Blondie, Yellow Labrador Retriever Female, 3 Years Old

We keep discovering more and more about this adorable dog!  Some of the things we have discovered are:

She seems to be more praise motivated than treat motivated when training.  She absolutely LOVES to make her people happy!

She is quite athletic and loves to play fetch with her soccer ball and can catch treats or tennis balls in mid air without even trying.

She loves, loves, loves to go on walks!  She gets so excited, FD & FM can barely get their shoes on fast enough.

She doesn’t mind being a passenger on a boat.  The boat was beached and she climbed in and out multiple times on her own and was not afraid at all!

She likes the water, but is a little afraid of it.  She has tried to walk into our pool on her own, but hasn’t quite been able to do it.  She has allowed FD to bring her in, then she will swim back to the steps by herself.

She will let FM cut her nails, as long as FD is there to encourage her and hold her.

She no longer shows any signs of resource guarding with our resident dog.  They can eat and walk side by side like old friends.

Additionally, Blondie has shown progress with the sit/stay command, as well as progress reducing her dog reactivity, thanks to tips from Jeanne Mincieli.  She no longer barks and snaps when she sees other dogs.  She may lunge in another dogs direction, but can usually be redirected with a tug and a firm  “Blondie, come this way”.  She is a work in progress with this!

Blondie is a very sweet, lovable dog that wants nothing more than to be with her people, to get and give as much luvin’ as possible!

For more information on this girl, please contact lploschke@yahoo.com.

Here’s some photos of Blondie enjoying the lake where her foster family took her and her fur brother Ozzie boating last weekend.  Blondie makes a great first mate!

Blondie’s foster family went on vacation and couldn’t come but another open foster home took great care of her for two weeks.  Not only did they take care of her and give her good walks and love, they also oversaw her being spayed and microchipped. Blondie handled the surgery very well and is healing nicely, finally getting her appetite back and feeling spunkier every day.

Her temporary fosters agree that her furever home will need to continue to work on de-sensitizing her to other dogs while on leash.  Where they walk , houses were closer together and there were more dogs, so it may be that she’ll do best in a furever home where there is more open space.

Blondie has settled in nicely and has been playing with her toys, chewing her bones and doing her best to engage our resident dog, Ozzie, in play.  Day 10 was a turning point for both dogs in that Ozzie finally capitulated and accepted her offer to roughhouse and be chased around the yard.  Yay!  We think Blondie is warming to the idea that being around another dog can be ok and sometimes even fun.

She spent 3 days down the shore and behaved very well in a new environment with several new people.  She enjoyed walks on the beach and people watching on the porch.  We discovered she is not a big fan of baby carriages, but that may change if we get an opportunity to have her check one out.  She still alerts to men, but settles after a quick bark.  The 2 hour car ride each way did not prove to be a problem.  She was calm and eventually laid down on the floor with Ozzie.

A few other things we discovered about Blondie are

• She does not like the vacuum.  Not only does she bark at it, she tries to bite it.  It’s comical really.  Funny Blondie!
• She can open doors that have a lever instead of a traditional knob.  Smart Blondie!
• Although she is not the most food motivated dog we’ve met, she will be all over a plate of food in a hot second.  Blondie has good taste!

Just a quick update to let everyone know that Blondie continues to relax and get more comfortable in her new surroundings.  She is getting used to noises like the dishwasher and the washer.  She started barking at the clothes tumbling in the front load washer, so we did our best to make sure she knew it was OK.  We have been trying to get her in the pool, but she has no interest in it, yet.

Blondie (FKA Bacardi)  is a 3 years old 75 lb. unaltered yellow lab.  A Good Samaritan found her in a locked car, waited for the owner to return and found out they were homeless.  The GS was able to talk them into surrendering her to Brookline.  Although she had never been to a vet prior to her freedom ride, she is now up to date on her shots and is in good health except for testing positive for Lyme disease.

Her first evening was spent mostly panting and pacing, and occasionally snap/growling at our resident dog Ozzie.  She was able to eat and get rid of some pent up energy chasing balls in the backyard.  We knew we couldn’t have both dogs in the same room sleeping yet, so we tried to crate her downstairs.  After 5 minutes of barking, we couldn’t handle it, so Dan went downstairs, let her out of the crate and slept with her on the couch.

The situation between the dogs improved this morning.  We have been doing some positive reinforcement when they are near each other and there is no snap/growling. They have engaged in chase play outside multiple times now, and there has been only one snap/growl incident inside.  We are feeling comfortable leaving her out of the crate as long as someone is in the room with them. Blondie seems to have let her guard down a wee bit enough to leave him alone, with the exception of stealing sniffs here and there.  We definitely feel she is making strides in the right direction!

As for Blondie’s manners, she responds to come, sit and sometimes paw, walks well on the leash with a flat collar, but has a tendency to counter surf.  She has not had any accidents in the house.

She actually watches TV and reacts to dogs on the screen. She has pawed the TV attached to our wall, but thankfully no damage was done.

She will crate, but dislikes being in it and will bark.

She loves being with her people, belly rubs and lots and lots of affection.

She loves chasing balls and being outside.

She is more inclined to bark at men than women.