Bentley #5 Yellow Labrador Retriever Male 10 Months Old ID #2640

September 18, 2020

This dog is available for already approved Brookline families. We are currently not accepting new adoption applications due to the number of approved, waiting families.

Lovable 10-month-old, Bentley #5, a purebred yellow Lab with innocent, big brown eyes that will melt any heart, is available for adoption.  Bentley’s foster blog can be found here: https://brooklinelabrescue.org/blog/bentley-5-yellow-labrador-retriever-male-9-months-old-id-2640/

Bentley loves to play and wrestle with his foster family’s two 3-year-old resident dogs – one female and one male.  While the female is not a fan of Bentley’s roughhousing, the male is happy to play along but does lose interest before Bentley does.  Bentley also enjoys swimming, fetch, and playing with all his toys.  Bentley is crate and house-trained and enjoys long walks.  He is happy to lay his head in your lap for petting sessions.

Bentley would do well in a home with an active family who is willing to continue working on his manners – specifically, leash pulling, jumping up on people, and counter surfing.  Because of the knockdown factor, Bentley would do best in a home with children over the age of 5. Even with older children, his adopting family needs to be aware of the knockdown factor, and their children should be dog-savvy enough to be able to handle Bentley’s jumping.  Bentley will need an active family who has the energy to keep up with him, the time to continue fine-tuning his manners and training, as well as the patience for his antics.  Underneath it all, Bentley is a loving dog who will be a wonderful companion.

September 16, 2020

Bentley-boy had his incision checked yesterday morning.  The vet reported that the incision is healing fine and that he is to continue wearing the cone for the next week. He has one more week of antibiotics left and so far (fingers crossed) we haven’t had any digestive issues. (YAY!!)  But boy, does he want to play and run!  I did allow him and Yoyo out this morning to play chase for a bit and he seems somewhat calmer now. We started him back on his daily walks this week as well and are letting him out of his crate when we can monitor what he is up to (or should I say “into”). He is very curious as to what he can get off the counter and is even jumping up on people more than he had been.  We continue to tell him “down” and to turn our backs, if we see the jump coming.  We then ignore him until he sits; although often he gets distracted and is off investigating something else.  He is also still trying to mount our resident lab, Yoyo.  I had hoped the neutering would help with this, but while the frequency has diminished, it has not ended.  Dee and Maggie, our trusted Brookline advisors, suspect it is Bentley being young and easily overexcited and I agree.  So to handle, we continue to tell him no when he tries and we then try to distract him.  If he can’t calm down or be distracted, then we put him in the crate for a timeout.

So, we have learned something new about Bentley this week.  He LOVES raw, whole butternut squash!  Who would have guessed that??  He got one out of our garden and took off with it – squash, vine, and all!  He then proceeded to chew on it and had half of it gone when my daughter noticed he was so quiet and went to investigate what he was doing.  Then today, I was outside with him and he was quiet again and I found him with another squash and gnawing quite happily on it.  I wish I had my camera to share how happy he was eating it.  I did manage to capture this picture of him staring very intensely at it and another one of him trying to steal it back.

And one FINAL piece of good news –  Bentley appears to be well on the road to recovery, so we plan to make Bentley available for adoption this Friday.

September 9, 2020

Bentley (aka “Brother Bentley” or “Bennie”) has had a rough week.  On Thursday, Bentley underwent the neutering procedure.  When I picked him up, he walked outside the clinic and sniffed around and jumped in the car with no problem.  The vet gave me prescriptions for a sedative and a pain killer that I was instructed to start the next morning.  When we got home, we put the cone on his head and he was horrified!  He immediately went into his crate and settled quickly as he was still pretty much out of it from the anesthesia.  The next morning, I started the medications with his breakfast after he freaked out when I took him out to potty that morning.  (I believe it was the cone.). The rest of the day he was very groggy, and it was decided that the sedative was too much for him.

