Mason 08-128

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Mason is an 11 week old golden/lab mix.  He was the last, unsold puppy from an unintended breeding that came about when the neighbors lab hopped the fence, his mom was a purebred golden.  Up until this afternoon, Mason had lived his entire life outside.  He is now indoors and loving it!  In fact, it is a struggle to convince him to go outside -- and once you get him out there, he turns right around and heads back to the door to wait to be let in.  We are trying to assure him that he will always be allowed back indoors with us.  He is very big for an 11 week old puppy and has some huge paws to grow into.  He is skinny, so we are working on adding some weight -- he loves to eat, so this should come easily.  He has tried to engage the resident dogs in play and is learning that the cats do NOT play, no matter how hard you try.  He is a sweet boy who will make a fantastic addition to some lucky family.  More later as we get to know him...

At a Glance #08-128

Mixed Breed Born: December 2007
Male Weight not specified

Status: Adopted

Profile

Mason is an 11 week old golden/lab mix.  He was the last, unsold puppy from an unintended breeding that came about when the neighbors lab hopped the fence, his mom was a purebred golden.  Up until this afternoon, Mason had lived his entire life outside.  He is now indoors and loving it!  In fact, it is a struggle to convince him to go outside -- and once you get him out there, he turns right around and heads back to the door to wait to be let in.  We are trying to assure him that he will always be allowed back indoors with us.  He is very big for an 11 week old puppy and has some huge paws to grow into.  He is skinny, so we are working on adding some weight -- he loves to eat, so this should come easily.  He has tried to engage the resident dogs in play and is learning that the cats do NOT play, no matter how hard you try.  He is a sweet boy who will make a fantastic addition to some lucky family.  More later as we get to know him...

Updates

Sunday, March 16, 2008

The "happily ever after" stories are why we volunteers do what we do.  Just 2 weeks ago, our little guy Mason was alone, unwanted, and starving.  Now he's a beloved member of a great family.  The B. family of Minnetonka welcomed Mason home yesterday, March 15.  His golden sister Maggie and his human brother Chris were there waiting for Mason to come and play.  Now he'll never be referred to as "unwanted" ever again.  Mason, you be a good boy and grow into those enormous paws of yours.  Your family loves you and you're home safe now.  Mason is yet another golden success story!  RAGOM rocks!

Mason got good at "hide and seek" while in foster care

 

Mason (left) saying goodbye to his foster mom and foster pack

Mason and new sister Maggie get to work on some chewies together

Congratulations to Mason and his new family!

 

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Mason arrived Wednesday at his new foster home.  He is a super easy foster!  Mason hasn’t had one accident in the house.  He goes potty outside right away and runs back to the door to be let in. Mason is also teething and hasn’t chewed ONE inappropriate item in our house.  What a good boy! Since Mason is pretty thin we’ve been feeding him high protein food and plenty of treats.  He LOVES food! He doesn’t know any tricks yet but is a smart puppy and is learning his name so I’m sure that will come quick.   We are also trying to get Mason used to being kenneled for short periods of time and leaving him alone for a bit to try to ease his separation anxiety.

Friday night Mason was sleeping on the couch and rolled over in his sleep.  He actually ended up rolling right off the couch and landed on the hardwood floor.  Mason looked up at us briefly and laid his head back down right there on the floor and crashed.  He plays so hard with our resident dogs that he sleeps really sound.  Our older male golden, Stetson, isn’t convinced that Mason is very much fun.  Stetson simply doesn’t want anything to do with Mason and has no problem telling him in dog language when Mason has crossed the line. This is actually good for Mason so he can learn how to read other dogs.  Stetson especially doesn’t like it when Mason tries to take toys out of his mouth.  I guess I wouldn’t like it either.  Mason would definitely benefit from a puppy kindergarten class and basic obedience. He also doesn’t respect baby gates yet so we are still working on that. Our puppy mill girl, Autumn, finds it fun to mother Mason and cleans his ears and lets him sleep in her kennel and dog bed with her.  It’s really cute!  Our resident hyper puppy Sierra loves to play, play, play, with Mason.  They wrestle really rough and love to play tug with the already un-stuffed animals we have left. 

Yesterday we took Mason to the RAGOM event at Petsmart Eagan.  Mason met his forever family at Petsmart yesterday. Mason will have a human brother, 2 adult humans and a 4-year-old golden sister named Maggie. Today we went to their house to make sure it would be ok with their resident golden, Maggie, to allow a new friend into their lives.  Mason and Maggie adored each other!  They wrestled and play-bowed and Maggie even shared her toys and bones with Mason.  When it was time to go Mason cried a little and Maggie watched him out the window.  He clearly found his forever home and didn’t want to leave. Congratulations to the “B” family of Minnetonka on your new addition!  Mason’s adoption will be finalized Saturday, March 15th. 

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Here are some new pics of Mason!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

I had to send in one more update before Mason moves on to another foster home tomorrow.   We were only watching him temporarily to get him in out of the cold this weekend. We have enjoyed our time with him, though -- We will miss him! 

It is so fun to watch a puppy discover the world!  Mason will now go in and out of the house to the backyard without being carried.  In four days he has only had one accident in the house while someone was home and that was totally foster mom's fault.  He has started to go to the door when he needs to go out too!  He sleeps through the night for 6 or 7 hours at a time.  He plays nicely with the resident dogs and gets along just fine with the cats. 

Sounds perfect, right?

Well, not quite (nobody's perfect)...  Mason has some separation anxiety issues that we are working through.  He is a puppy, so we have every confidence that he will grow (physically and emotionally) out of it.  At the moment though, if we leave Mason in a crate when we leave he has accidents within minutes of us leaving the house.  However, he is fine in the crate at night when we are sleeping.  We tried babygating him in the kitchen and he panicked and knocked over the babygate and got into puppy mischief.  We both work during the day, so Mason is alone for 3.5 hours at a time at our house during the work week.  Not the best set up for slowly building his confidence!  So today he went to puppy daycare with Foster Aunt Lu!  He will will go again tomorrow to play with Belle and Cody. (Thanks, Lu!) We are continuing to work with him in building up the amount of time that he can handle being alone and I know he will come around.  His next foster home has 2 adults that work different shifts, so he will not be alone as much and that will be a great place for him to learn and grow in this area. Mason's ideal adoptive home right now would not be gone for a full 8 hour work day (even with a lunch break), but that might change in a couple of weeks if he is still looking then (hard to imagine with a dog this sweet!).

Mason is also shy.  He needs a family that will take him to puppy classes and get him out and about to socialize, socialize, socialize!  Included in his socialization will be a trip to a RAGOM event this weekend.  Please come meet Mason and his new foster family from noon to 2 at Petsmart in Eagan!

I love my foster brother... 

   I watch his every move...
  I follow his lead on almost everything!