Cooper came to us in early February from an owner surrender who could not handle the medical needs and behavioral work that he required. There are some signs that he had a pretty rough start to life and was not given the love and attention he deserved.

He had never met other dogs and had no idea how to play with them due to being very anxious. He was recovering from a blood disease called IMHA and was on a heavy dose of steroid which added to his anxiety.

Over the last 3.5 months, Cooper has made incredible improvements and we have found the amazing boy that he is at heart! We are excited to say that he has fully recovered from IMHA and overcame every concern that we originally had for him in relation to anxiety (growling, food/toy guarding, and a strange issue with going onto furniture).

Cooper requires one more blood platelet test to confirm that his IMHA has not returned, but after that, he should not need any more visits pertaining to this condition He will have a clean bill of blood health! 

His anxious behavior has drastically subsided with the help of consistent behavior work, positive reinforcement, and daily medication to ease his stress-causing imbalances. In regards to future care for Cooper, he will need to stay on his current dose of Fluoxetine to help reduce anxiety and keep him calm.

Cooper also had some digestive issues leading to dry skin, but we feel we have corrected this with proper feeding, salmon oil, and occasional probiotics.

You can literally see the relief and joy in his face to no longer have these confusing issues go undiagnosed. His forever family will need to continue working with him to ensure he stays on the right track!

Cooper is a very smart boy! He LOVES attention and snuggles from his humans and is very excited to meet new people and get pets and scratches! He has become great friends with our very calm resident dog and has learned to play very well with him and is also very sweet with children.

His favorite activities are playing fetch with a ball, going for long walks, and being pampered with a good deep brushing! Cooper is very food (or ice cube) motivated and learns quickly when given tasks and structure.

He knows to sit, lay down, stay, shake, come, and would be excited to learn new tricks with your help. He is completely potty trained and has never had an accident in our house. In fact, he has never really gotten in trouble with anything as he has free-roam of the house even when we leave and has never touched anything that wasn't his own toy. (He is a big chewer, so no soft toys!)

We believe Cooper's ideal home would be one where he is the center of attention and gets lots of love and time for activities. Another dog in the house, depending on their disposition, is not a deal-breaker, but we think he would be best as an only fur-child.

He currently has a large fenced in backyard but wants to be around people so much that he likely wouldn't need it as he has shown no signs of running off or wandering. He is energetic and should be walked daily if possible and wouldn't be upset if he went a couple of times a day or had room to chase a ball.

We do not recommend that Cooper live with cats or alpha/aggressive dogs.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions about Cooper! We are so excited to find him his forever home and family. He will make someone very happy to have him!