Barkley Black Labrador Retriever Mix Male 4 Months Old ID #2852
Meet Barkley, one of the “Alabama 5”- 5 four month old pups that was rescued from a bad situation in Alabama. The rest of his litter have all found their furever homes, and Barkley is hoping soon he’ll have his very own family too. Read his blog from the bottom up.
February 1, 2021
This southern boy loves the snow!
January 29, 2021
Barkley is doing quite well. He’s such a smart boy, and he’s mastered sit and wait and he ‘s 75% of the way with down and quiet. We’re teaching him when he barks that this is “speak” so that we can instead reward “quiet.” He really seems to be catching on, and knows if he does what he’s asked, he’s rewarded with a treat. Considering he has southern roots, I’m amazed how much he still enjoys being outdoors, even with the cold snap we’re experienced. He greets everyone we see happily and with a tail wag, even dogs that are a bit intimidating.
Now that he’s not “speaking” so much, the resident dogs are much happier to have him around. They’ll even play with him some inside as we can’t play chase outside because the back yard is a skating rink.
He continues to be a very great cuddle partner and curls up at night next to us and stays asleep until the morning. Good boy Barkley.
January 26, 2021
Barkley, or Little Man as we are affectionately calling him, is settling in very nicely. Aside from one accident that was really the humans’ fault (but maybe that’s always the case), he has been doing great with the house training. And he really hasn’t even tried to chew anything that he isn’t supposed to and seems to know what he’s allowed to have. He loves the chew bones in the toy basket the most, but he has also adopted a little fuzzy football as his own.
He is enjoying being with the other dogs, particularly outside where he has been able to engage the 6 and 8 year old labs in a game of chase. The 11 year old lab says that’s beneath her and she verbally corrected him once and he has been very respectful ever since. Inside he shuns the numerous dog beds and snuggling with one of his fur siblings, and instead prefers the couch. I usually try to avoid letting foster dogs on the couch, but he clearly is so used to it and has good manners on the sofa (no chewing of cushions or throw pillows) that I’ve been looking the other way. And he really loves snuggling on the couch if he can convince a human to join him. He has a habit of falling asleep and rolling off and then crying out and looking very insulted as if someone else did this to him. It’s quite cute, although he would argue it’s humiliating!
He LOVES our woods walks (we take two fairly long ones a day) and while he has sampled an acorn or a twig here and there, I think he is beginning to realize they are in abundance in the Game Lands so he’s now more interested in keeping up with the pack that is walking ahead of him. He pulls some because he’s always trying to catch up, but is great when walking by himself. Soon we’ll start working on having him heel, but for now we’re just letting him explore and enjoy himself.
The key to having him sleep at night is being with the other dogs, but again, he’d rather be up on the bed with his people. At this point it seems so engrained that since he isn’t chewing or having accidents in the master bedroom, his best placement will be a home where the family is looking for a bed fellow!
He needs some manners work on not jumping up to say hello- and he has bonked several of us with his nose, but he is not mouthy in the least. He also is working on not being so vocal about what he wants. He sits nicely for treats but taking them gently is a work in progress. All in all though, we’re thrilled with how he’s doing. Stay tuned for updates!
January 25, 2021
BArkely is now about 5.5 months old. Barkley had a change of foster of the other day, and it was a long day for all, but we were able to get home right before dark so doggie intros to the three resident labs were done outside, one dog at a time, starting from calmest to least calm dog, before heading in. Rumor had it that Barkley could be a little “snappy” when meeting a new dog, so while we are prepared for that, he had zero issues and everyone was appropriately going nose to butt, tails curiously wagging, etc… good boy Barkley.
Barkley has quite a sniffer on him, and it took him a long time to settle down as there were so many new smells to discover inside, but after satisfying himself that he knew the lay of the land (and he went in every room where he wasn’t met with a closed door), he hopped up on the sofa (my dogs aren’t allowed but he is clearly a furniture guy) and slept while we caught up the taped news and watched a show before bed.
Night time was a little rough- I’m not going to lie. I was determined that he was going to sleep in a crate but he was equally determined that he was not going to sleep in the crate. I slept with him in a guest room on one end of the house in the hopes that at least my husband and daughter could hopefully get a good night’s sleep. But we had quite the stand off and after about an hour of non stop ear piercing barking, guess who caved first? Of course – me:) Barkley spent the rest of the night on the bed, but he was unsettled and hopped off and on numerous times. He also thought sleeping on me was a good idea. The good news is that even with his freedom, there were zero accidents, and he didn’t chew or get into anything while he was off the bed. I consider that a big win!
