October 18, 2012

We are so happy to welcome Sam to Ragom. Sam arrived at our house last Saturday and he has been doing great.  He is a 5 year old Golden mix, with  a beautiful golden and cream coat and only 42 pounds,  who was brought to a shelter in South Dakota by the same family who surrendered 8 other dogs they had on their farm.  He, along with the other dogs, were left to fend for themselves-very little human attention, no regular mealtimes, never been inside.  Luckily for Sam, a RAGOM volunteer saw him and rescued him from the shelter so he could begin his journey to finding his forever home.  Despite his background, Sam is one incredible dog.  He absolutely loves his humans and is so starved for attention - he is so gentle in seeking it out, but will sink into you when you give him any attention.  Having never been inside, his first day at our house, everything he encountered was new.  He was terrified of every noise he heard inside, TV, phone ringing, dishwasher, etc. and he refused to move off the rug at our entry onto our hardwood floors.  This is all very typical behavior of dogs who have lived their lives out doors.  Surprisingly enough, he has not had one accident inside since he has been with us - while I wouldn't necessarily say he is house trained as he does not let us know when he has to go out, he will hold it until he is outside, no matter how long the time period is.  

Five days later, Sam loves it inside - he is no longer scared of the floors, he actually does let us know by whining and pacing when he needs to go out, and the TV no longer freaks him out (the vacuum and the stairs are still works in progress - he still refuses to navigate the stairs in our house and we carry him up to bed every night - good thing he is such a little guy at only 42 pounds, so he is easy to carry!).  Sam is such a special dog and will make a great addition to almost any family.  He is somewhat shy but easily warms up to new people and loves other dogs.  He loves to run around our fenced in backyard and tries to constantly engage one, if not all three, of our resident goldens, to play (unfortunately for him, these three are kind of like a high school girl clique and tend to stick together and ignore him - so sad for him, but we just get to play with even more!)  Despite his history of neglect, someone at some point taught him to retrieve and he is great at it!  Yesterday while raking leaves, we found a large stick and I threw it for him to see what he would do.  Amazingly he ran after it, brought it right to my feet and dropped it and then backed up a bit, plopped down into a sit and waited for me to throw it again.  He absolutely loved playing this and honestly, since I have to pry sticks and balls from my resident mouths, he got almost all the attention for the day! He is already neutered, UTD, current on his HW and Frontline,   He already has earned free roam when we are gone at work and just finds a place to curl up and wait for our return.    

Sam is such a gentle mild mannered soul and who would fit seamlessly into any household.  I am consistently amazed by the resiliency of these dogs who come from such neglectful backgrounds and how they are such wonderful family members - just wanting to soak up all the love they can get.  

If you think Sam might be the perfect addition to your household, please contact your placement adviser.