Spot 08-474

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Spot has arrived into foster care and he is fabulous! Spot is a 4 year old, neutered, PB golden. He is a big boy, probably 90 lbs, big head, and solid body with a laid back golden personality. He and his brother Sammy 08-473 were surrendered because the family could not care for the brothers like they would like. He came from a home with 7 kids, so my bet is that there are 7 really sad kids somewhere – my promise to his family is that I will find Spot the very best forever home there is!

After Sammy and Spot sat on our RAGOM foster plea (where RAGOM fosters go to chose their foster dogs) for nearly 2 months, I wasn’t sure what to expect. They were outside dogs and I expected to have to worry about marking and all the other things that you expect when you take in an outside dog. Those thoughts couldn’t be farther from the truth! I would never have guessed that he didn’t live every day of his life in a house. He has perfect inside manners, hasn’t tried to mark anything, appreciates any attention you give him, yet isn’t terribly needy. He did cry quite a bit when separated from his brother, but once our resident Tillie walked in the door, he was much happier. He walks well on a leash, but even better on a gentle leader – and he loves to go on walks. I crated him yesterday when I ran some errands and although the crate isn’t his favorite place to be, he goes in and quietly waits to be let out. Today we are having our furnace cleaned and he, Tillie, and I will be spending some time in the car, I’ll let you know how he does running errands – rumor has it that he likes to drive :) He will be seeing the vet and brought up to date on all his vaccinations in the next few days. I’m not ready to say exactly what he needs in his forever home, but stay tuned, it shouldn’t take long to figure out.

At a Glance #08-474

Golden Retriever Born: September 2004
Male 80 lbs

Status: Deceased

Profile

Spot has arrived into foster care and he is fabulous! Spot is a 4 year old, neutered, PB golden. He is a big boy, probably 90 lbs, big head, and solid body with a laid back golden personality. He and his brother Sammy 08-473 were surrendered because the family could not care for the brothers like they would like. He came from a home with 7 kids, so my bet is that there are 7 really sad kids somewhere – my promise to his family is that I will find Spot the very best forever home there is!

After Sammy and Spot sat on our RAGOM foster plea (where RAGOM fosters go to chose their foster dogs) for nearly 2 months, I wasn’t sure what to expect. They were outside dogs and I expected to have to worry about marking and all the other things that you expect when you take in an outside dog. Those thoughts couldn’t be farther from the truth! I would never have guessed that he didn’t live every day of his life in a house. He has perfect inside manners, hasn’t tried to mark anything, appreciates any attention you give him, yet isn’t terribly needy. He did cry quite a bit when separated from his brother, but once our resident Tillie walked in the door, he was much happier. He walks well on a leash, but even better on a gentle leader – and he loves to go on walks. I crated him yesterday when I ran some errands and although the crate isn’t his favorite place to be, he goes in and quietly waits to be let out. Today we are having our furnace cleaned and he, Tillie, and I will be spending some time in the car, I’ll let you know how he does running errands – rumor has it that he likes to drive :) He will be seeing the vet and brought up to date on all his vaccinations in the next few days. I’m not ready to say exactly what he needs in his forever home, but stay tuned, it shouldn’t take long to figure out.

Updates

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

So here is a little recap on Spot. He joined us in February and has been great since day one. He is such a mellow guy, but he does get riled up on command it seems. He is attached to my hip and is very jealous of my daughter and I. Not in a bad way, he just wants me touching him if I am touching anyone. He loves going on walks, but gets tired easy so we are working on that since dad is out of shape as well. He did chase the cat a few times when he first arrived but now they can lay side by side. I haven't got a picture of it yet, because if I move he wants to follow me. He has got outside a couple times without a leash and ran full blast. Up around the house next door and then 2 or 3 laps around our house before he came running back to our door. He sleeps in a dog bed next to my side of the bed and doesn't move until I get up in the morning.