Today is a new day and with a good strong cup of coffee in me, we were ready to tackle day 2 with Barkley. He is a ravenous eater and I see a slow feeder bowl in his near future. We next outfitted him with a size medium Freedom harness and off he went with my husband and three resident dogs, and all things considered, he did very well on leash and he had plenty of pep for the whole 3 miles. He still wasn’t sleepy though, and we’ve been in and out numerous times (no accidents though) and he had one real play session with my 6 year old lab who loves to play chase. So they romped around the yard with me hanging on for dear life. He tried to hump her a few times but each time she verbally told him off and flipped around on him, and he was then appropriately respectful. Now at 2pm he is finally taking a nap (on the couch of course) and we’re all getting a break from the tag team operation that is having a new pup in the house. All in all I’d say we’re off to a good start; yesterday had to be a really long day for the poor guy too. Tonight I’m going to have one of the resident dogs in with us too and see if we can’t do any better in the sleep department.
December 21, 2020
It has been quite a week for Barkley! A lot of firsts.
He received a box of toys and treats from the Rescue and has a lot of fun checking it out!
He is looking forward to growing into the new harness they sent!
He saw his first snow fall and although a little cautious at first and mesmerized by the white stuff falling from the sky, he took off with his foster family dogs and romped and slid and had a blast! He didn’t seem to bothered by the cold.
Barkley met some of the neighbor children; we don’t even think that he had ever encountered a child as he was very cautious and obviously a bit distressed over this small human. But we took our time and stayed very calm and let him sniff. It didn’t take very long for him to approve and crawl into a waiting lap for some love. We have purposely walked when we know the kids are out playing to keep him comfortable. All good and he is a big fan of all the attention.
A visit to the vet was a bit scary but he did great and didn’t even flinch at the shots, probably because he was eating! He is 31 pounds and the Vet thinks he will grow to around 50. He already has some adult teeth.
And then, an early family Christmas with two new dogs to meet and play with and some new humans to love on! (Yes, we had 6 dogs in the house!) Plus, new toys! He is a toy hoarder, by the end of the day they are all in his crate! He actually pulls them towards him when he is ready to nap so he is surrounded! All of the excitement and running around was exhausting and eventually he took his own time out for a very long nap. There was a lot of napping the next day as well.
Last night he actually watched the opening of Sound of Music. Apparently, a Julie Andrews musical fan! Lost interest once the opening credits started.
Barkley is doing great with his house training, commands and leash walking. He has his daily schedule and routine and has settled in very well.
So, now we know that Barkley is great with dogs (we have 3), great with kids and adults. Plays well with others. Prefers to sleep with the humans and not in his crate, but will go in to his crate if we are in the room and nap.
Barkley eats in his crate and when given a treat he actually takes it into his crate out of habit! Smart boy! He is always with one of us humans, even when the dogs are spread out around the house. He also has developed a taste for some of the furniture and is not a fan of the taste of Bitter Apple.! Oh, the fun of puppies and teething.
Barkley is becoming much more comfortable in our space and playing with the other dogs and toys in the house! The best place for zoomies is on the bed to the floor, to the bed to the floor, to the bed to the floor!! And then crash half in and half out of his bed!
He now has a harness and took his first walk around the neighborhood; there were so many smells!! He did ok for his first time out with his foster brother Jackson and I think he do well on leashed walks going forward.
He seems to be a very fast learner and we will start more intense training of basic commands now that he is comfortable in the house and with the other dogs. I am sure he will be quite the show off with his new talents!
Barkley (previously known as Blackie) he will be 16 weeks next week. He is around 30 pounds.
Welcome to Delaware Barkley! Barkley’s first night was a bit crazy as he tried to figure out where he was, why Delaware does not yet smell like home, who are all these other dogs and those people! But he quickly learned a persons lap is a good place to be, other dogs are kind of big and want to play too hard, except for the little one who just keeps an eye out. Barkley must not have ever been leashed walked as having the leash attached to his collar is very scary for him and he can alligator roll with the best! We are anxiously waiting for his new harness, which will help, and we are going to start practicing inside for our evening walks outside. We are also potty training and this morning’s major zoomy romp was his sign that he had to go out. He was very proud of this! Barkley is a huge love bug and a very happy boy. He looks very much like a classic lab except for his white toes and chest and his little white goatee! This adorable little pup should grow into a very handsome boy. We are looking forward to seeing more of his happy personality develop and getting him ready for his forever home!
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