August 22, 2010

Hannah has begun the next step in her journey and moved to a new foster home. She arrived in RAGOM care as a puppy found wandering in northern Minnesota. She is a petite girl, weighing in at approximately 40 pounds who recently celebrated her first birthday. She is believed to be a lab mix. Whatever her breed is, she’s adorable and a very nice young dog.

Hannah’s first foster mom did all the work of raising her through her puppy first year which makes my job really easy. She has grown into a very happy, well-mannered dog. She is only 1 year old, so still a puppy and needs to be supervised and guided, but one of the easiest 1 year old dogs I’ve fostered in quite a while. She has even been through one set of obedience training classes.

Hannah is a very friendly, sweet girl. She gets along very well with all people and enjoys all dogs. She’s very appeasing to my senior dogs who like to tell her off when she gets in their face. I do think she would chase a cat, not hurt it, but give chase as though it were a dog friend. She’s been visiting with us for a week and she’s a fun dog. She behaves very well in the house and loves to run and play when outside. She’s also very good at entertaining herself in the house with some dog toys (she will unstuff a stuffed toy). She goes to the bathroom outside and will cry at the backdoor to let us know she needs to go out. I wouldn’t trust her 100% without supervision or making sure that you notice if she is crying at the door, but so far this week, no accidents and she goes immediately when taken outside. She is crated for six hours during the workday and does very well with a kong, some kibble and a little peanut butter. She is comfortable and relaxed in her crate and I will find her in there resting with the crate door open after a busy day.

I have a 4 foot chain link fence and had been told that she could jump fences. We, therefore, took her out on leash inside the fenced in yard for the first few days. She’s allowed off leash in our backyard now and has not tried to jump the fence. If she did jump the fence, I don’t think she’d go anywhere as she is very happy being with us. I also sometimes have a short babygate up separating the dogs from the kitchen and I know she could sail over that if she wanted, but so far, she respects it and has not attempted to climb over or jump it. I’ve had many foster dogs that immediately will crawl//jump over a short babygate so I thought I’d test her and see what she did and so far, she’s been very respectful of the babygate. She really wants to be a good girl, and once she knows what she is allowed to do and what she isn’t allowed to do, she responds very well.

At our house, the dogs all learn “leave it” and “off” pretty early on. I’m not a big fan of what I call “obnoxious” behavior. Hannah had been reported to jump up to take food out of people’s hands. She hasn’t tried that here. I tested her by having her lie down next to me while I ate chicken at the computer and today walked around the kitchen holding a piece of pork. She did not attempt to get to the food. We’ve also left things out on the counter and with us in the room, she won’t touch it. If I leave the room with something on the counter and any of my dogs take it, that’s my fault. She put her front paws on the counter a couple of times, but “off” works wonders with her. We do allow dogs on the furniture and on the bed. She’ll get on the furniture, but I can’t get her to jump up on the bed, so she sleeps on the floor in the bedroom with us.

Hannah will thrive in a home that enjoys activities (i.e. jogging, running, hiking, swimming, camping). I also think she would excel at agility if you are looking for a dog to train for agility trials. I know she’d love it. She would also enjoy some neighbor dog friends or a dog in her home. I’m a huge believer in obedience training for young dogs. A trained dog is a much more enjoyable pet and we never get dogs surrendered to rescue that have been through multiple levels of obedience training. Hannah’s a delightful young dog looking for a home to help her continue her growth into a well-adjusted adult dog with a full life.