All I have to say is that he is a perfect dog and we are very lucky to have him. All my friends have commented on how good he is, so I tell them next time they are looking for a dog they need to look at RAGOM. That's it for now, Thank you RAGOM for putting Spot in my life, he is a great addition to our family. We love him very much.

   
   

Saturday, February 14, 2009

BAD Foster Mom!  It has been way too long since I’ve updated Spot’s website and I apologize for that!

We had a meet and greet with a great couple, but we decided Spot just wasn’t the dog for them at this time.

We have learned much more about him and what he needs in a forever home since the last update.  Spot will need to be an only dog in his new home.  He has a very odd behavior when meeting new dogs.  All goes well until they want to sniff his face and he gets growly. He is by no means aggressive, he just needs to learn how to meet and greet.  We will work on it as soon as the weather gets nicer and we can be out and about again.   Right now, he won’t be the dog that you can take to Petco or the dog park, maybe down the road, but not for awhile.

Another foster brought her dogs over to visit, he did his normal inappropriate growly thing and after they left he stood at the door and cried, so we know he likes other dogs, he just doesn’t know how to meet and greet them appropriately, YET.  He has given up trying to get our Tillie to play, but they get along great now, absolutely no growling incidents for months.  I did forget this, he is perfectly fine with puppies.  He kind of looks at them and then me, as if to say, is it okay to play with this little thing?

So what you will get when you get this guy?  A dog that loves you unconditionally.  He adores people and kids.   He wants nothing more than to be with you.  He loves to snuggle and if you’re up for a 90 lbs lap dog, he will be yours.  If you’re not up for that, he will listen and either lay next to you or sit by you so you can pet him until your arm hurtsJ  You could take him to nursing homes, use him to help kids learn to read, things like that, he really is a gentle giant.  He can be trusted with kids of all ages, although very little kids might not be best as his big ole tail wags ALL the time and could knock a little one over pretty easy.   

He knows his commands pretty well these days, but could use some practice on them all.   I will be enrolling him in obedience class (yes, with other dogs) and I have no doubt he will be a superstar in that class.  He doesn’t like to be outside unless Tillie is outside with him or one of us is out there (that wasn’t so much fun when it was bitterly coldJ). 

He loves to go on walks and is pretty good on a gentle leader.  He also loves to go on car rides.  He will take his great big ole body and scrunch it up on one of the little bucket seats and lay quietly.  He will stick his head between the 2 front seats, but has not tried to sit in the front seat or drive yet.  He goes to work with my husband and seems to really enjoy that.   Other than the meet and greet, he is pretty much perfect.

Finally, if you want a TV watching buddy, he is your man.  Check out the pictures of him watching TVJ  I’m not talking a casual TV watcher here, I’m talking a serial TV watcher!!  If this guy was a kid, we’d have to limit his TV watching.  His absolute favorite show is Jon and Kate plus 8.  He cries every time that show is on and every time a puppy barks (not adult dogs, just puppies). 

Let placement know if you might be the forever home for this fabulous guy.

 

Sunday, January 11, 2009

 

Spot continues to do well in foster care.  He has turned into a typical golden in a few short weeks.  He has mastered the hand flip and uses it at the most inopportune times, but what golden doesn’tJ  He is allowed free roam when we are gone from the house.  He is crated at night, but that is only because his internal clock is set to go off much earlier than ours.  Once awake, he was walking from one side of our bed to the other, until the clicking of his toenails on the floor drove one of us crazy enough to get up with him.  In the crate he sleeps or waits patiently for us to wake up without a peep.   He still loves his car rides, walks, playing in the snow or cuddling on the couch whenever we are home.  

 

He and Tillie get along great, but we are still trying to figure out why he gets growly with new dogs when he meets them.  Today he was outside helping my husband shovel snow, okay, maybe he was messing up the driveway as quickly as Pete could shovel it, but Spot was having a great time doing itJ   I heard him barking and barking, so I went out into the garage just in time to see no husband and Spot and Scout, our neighbors golden, doing their own meet and greet.  Absolutely, no problems with them, so I have no doubt that whatever is going on with Spot will be worked out with time, patience, and some help from us or his adoptive family.   

