Enzo Yellow Labrador Retriever Male 2-3 Years Old ID #2526

Meet Enzo and welcome to his blog.  Please read from the bottom up!

Enzo is still available and waiting for the right match that his foster family knows he needs to continue to make progress.  He already is the sweetest boy, and loves nothing more than to be snoozing in your lap or keeping your feet warm while you work at your desk.  And he loves hanging with the foster dogs, and their presence definitely helps him stay calm when his people aren’t home.  He has also learned to completely ignore the senior cat (although sometimes she lets him lick her head).  Enzo loves to play fetch but doesn’t pester you to keep throwing when you’ve had enough (he’s yet to show us he has had enough however).  He is also good on our walks, and while people still make him nervous, if they’re patient he will come up to them to sniff and check them out and allow a pat of two.  With this recent spell of warm weather, we’ve discovered that while he doesn’t have a green thumb, that he is happy to hang out sunbathing or chewing on a toy while you garden and do yard work.  Good boy Enzo.

Because of his shyness and his occasional grabbiness with his balls/toys/treats, we’re recommending that he not be placed with young children.  We know that ultimately he’d likely be fine, but I don’t think it’s fair to him or young kids to put him in that situation now.

If he sounds like just the pup you’ve been looking who will complete your family, please consider getting approved to adopt so you can apply for him.

February 24, 2020

February 13, 2020

Enzo is now ready and available for adoption!  He has come a long way and he is all healed up from his neuter and kennel cough, and it’s time for him to find his furever family before his foster family flunks with him 🙂

Enzo is a sweet, sweet boy but after month in foster care, he still bear the scars of his isolated start as a breeder dog and his adoptive family will need to be patient with him.  Once he trusts you though he is a total love, and he gives new meaning to the word velcro.  Still when out on walks and when people come to our house, he is very shy.  That being said, he would likely do better in a quieter home.

Some of Enzo’s quirks include:

• Not being willing to get in the car on his own, although occasionally he will if he’s following another dog who hops in.
• Being unsure of non-carpeted surfaces.  We have solved this by supplementing our hard wood and tile floors with extra area rugs.  This is temporary and has helped him enormously.  There are some rooms (like our bathrooms with their tile floors) that he simply won’t enter.  But that’s OK with his fosters as he is velcro enough.
• He is now willing to go out the garage door to the outside  but he won’t come back in so he runs around to the side to be let in.
• He refuses to learn sit- it’ll come but boy is he stubborn.

Enzo loves and needs his walks and is pretty good with a front clip harness but he will need continued training walking with a loose leash.  He’s great with all other dogs he has met (neuter submissive or dominant) but he is learning that it isn’t good manners to go right up to another dog’s face.  Playing fetch with this young active dog will be a great supplement.

Enzo’s family tried hard to crate train him but after being perfectly fine in it the first few days (everything was so new), he decided that he’d much rather be out with everyone else, and was determined to let us know that.  He also barked A LOT at night before he finally braved the stairs, but now he is a pro.  Note that he has not yet attempted the uncarpeted stairs going down to the finished basement.  Mr. Velcro is allowed to sleep in his people’s bed (sorry for those of you who don’t like this), but I think he could learn not to- he’s modeling the behavior of the resident dogs that are allowed.

Enzo has only been tested being home without his people for a few hours at a time, but he does fine free roam (as long as you don’t leave clothing on the floor) and mostly just sleeps when his foster family isn’t home. I wouldn’t trust him for a full day though since we haven’t been able to test it, so he’d do better in a home where his people are home at least part days.

Enzo got pretty itchy for awhile but he seems to be doing much better.  The vet thinks that the itching is in response to being indoors for the first time- with the drier air, wool rugs, dust and the like.  We’re hoping he’ll continue to improve but it’s a possibility that he might need to see an allergy specialist in the future. Fingers crossed that he doesn’t.

