I'm so pleased to introduce Gracie, a bright young Golden girl with personality and enthusiasm. Gracie is 1½ years old, smart as can be, and full of energy and a desire to please (and to have fun, too!). She has good household manners. She hasn't had an accident and quickly picked up our routine.

Gracie was surrendered because of her high energy level. She's a dog who would benefit from regular exercise, and I think she would do really well with an obedience class, too—she likes to learn. Her owners had already taught her sit, shake, and down and it could very well be that she knows other commands. She's a very sharp girl.

As soon as Gracie came into our household, she went into season and all that hormonal craziness made it hard to get a real sense of what she was like. Now that all of that is behind us, we see a dog who is affectionate, playful, and inquisitive—and yes, energetic as young dogs can be.

Her coat is medium gold and somewhat short, making it fairly easy to maintain. She's growing the feathering on the back of her legs and on her tail, and I think she'll look absolutely lovely as her coat matures. 

Gracie is a busy girl: when she's outside she loves to run circles in the yard with her dog buddies, explore the scents and sounds in the yard, and examine the big seed pods that are showing up as the snow is melting.

Gracie is exuberant about meal time and does some pretty spectacular leaps of joy as her food is being dished up. She eats her food quickly and occasionally has flipped over her empty dish to play a bit of hockey with it.

She is very motivated by treats and easily gives up a special toy for the fleeting joy of a treat. She kennels easily and we always reward her with a special treat to make sure she knows how much we appreciate that.

Right now, we kennel Gracie at night and whenever we leave the house because she was initially so crazed with hormones. But last night, we decided to see how she'd do sleeping outside of her kennel and she was a real champ: no accidents and she slept soundly until morning.

Gracie is sweet and enjoys a good chew toy. She is really good at catching things. We don't have any tennis balls in our house but we think she'd really enjoy playing fetch.

She's amazingly quick and coordinated and a good athlete. She's a bit of a rough and tumble girl—likes to play hard with her dog buddies and quickly learned that our older resident dogs weren't interested in that kind of play.

One of our younger dogs really enjoys playing like that and they spend a lot of time together outside, wandering that back yard and breaking into games of chase with daring maneuvers around the trees.

Gracie has a dominant personality, and although she doesn't necessarily need another dog in her forever home, I think she would enjoy a dog buddy or a regular chance to socialize with other dogs. Because Gracie is a strong girl, she would do best in a household without very young children (age 8 or older recommended).

Although a fenced yard would be ideal, it is not required. However, Gracie would need to be supervised while in a yard on a leash due to her rambunctious play style and need to burn off energy.

Gracie is current on her shots and will be spayed this week. Once she recovers from her surgery, she'll be ready to find her family!