Max 08-078

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02/09/08 - Meet Max, he is around 2 years old and is fostered in Ham Lake, MN.  He weighs around 50 pounds, and is neutered.  I will bring him in to the vet next week to get microchipped and UTD on his shots.
 
Max was transported right to the PetCo event today (thanks to everyone who helped out!), and he did very well meeting and greeting everyone that was there.  He rode home well in the truck, and would put his head on my shoulder throughout the ride. 
 
He was surrendered due to the owners not having enough time or space for him.  He was confined to a bedroom, with no free roam.  He is housetrained, so he will have free roam throughout our home.  He has met our 3 dogs, 2 cats and 2 kids (ages 5 and 8) with no problems.  He is very sweet, and likes to take the bottom edge of my shirt in his mouth and pull me around.  He also does this with his leash.  I am trying to stop him from doing this, which shouldn't be hard as he listens well.  We tried to get better pictures of him, but he is camera shy.  He was a bit scared when we tried to make him sit for the pictures and piddled twice.  This is also noted on the form which the surrendering owner fills out.  All he needs is to have his confidence built, and not fear anything that comes from humans.  We will work with him on that.  I will update more once we get to know him and what he needs in his forever home.

At a Glance #08-078

Golden Retriever Born: February 2006
Male Weight not specified

Status: Adopted

Profile

02/09/08 - Meet Max, he is around 2 years old and is fostered in Ham Lake, MN.  He weighs around 50 pounds, and is neutered.  I will bring him in to the vet next week to get microchipped and UTD on his shots.
 
Max was transported right to the PetCo event today (thanks to everyone who helped out!), and he did very well meeting and greeting everyone that was there.  He rode home well in the truck, and would put his head on my shoulder throughout the ride. 
 
He was surrendered due to the owners not having enough time or space for him.  He was confined to a bedroom, with no free roam.  He is housetrained, so he will have free roam throughout our home.  He has met our 3 dogs, 2 cats and 2 kids (ages 5 and 8) with no problems.  He is very sweet, and likes to take the bottom edge of my shirt in his mouth and pull me around.  He also does this with his leash.  I am trying to stop him from doing this, which shouldn't be hard as he listens well.  We tried to get better pictures of him, but he is camera shy.  He was a bit scared when we tried to make him sit for the pictures and piddled twice.  This is also noted on the form which the surrendering owner fills out.  All he needs is to have his confidence built, and not fear anything that comes from humans.  We will work with him on that.  I will update more once we get to know him and what he needs in his forever home.

Updates

Friday, March 28, 2008

I went to the U lastnight to pick up Max.  I fully expected to see him get wheeled out on a wagon, or at least come limping out very slowly.  Well, the gal who brought him out was in a wheelchair, and she basically was moving on HIS steam.  He pretty much galloped toward me, grabbed the bottom of my coat and started pulling me toward the door, as if to say "Let's get out of here!".  But, to his dismay, we had to stay and go over a few things first.
 
Here is what they found:
 
They went in fully expecting to see a cartilage flap that would need to be removed, but could not find any in either shoulder.  They spent a few hours on Max's left (worse) shoulder, which had a very swollen and red tendon.  They determined that he had Bicipital tenosynovitis (inflamed Tendon), so a Biceps tenotomy (cut the tendon to relieve pain/pressure) was performed using radio-frequency ablation. 
 
At home, I will need to perform range of motion exercises on Max, flexing and extending his front limbs.  It was also strongly recommended that additional therapeutic exercises be done to supplement what I do at home.  Since the shoulder pathology that Max has offers a variable long term prognosis, the more therapy he can get will help his long term outcome.  It is possible that Max will have residual lameness, though some patients like him return to excellent, even athletic function. 
 
For the next week or two, his place is on a dog bed surrounded by an ex-pen.  He is not complaining yet, but I'm sure once he feels better, he will want OUT!  He only comes out on a leash, and can only go out to go potty and then right back in again.  As he heals, we will increase his movement and exercise.
 
I will need to bring him in for a follow-up x-ray in 6-8 weeks to evaluate the healing progress, so he won't be available for adoption until after that appointment.  He certainly will be available for you to come out and visit him and see if he is the right dog for you.
 
Here is what I believe he needs:
 
- A family where someone is home for most of the day.
- A family that will be committed to his physical therapy, the more he is worked with, the better he will become.  The vet said that he could even become an athletic dog if worked with enough.
- A family who will take him to obedience classes - he needs to learn some manners!
- A fence (either physical or invisible).  This energetic boy needs to run (after he heals completely, of course)!
- A family with kids or not - he is great with them
- A family with dogs or cats (or not) - he is not dependent on our dogs, he would rather be with humans.  He also seems to be a little 'forward' with male dogs (we have 3 females and he does well).  He met a high energy male without a proper introduction, and snapped at him.  I'm sure he would do fine with any dog, as long as they are introduced properly, and the other dog was not in his face.
 
 Well, I need to go ice Max's shoulder, as he is laying down crying pitifully in his pen.  I'll update again with Max's progress.  Thanks to all who are following this sweet boy.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Max continues to be a great dog.  He loves to play, and loves to follow me around.  I took him with me in the truck to pick my son up from kindergarten on Monday and Tuesday, and he did fine except on the way home on Tuesday, when he vomited.  I think it happens when the truck gets too warm. 

He's housetrained, and has full run of the house.  He has only chewed on the appropriate dog toys (he's a de-stuffer).  He does not resource guard with his food.  He gets along well with our cats, as you can see he's watching birds out the window with one in the picture.  He will chase them from time to time, but it's only to play, not to harm. 

He does the cutest thing when I give him a treat.  He will actually bare his teeth (absolutely no harm intended), which is the only time when I've seen him do this.  I don't know if he's wrinkling his nose, or was trained to do this, but it is so cute!  We'll keep trying to get a picture of him doing this. 

He likes to be at the door whenever someone leaves or comes in, and has escaped a few times.  One thing that he needs help with is his recall.  He thinks that when he's outside without a leash he has absolute freedom to run at top speed, ignoring me completely.  He absolutely does not come when called and will need to be watched for this.

He would greatly benefit from obedience classes.  He needs to learn some manners.  He knows sit and shake, but that's it.  The classes will help with his recall too. He also needs to learn not to jump up on people, he does this when he wants your attention, or when he's excited.  We've tried ignoring him, holding his collar down, saying "no", etc, but he is slow to learn this.  We'll keep working on it.

He is still limping, and he will go in to the vet on Monday to get examined again and possibly have his surgery.  I'll update when I know more.

   

Thursday, February 14, 2008

I finally got a few good pictures of Max.  When he sees the camera, he just takes off and tries to hide under the pillows on the sofa!