Attached is a picture of Spot resting after his big shoveling adventureJ  Cross your paws, he will be meeting a potential family next weekend, weather permitting.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Spot here.  Well, I’ve taken to living inside – it rocks!  I really like it here, seems like they do something fun with/for me every day.  Today I got a bone and it had PEANUT BUTTER in it, I didn’t know what to do with it at 1st, but I figured it out after I chased it all over the family room floor.  I finally I figured out that if I’d just put my foot on the dumb thing, I could have laid down and chewed on it – hey, I’m learning.

 

I’ve only had 1 accident, but both mom and dad admitted that it was amazing that 2 full grown adults, who have fostered a few dogs over the year, could miss the unmistakable signs that I was giving them – a guy can only do so much to get 2 peoples attention (both on different computers I might add) before not being able to hold it any longer………I didn’t get in trouble at all, I think they were mostly mad at themselves for not paying attention to me.   

 

Mom was sick, in fact she missed a trip to Las Vegas because of it.  I got to sleep with her in a waterbed, you should have seen my face when I jumped in that thing, another new experience for me.

I pretty much spent every minute she was sick with her.   In fact, I laid with my face touching hers most of the 3 days she was in bed (she did mention I needed to brush my teeth, whatever that is, probably another new experience).  Mom told someone that I had more empathy than any dog she has ever seen, but I was just showing her how much I cared. 

 

Rumor has it that the little baby may be coming back soon, I can’t wait to see him, I like to lay my head on him……….more later,

Spot

 

 

 

 

Monday, December 8, 2008

Spot has been with us for 2 weeks now. He continues to be one of the easiest fosters ever. People who meet him are amazed that this guy was an outside dog his entire life.

He weighed 88 lbs at the vet office and is now up to date on his vaccinations. He did have a raging ear infection and was just great as they held him to clean his ears (and it took forever!). Being at the vets office was something new to him, and he kept looking at me as if to say “help me, PLEASE”, but he took it all in stride and even gave the vet and the tech a couple kisses to let them know he forgave themJ

As promised we took our car ride and he was perfect! The rumor was that he liked to drive, but he sat very nicely between the 2 back seats and did not try to come up front with me. When he got bored, he crawled into the 3rd row seat with Silly Miss Tillie and quietly rested his huge body on top of her – she was not exactly happy about that :) 

He does have on odd behavior that we are working on. When he eats he gets kind of growly with Tillie if she walks past him or his food. It reminds me of a teenager that has put the computer game on pause and walked away from it. When another sibling gets near it, the teenager yells and screams at the sibling to leave it alone. This behavior is one that he has had for a while with his brother Sammy and I think it more of a habit than anything. Tillie grumbles back at him, I yell “HEY! ENOUGH!” and they both look at me like oops, sorry mom. He is already starting to self-regulate himself and we are taking steps to end the behavior. We feed him away from Tillie, pick up the food once he starts to pick at it, and are working on some controlled feeding with them both in the mud room. This is not a big deal and I believe it will be easy to teach him that this is not an acceptable behavior.

At this point I am open to pretty much any placement, except very small kids. Not that he is naughty around kids, actually he is fabulous, but he is so big and loves to put his big paw on you when you pet him, it might be scary for some little kids. (Next time I’ll tell the story about him laying his head on my 5 week old grandson :) Thankfully, both the parents of the baby are dog lovers ;) ) I think he could use obedience, not because he is naughty, but because he loves to please people. He knows all of his commands and listens VERY well, and he just loves to hear “good boy”, his butt starts to wiggle and he just lights up when he hears it. Plus, I think all dogs need obedience to understand what is expected of them in their lives. If you think he might be the guy for you, let placement know. 

Here are a couple pictures of him. One is to show how big he is and the other is the 1st day here with my husband on the couch.