Then he started with a bad case of diarrhea.  We think it was from the medications.  He couldn’t even drink water without having to go out a few minutes later.   Long story short, that was the end of the medications. He never appeared in pain and I was struggling to hold him back when we went outside.  We had to constantly keep our resident dogs separated from Bentley to keep him calm. Again, this crate has been so helpful as I could put him in it to keep him out of trouble.  We gradually started him on some plain white rice and some probiotic powder and raw goat milk that has been slightly fermented and his diarrhea has finally ended as of Monday midday.

Then, yesterday morning, I checked his incision to find it had opened, which required a trip into the vet yesterday to have it checked. The vet found an infection starting and put him on an antibiotic.  I am praying that the antibiotic doesn’t further mess up his stomach and I plan to keep him on the rice and beef for a few more days before we start reintroducing his kibble.  He goes back to the vet for an incision check next week.  I think the incision opened because the edge of the cone would slide down the incision whenever he tried to lick it.  The vet tech recommended putting duct tape around the edge of the cone to cover the somewhat sharp edge.  I did that last night before bed.  Then he wouldn’t settle down in his crate, which is very unusual for him. I finally took him out of the crate to fix his blanket and I realized that it was the duct tape on the edge of the cone that was bothering him.  He was trying to either bite it off or smell it – I’m not sure which – maybe both?  Regardless, I removed the tape last night too in hopes that he would then sleep.  This guy is such a character!

So now in hopes of him leaving the incision alone, we have double coned him.  He has his cone on and an inflatable cone to hopefully keep him from hitting the edge of the cone on the incision!

So, here is the best part of the last week. The day before the surgery, Sadie and Bentley were caught playing together (see video)! He wasn’t sure if she was serious or not, which made it extra funny.

Keep an eye out for Bentley to be available for adoption once his incision has healed.

September 1, 2020

Bentley’s mischievous side is coming out in this last week.  He is definitely getting more comfortable here.   (Maybe one might say TOO comfortable! Haha). When he first arrived, he didn’t do any counter surfing.  Then he started counter surfing – but only when alone in the kitchen.  Yesterday, he did it when my back was turned and today I’ve caught him twice this morning WHILE I AM WATCHING.  Fortunately a stern NO and he got down and fortunately he didn’t find anything worthwhile in his pursuits.  I believe this is considered the “teenager” years in puppyhood where they try and see what they can get away with.  So anytime someone isn’t in Bentley’s area to keep an eye on him, we put him into his crate.

Bentley LOVES his crate. We keep the crate in the kitchen.  This has been such a blessing.  It is a safe place for him when the other dogs tire of his antics and Bentley is still over excited.  He calms down in there immediately and doesn’t make a peep – even when someone is in the kitchen too. He will even go in for a nap on his own in the afternoon.

Apparently Bentley and Yoyo got into something (likely together) as they both have had some tummy troubles over the weekend and are both enjoying the chicken and rice diet while their systems recover.  No complaints from them on that.  It definitely hasn’t slowed either one down at all.

Bentley loves WALKS, playing FETCH and trying to beat Yoyo to the ball first.  Bentley is extremely athletic and his speed is amazing to watch.  He will definitely need an active household to keep up with his energy.  He is also a LOVE bug and will let my 9-year-old snuggle up to him.  Bentley does not like to go outside by himself.  He will only stay out with one of our resident dogs or with a person.

Bentley goes on Thursday to be neutered.  It is time.  Yoyo has been spending a chunk of his day fending off Bentley’s hormone surges (if you know what I mean).  Sadie has already set that boundary very well from the start.

Cute video attached of Yoyo and Bentley playing from last week.

