Another BIG weekend for Winston! We started our Saturday with a bath at Bubbly Paws, he looked so miserable and cute he even made the Bubbly Paws Facebook page. I attached the photo they took, so you can see.

We wanted to thank everyone who came to see Winston at Pet-A-Palooza on Saturday. He was very anxious at the Saturday event, so we decided to leave him at home for the Sunday event. After I arrived at PRIDE on Sunday I was glad we made the decision to leave him at home; the sound from the concert stage would have made him very anxious.

We are happy to announce, Winston met a very nice family on Sunday morning who is dedicated to working with him on socializing and with his storm anxiety. His new dad has experience with other Golden’s and is committed to taking Winston through several levels of obedience training.

We are so excited for Mr. Winston. He is going to have three people ready to pet him at any moment and he is going to grow to be a smart beautiful boy.

After meeting a handful of senior dogs recently we have come to the conclusion Winston would be best suited for a home with a younger dog or no other dogs.

Our upcoming events include neutering on Wednesday along with several playdays after recovering from his surgery.

We can confirm Mr. Winston has some storm anxiety especially when he is alone. We were home during storms and he seemed to be afraid of the lighting; trying to hide his head and wanting to be as close as possible to us. Tuesday he was left at home for 30 minutes during which a brief light rain shower came through and Winston chewed through part of a couch cushion. Wednesday we kenneled him to give some feelings of safety knowing there may be some rain during the day. When we got home from work he had chewed his bed in the kennel. Poor boy! Thank goodness there were no storms on Thursday, we left him free roam on that day and he was just fine.

Needless to say the rain also affected Wednesday night’s play date. We are working to reschedule the date and when we do we will report back. Winston met another senior dog last night and really wanted to play with him. He did get lots of petting and attention last night when he got to visit our friend’s 4 and 7 year old daughters who loved how calm he was around them.

Winston had another big weekend. On Friday we took him for a long walk around Lake Harriet and saw several other dogs; most were on a run so he did not get to sniff them. Mr. Winston did get to meet one Golden Doodle, who was so adorable, and another large breed female dog. Both meetings went well, he definitely wanted to play…The Golden Doodle even got a kiss.

On Saturday he traveled with 2 hours to Wisconsin for a wedding. Winston was a great traveler and usually slept or sat to look out of the window. During the wedding we kenneled Winston, at my brother’s house, and we visited him between the wedding ceremony and dinner. He is a very good with being kenneled and we actually needed to coax him out of the kennel, since we were waking him up, to let him out for some stretching and a walk. We made his trip to Wisconsin worth it by stopping at the wedding dinner for family and friends to meet him. He loved the attention from the 8 adults and 3 kids all showing him affection. He took turns “hugging” the adults when he was invited to do so and was careful around the toddler and the two younger kids.

On Sunday Winston met his first prospective family. He was so excited to get to socialize with another dog (chocolate lab mix); we have never seen his tail wag so hard. The resident dog and him seemed to hit it off and they both had happy tails. They played for about 30 minutes outside in the yard following and watching each other and then we moved into the house. After 15 to 20 minutes inside the house the dogs started to spar for what we think was dominance. Not sure what triggered the scuffle. We diffused the situation and separated the dogs. We think this may have been the male on male pairing; with one male neutered and one male still intact.

We plan to continue to socialize Winston to make certain this was a situational “show” of dominance.

We have had Winston for just over a week and we know a little more about him now, so we wanted to tell you what we know and have observed.

Winston is still coughing daily from his kennel cough, but the symptoms are getting better and better. He currently is sneezing a fair amount, so we do not know if he has seasonal allergies or if the sneezing can be contributed to the kennel cough (maybe it is a little of both). Winston has gotten his energy back for the most part and we would love to socialize him with other dogs, but until the kennel cough symptoms have subsided, we do not want to risk exposing another dog. He will be done with his antibiotics on the 14th of June.

Mr. Winston has his appetite back and is eating his dry food without any problems. He shows no aggression in eating, in fact he eats his food fairly leisurely, and so it may not be best if Winston is paired with a dog that eats quickly. He has shown no interest in “people” food. He is very good when we are eating and has not begged for any of our food.

With his better health he has starting to be more vocal and has started barking at the gurgling kitchen sink plumbing and “meow” noises coming from the computer or us. We consider Winston a good walker and he likes this activity. He can be a little under foot, at times, so the walker needs to pay attention. I tripped over Winston this weekend because I was looking to the left. When he saw me look left he wanted to know what I was doing so he also veered left while looking in the same direction, which was just enough for me to trip over him…over I went right in front of the next door neighbor; after I recovered from the embarrassment we continued our walk. (I didn’t get hurt.)

He does enjoy playing fetch with his tennis ball and will do so until he gets tired. He will lay in the shade after getting a drink until he is ready to start fetching again. When Winston is not fetching he is a huge cuddler and loves to be petted and scratched at any given moment. He wants to make sure he is within arms distance just in case you may want to do some petting. Winston just wants us to prove people can truly do 2 things at one time. We have not had an opportunity to test him around kids yet, but we hope to soon.

Winston has been hard on his toys, the two stuffed animal toys he had are no more, through the act of not just chewing, but pulling and ripping. To combat this we bought him a thick rope and a Nylabone, so he would have more “non-destructive” toys to work on.

Winston has had one accident, in our unfinished basement, while I was doing laundry and we feel it can be blamed more on us than him, since he may not have had enough time in the yard to do his business that morning before we came in to do chores. This big boy is mostly trusted with free roam while we are gone. We usually put the baby gate on the door to the kitchen to keep him out of the basement and kitchen. We think he spends most of the day sleeping on the couch, when we are not there. He is allowed on the furniture in our house and will definitely get up on the couch while we are away. However, when we are home he will only join us on the couch or bed if we invite him up there. He thinks really hard before jumping up on the furniture, but he is overpowered by his desire to be petted and scratched.

Mr. Winston has been through two small thunderstorms. He seems to be bothered by the flash of lightning not the sound of rain or thunder.  He is such a sweetie. This morning he woke us up because he saw lighting. He was standing on the bed and he just wanted to hide his eyes under the pillow or blanket. We put the blanket over his head which he was perfectly fine with. We both petted Winston and made him safe until the lightning passed. I have a feeling he senses a change in the weather, which wakes him up before we ever would notice it. We thought this fear could be from living outside as a stray without shelter…poor puppers.