Here's what we know about Calvin today.

In most ways, Calvin is already a dream dog. He is housebroken (and pees "like a girl" outside). He doesn't chew inappropriate objects in the house, but loves destuffing toys (see evidence in the new photo) and is a bit ball obsessed. He plays very nicely with the resident Golden boy. He doesn't counter surf and had no problems with us eating our dinner on the coffee table last night. He is not mouthy even when excited and doesn't do too much jumping up on people. He actually plays fetch and drops the ball nicely when he retrieves it. He takes treats very nicely. He likes to ride in the car and hops right in.

Calvin does not do well in a crate and does everything in his power to prevent you from putting him in one. The good news is that he is trustworthy in the house so crating is not necessary. He also likes to chase the cats. He doesn't mean any harm, but they are just so fun when they run! He is also pretty sure that he should be allowed to sleep on the bed -- it's up to his forever home to decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Calvin's only really issue is that with all of the bouncing around and abandonment that he's experienced in the past month or so he can get pretty nervous, and when he gets nervous he whines. We have been helping Calvin with this in two ways: we're making sure he gets a lot of exercise and we are doing some at-home obedience training with him to give him structure and let him know that we are in charge (and will take care of him). This is all he needs, along with a little patience and understanding while he settles in to his new home. He reminds us in many, many ways of our resident Golden that we adopted from RAGOM 16 months ago, both in personality and problems, so we can say first hand that whoever adopts Calvin will be one lucky family!