13.  She is a sweet 3 year old purebred Golden, who has come to us from a family who has had her since she was 11 weeks old.   Angel's family, after much consideration, decided to surrender Angel because she has some resource guarding issues when it comes to giving up items/toys when she takes them into her crate.  Prior to surrendering Angel, there were two situations. Once was when Angel ran to hide under a bed with one of a child's toys, when the child ran after and tried to reclaim his toy, Angel snapped at him. The second incident occurred when Angel ran into her crate with an item that was not hers. When the owner tried to take the item away from Angel, she bit the owner.   The family had been able to reclaim items from Angel in other circumstance, including when Angel was visiting the neighbors.  The family thought that perhaps this behavior was unique to their busy household, with 4 kids, 2 dogs and 2 cats. 

     With that said, it is also important to note all the great characteristics of Angel. She gets along beautifully with our 3 year old male resident Golden.  She has NO resource guarding issues when it comes to her food.  She knows how to sit, shake, and lay down. She is good on her walks, and loves to meet other dogs.  She has been very well taken care of, and enjoys being brushed, and of course she just can't get enough affection. She gives kisses and will nudge for more pets.  She did get along well with her previous family's cats.

    While adjusting to a new home, she startles when she hears a strange noise or when she sees people walking by the house. She does let out a bark or two, and even a growl, but just until we tell her everything is okay. Then she is fine.  She does try to do some counter surfing, but gets down right away with a simple 'off' command.

    Angel is up to date on her shots, has been spayed, and graduated from 3 dog obediance classes!  She has had no accidents in the house.  When we are at work, she stays in her crate, but we are working on giving her free roam of the house, during very brief absenses.

More to come on that, in the future updates.  For now, because of the resource guarding, a home with no young kids would be best for Angel.  She is really a very beautiful friendly dog in every respect, aside from the resource guarding.

Updates

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Miss Angel originally became a RAGOM girl last year and was adopted to a nice family last fall. Due to some challenging behavior, she was tearfully returned by her adoptive family who were not equipped to handle her somewhat special needs. She originally came to RAGOM with some resource guarding issues that are being overcome by the "trade" method. She also experiences high crate anxiety and cannot be crated when left alone.

She has worked her way up to about five hours of free roam when the foster humans are gone, with the two resident Goldens to keep her company. Good girl! Angel will need ongoing training, consistency and humans that understand her phobia and will try alternate methods in order for her to be more comfortable the rest of her life. She is a total love bug and will definitely keep you warm in bed. ;-)

Angel is very lucky to have found a family that will help her through her issues and live out her Golden Life. Along with her mom and dad, she now has two canine siblings and a feline sibling to play with and keep her company.

Congratulations to the "M" family!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Hello Everyone!

This is Angel's second update, and I am happy to say that she is doing very well! What a sweetie! Today is her two week anniversary with us and we are getting quite attached, especially our resident dog, Walker.

Angel loves to go on our daily walks! She walks well with a flat collar, stays to the left and doesn't pull. I wish I could say the same for Walker! We had a house guest dog this weekend, and all 3 of them did great walking together, and getting along well.

My main focus this past week has been reading up on how to best teach Angel to trade, and she has been learning quickly, that if she drops something she has in her mouth, when I say "trade' she gets rewarded with a yummy treat. We are working on this to overcome her tendancy to 'resource guard' although she only does this when in her crate. The need for her to learn to trade become more apparent when my husband reached into her crate and she gave him a quick little bite. He is fine, and the bite barely broke the skin. As I mentioned earlier, this is the reason her family surrendered Angel to RAGOM. There is a wealth of experience amongst all the volunteers here, and I've been given lots of good advice and great resources on how to help Angel learn how to trade up, for better rewards. I'm confident that if her forever family is willing to continue to work with Angel on this, she will be darn near perfect.

Angel is affectionate, friendly to people and other dogs she has met. Angel has free roam of the house for short periods at a time, but I am still crating her when I go to work. I tried a full day out of the crate last week, and she had an accident. I'm on vacation all week, so it is a great opportunity to extend her free roam time a little more each day.

She has no medical needs, is current on all of her shots, and when the vet checked her out, she said Angel is a great girl. We already knew that, though!

We will be bringing Angel to the Goldzilla event in September, so if she has not found a forever home by then, you will definately want to meet this 'Angel'!

I do have to apologize for the blurry pictures of Angel. Photography is not my forte, but please don't hold that against her.