Hello Ragom! I bet you are wondering who this gorgeous new girl is. Her name is Rollo, but we are calling her Rosie as she was a stray and Rollo just doesn’t seem to fit her. She is a 1-2 year old dark red girl with a petite body and big expressive ears. She went to the vet yesterday and was such a good girl. She weighed in at 47lbs and got up to date on her shots, and had a negative HW test and fecal. She does have an upper incisor that will need to be removed at her spay and a cough that she probably got while in the shelter, but other than that she got a clean bill of health.
I can tell by Rosie’s mannerisms that this is the first time she has gotten to live the good life inside. The first night here I turned on the TV and she started barking loudly towards it because she couldn’t figure out what it was. After awhile she settled down to sleep. I am amazed to say though that she has not had any accidents and has held her bladder up to 10 hours (I had surgery lab at school today so it was a really long day). Usually just the stress of going to a new place can make a dog have accidents, but, nope, not Rosie, she has been accident free for 4 days.
Rosie loves people and attention. She hasn’t met anyone she hasn’t liked yet and wants to be next to me at all times. She has been sleeping in bed with me the past few nights but will probably move to a dog bed once my husband gets home from his business trip. She is very curious about the cats but hasn’t done anything to harm them. We just keep a close eye on her and they are pretty dog savvy and can take care of themselves.
For the most part she does okay with our 2 resident girls but there have been a couple of scuffles. Rosie is never the one who starts it, but when she gets snarked at because she keeps bugging my girls she doesn’t back off and wants to start a fight. Personally, I don’t think she has been around many dogs before and just doesn’t understand dog language very well. Besides the couple of scuffles she has played really nicely with my resident Golden which you can see in this video. I would prefer she go to a home without dogs though or one with a really tolerant laid back adult.
Rosie has a lot of energy. She is very puppy like in her behaviors and loves to fetch. She will fetch stuffies or tennis balls, it doesn’t matter to her. She also enjoys chewing nylabones and her kong and destuffing toys when she gets a chance. She would be a very good jogging partner for someone. We ran a couple of miles the other night and it really helped to calm her down. She slept for the next 2-3 hours after that. We have been using a Gentle Leader Harness on her because she is very strong and loves to pull despite her small size. We have also tried the Gentle Leader head collar, but she still needs some work with this as she doesn’t like it very much.
Because home life is so new to Rosie she is going to need someone to teach her the ropes. We are working on crate training but so far she isn’t a big fan of going in on her own unless it is meal time. Once in there though she does very well. She is nervous in the car and should probably be tethered if you don’t want her riding in your lap. She calmed down after 10 minutes or so on her transport from Albert Lea to Ames though and slept until we were almost home. She knows sit at this point but will definitely benefit from an obedience class. She is very treat motivated.
Because Rosie came to the shelter pretty skinny I am guessing she has missed a few meals in her life. Because of that she does have some food aggression especially with the other animals. We manage this easily by feeding her in her crate and are working on making her sit and wait before she gets to eat. Rosie will be spayed in a couple of weeks and then she will be ready for her new home. If you are an approved adopter and are looking for an energetic friendly girl then contact your placement adviser today!
