Dusty came to RAGOM from a local Humane Society as an owner surrender.  He spent his days outside in a kennel, and nights sleeping inside in a crate in his previous life.  He apparently developed a sun allergy and his owners were no longer able to care for him.

Dusty is an energetic 7 year old neutered boy. He is very well behaved and doesn’t jump on any furniture and only jumps up on people when invited, and even then it’s very light and he seems unsure if he should be doing it.  He doesn’t seem to destroy any toys and his favorites are fluffy, squeaky ones.  Our dogs have things like socks that they’ve claimed as their own in their toy chest and Dusty doesn’t seem to have any interest in those.  Dusty loves to go for car rides and for walks. He heels very well, provided you remind him to heel every so often. He also knows sit and lay down very well.

Dusty gets along very well with our two resident dogs. He doesn’t really know how to play yet (since I think he was an only dog before), but he gets real excited (if you know what I mean) with our resident female and some of that love has spread to our resident male.  Our resident male doesn’t care for that kind of attention from another male and he lets him know. Dusty handles rejection really well and just says ok, never mind.  He squats like a female to go to the bathroom, and doesn’t have any interest in marking his territory either inside or outside, and that is very nice! There hasn’t been any aggression issues from Dusty at all with us or our resident dogs. In fact, the other night I sat down on the floor with him to give him some love and he brought me his bone. I think he either meant it as a gift for me, or he wanted me to hold it for him (he’s a sweetie!).

We have two cats, but they are not fans of dogs.  Dusty knows they are there and likes to look at them a bit (our cats hang out in a cat post thing high up in the air).  I did try to hold one of the cats close to him so I could get a better idea of how he’d react and Dusty was very well behaved, unlike my cat!  My cat was hissing and growling and none of it seemed to phase Dusty.  His previous owner reported he was good with cats – and I think that is probably accurate.

Dusty will require grooming daily, as his hair is longer and curly in places.  We spent about 2-3 hours grooming him the first day we had him due to the lack of care he had had recently. I cut out about 25 mats in his hair, mostly near his curly hair on his hind legs and under his ears and we gave him two baths (the Humane Society smell wouldn’t come out!).  Management of his hair may become easier once Dusty has been on a healthy diet for a while, as that generally improves the coat.

Dusty pants a lot and drinks a lot of water, I’m sure due to the stress of moving and being nervous.  He’s had a lot of changes in the last month. Our resident male did this for the first two weeks after we adopted him, then it calmed down.

We have also learned that Dusty has the instinct to go to the bathroom outside, but like any dog that has spent their life primarily outside he has gotten confused a little bit. Dusty will need an owner that is willing to re-emphasize some potty training with him.  It shouldn’t take long – and mostly it’s just re-emphasizing the good habits he already has for a while.  We’ve been crating him at night and while we are away to help re-emphasize this.  We also bring him outside on a puppy schedule – ever few hours. We’ve let him stay in our gated kitchen a few times and he had accidents about half the time. So, we are just crating him for now.  He goes in the crate very well – though less well the past few days since he got spoiled being out of it!  We also learned that if Dusty really wants out of a gate – he will push it down (and ours was up tight!).  He stayed within the gate all day when we were gone but he pushed it down trying to get to my husband when he came in the door. I guess he was trying to say he wanted to see him!

Dusty has two medications – one for thyroid medication and one for allergies.  Apparently his allergy medication is for scratching.  He seems to only scratch during the night and when he’s bored. We have wondered if he does it more from boredom and habit than anything. When he’s by people he doesn’t scratch much at all. It’s possible with the proper care of his coat and proper food that Dusty might not need the medication for it.  Also, it was probably made worse in his old home because of being outside all the time (with the sun allergy).  Both medications are pretty cheap, a max of about $20 a month for the two of them.

Dusty is a wonderful, young-acting 7 year old boy with lots of love to give.  He is such a sweetheart and has an adorable, puppy looking face (that just happens to have some gray on it).  Dusty says that makes him look distinguished though, and I tend to agree. He will make some lucky family very happy!