September 16, 2010:

Meet Buddha. He was born 1/17/10 and is medium golden with long beautiful feathering and a long ruff. He has been with us since Sunday and has had a busy few days. He did really well integrating into our household on Sunday. He rode well in the car from Iowa City to Ames, met the three other dogs with tail wags and invitations to play and has done okay with the cats as well. He does chase after them sometimes (he thinks it’s a game) so he should probably only go to a home with dog savvy cats. We went on a long walk Sunday evening and he did wonderful with his first time on the gentle leader.

Monday he went to the vet and got caught up on all his vaccinations and neutered. He weighed in at 66lbs. and is a pretty good weight for his size. He was diagnosed with a bilateral ear infection that is being treated and will be cleared up in the next couple of weeks. He was loved by the staff there and even had one of the techs come out from the back and say what a great guy he is when my husband picked him up. He was great for his nail trim on Sunday night and brushing. His coat is a little dry but we are going to add some fish oil to his food and get him switched over to a quality dog food and are pretty sure that will make all the difference.

Buddha knows sit, lay down, shake, is pretty good with come and okay with stay. We will be working more on stay and having him wait in a sit position while we get the dogs dinner ready.  Buddha’s surrendering owner let me know that he loves to swim. We walked by a pond on Sunday evening and I could tell he was definitely right. Buddha was very interested in the water and I could tell that he wanted to go swimming. He loves car rides especially with the windows down and is pretty much housetrained though we had a couple of accidents in the beginning when we were getting to know his signals.

Buddha is so sweet and mellow. He is a typical Golden and loves getting pets. He will stick his nose underneath your hand if you stop before he is ready, but he isn’t overly persistent about it. He likes any and every person, has shown no food or toy guarding behaviors and is just a really easy guy to have around. I am told he does not like fireworks and will hide behind you if he hears them. We do not have children in our home but I was told that he did fine with the kids that he met while in his previous home (though he did not live with any).

Buddha is afraid of crating. We tried it on his first day alone but he tore up his blankets and bowl and had been rubbing his nose on the crate. I felt so bad for him! So for now we are keeping him in the kitchen until I trust him with free roam. We have been doing this for the last couple of days and it has worked out great. No problems whatsoever. His previous owner said that he did start having some separation anxiety behaviors when he stopped living with other dogs so that is why I would like him adopted to a family with another dog. The behavior he described was some chewing on the carpets so I would classify it as more minor anxiety. I will keep you update if I see any of this behavior. I haven’t really heard any barking out of him yet and he likes to spend most of the afternoons napping. He does have a very playful side and play bows to my girls to try and initiate play.

Buddha is going to be at Goldzilla this weekend so please come out to meet this handsome boy. I know you will fall in love like we have!