August 24, 2020

Bentley is such a fun-loving puppy.  Even though he is 9 months old, he still has that puppy playfulness and energy and sweet puppy expression.  He is VERY curious and knows when we are watching and when not (as evidence by him getting into the garbage when it was left open). Bentley is curious about everything.  When we play fetch, he will often lose focus on the ball when some scent catches his nose.   Sometimes I end up “fetching” the ball more than Bentley!  When we are in the house and he is resting and I get up to get something, he immediately will jump up to follow to see what I am doing. Bentley has been sleeping all night in his crate in our family room.  Surprisingly, he stays quiet even when I come down in the morning and really doesn’t make a peep until I let him out.  But as soon as I let him out, Bentley gets very excited and is ready to run and jump and play and will jump up on whoever is around.  Later when I bring out his food dish, he will jump up too and will even jump straight up so that all his paws are off the ground.  I have started where if he jumps up while I have his food then I freeze until he sits. When someone new comes over, he will also jump up and we continue to work on this.  It is for this reason that I think he needs to go to a home that doesn’t have young children so they don’t get knocked down or frightened by his overexcited puppyhood behavior. Our middle daughter, who is 14 years old, continues to work with him walking on a leash.  She has been using our Freedom Harness on him and she takes a bunch of small treats with her and that helps to keep his focus on her and not the other dogs they may pass.  She reports that he is doing well. Bentley’s favorite thing to do is to get our 2 resident dogs to play.

Sadie was not happy with his arrival, but has calmed down about his presence here and has even been seen playing with him a time or two.  Most often though she just ignores him.  Yoyo (our Brookline lab) will play with him quite a bit but does tire of Bentley’s energy at times.  Sometimes, Bentley just needs a 10 minute time out in his crate to settle down, and then we let him out and he is chill for a while. Bentley’s swimming is improving too!

However, his entrance and exit into the swimming pool is the most awkward ever….

Bentley’s neuter surgery is scheduled for Sept. 2.  It should be interesting to see us trying to slow him down afterward! August 18, 2020 Not much new to report.  Sadie continues to keep Bentley at arm’s length.  (She is really taking this social distancing thing VERY serious. haha).  Bentley had to spend some time in his crate today and was FULL of energy when he got out as I would expect for a 9-month-old pup.  After some playing with Yoyo, running around outside, and a walk though, he has passed out and he has the cutest little snore which you can check out in his video.

(turn up the sound ).  Also, I found a cute picture of the 3 of them passed out together the other day that I forgot to share. We found out today that he tested positive for roundworm. I had given him an Interceptor on Sunday, so he should be good now (or at least that is my understanding). Working on scheduling his neuter to get him ready for his forever home! August 16, 2020 Nine-month-old Bentley arrived at our home yesterday afternoon.  (Thanks to Dee for the transport!) After an introduction to our 2 resident dogs, Yoyo and Sadie, the dogs took off playing in the yard. Bentley was so excited that he wasn’t watching where he was going and ended up in the pool a couple of times.  However, in true lab fashion, we quickly found out that he can swim!  After letting him explore inside a bit, we let Sadie and YoYo in and Sadie gave him a look like, “Why are YOU still here???”  YoYo is happy to play with him though. Sadie is still not sure of this young pup and is snarling and growling at him when he gets too close and she is good at letting him know that she is in charge of the four-legged family members in this house! He has been a slow learner in this regard and keeps coming back for more. He had a few pee accidents on our family room rug after his arrival yesterday but we think it might have been from being overexcited and all the water he drank.  (No accidents today so far, though he hasn’t been in the family room much yet. ) Yesterday evening, I sat with him in our screened-in porch with just him and gave him an antler to chew on which he really enjoyed and that settled him down quite a bit. Last night he did not like sleeping in his crate by himself in the kitchen and he spent the first few hours after we went to bed barking.  Not a stress bark but more like “where did you all go?” bark.  He finally got the idea and finally went to sleep around 2 am and we didn’t hear a peep from him the rest of the night. He didn’t even make a sound when my oldest got up and left for work around 7 am. This is how she found him then…. I let him out around 8 am when I got up this morning. He ate well (as expected), had fun exploring all the new toys in the toy basket and is still drinking a lot of water.  He enjoyed a walk with my husband and middle daughter.  Middle daughter who is 14 was able to handle him just fine on the walk and she and my husband were surprised at how nicely he walked beside them.  He is much more settled today and is just being a puppy and wanting to play nonstop with Yoyo.  I just put him in the crate before I started this for a break and within minutes he was snoring away like this: Overall, the first day is close to what I was expecting.  He is really so sweet and our girls are definitely smitten with him. He is going to make one lucky family very happy.