You can find Enzo’s Petfinder post here:

https://www.petfinder.com/dog/enzo-47370238/pa/warrington/brookline-labrador-rescue-pa06/

January 31, 2020

Where did the month of January go?!  There’s a lot to report on Mr. Enzo:

1. The kennel cough cleared up very nicely and pretty quickly.
2. He finally got brave enough to attempt the stairs and goes up and down now easily with zero issues. Foster mom is really happy not to have to sleep on the couch anymore!
3. Enzo got neutered yesterday and all went well.  In fact when he came home, he was hardly groggy and went out and did his business (#1 and #2) immediately and had a regular appetite (although we only fed him small amounts at a time to make sure).  Today you wouldn’t know that he had been neutered (or “noodled” as my once 4 year old son used to call it).  He is tolerating wearing a fabric cone when we can’t keep our eyes on him, but he really isn’t fussing much.
4. Enzo continues to love his walks and is really enjoying playing fetch in the back yard (although the latter will have to be put on temporary hold while he heals up completely).  He sees the other dogs playing keep away and wrestling and he’s not quite sure about that.

Enzo still needs some work learning to drop the ball when we play in order to continue the game.  Once he heals up, we’ll continue with our take it, drop it and leave it drills.  He also sometimes is inadvertently grabby when you are about to throw the ball and so we’re working on wait/impulse control.  While Enzo is happy to meet every dog we’ve encountered, Enzo is still unsure of their people and if it’s a loud person who gestures a lot or a large group of people, he gets quite worried.  He is also nervous (but curious) when we have visitors in the home.  It’s a work in progress to get him more comfortable but honestly there is no timetable and could take years. He is such a love with his people though and very happy to be with them, whether they are four or two legged.

January 22, 2020

Foster mom is a little overdue with an update but that’s because just when things started to get easier, they got harder (welcome to the world of fostering).  In the wee hours of the morning on the 20th, Enzo woke me up with a horrible barking cough.  The minute I heard it, I knew what it was- the dreaded kennel cough.  It’s what shelters and boarding establishments work so hard to keep out of their places of business because it’s highly contagious.  Note that these breeder farm dogs come to us with virtually untested immune systems. We’re lucky if they’ve been given a rabies vaccination, but usually they have had nothing:(  So while we’re doing good by taking them in immediately to get their vaccines (and rabies is required by law) we are also potentially exposing them to new germs.  It’s like when your precious baby goes to pre-school and it seems like you spend more time picking them up because they aren’t feeling well and keeping them home than you do enjoying your few hours of freedom a week while they are healthy and able to attend.   Still I should consider myself lucky as I have fostered a number of these isolated dogs from breeding operations and this is the first time I’ve had one contract kennel cough.

Anyway the immediate challenge was getting Enzo to feel better as the violent coughing caused him to spit up any of the medication (antibiotics and magic cough suppressants) I was giving him.  But just two days later we have turned a corner and he is now not coughing nearly as much and I am not constantly following him around the house with paper towels in my hand.  And I’m hoping that all will sleep much better tonight.

On another front, Enzo is starting to attempt the stairs.  That’s good and bad as most dogs who learn to go up still think coming down is too scary, and who wants to try and carry down a 74 pound lab that doesn’t want to go down of his own accord?!   Still we’re really close to him being able to go up and down.  His biggest issue is being fearful of non-carpeted areas and while we have treads on the stairs, there is tile at the bottom of the stairs and hardwood at the top, so once he makes it to the top, he jumps into a bedroom with wall to wall carpeting and doesn’t want to come back out.

Enzo has also discovered that balls are fun and I’m happy to report that he is a true retriever.  He hasn’t figured out how to drop the ball, but once I pry it from his mouth (and say good drop,  lol) I can throw it again and he happily goes and gets it.  I know not all labs like to retrieve but personally I love it when they do.

Enzo was supposed to get neutered tomorrow but now we need to wait ~two weeks until he has finished his course of antibiotics.  That means he’ll stay in foster care a little longer than I was planning for, but on the bright side, we’ll get to know him all that much better so we make the best match possible for him to have a happy life.

January 16, 2020

Enzo is doing well and let’s just say he is coming out of his shell.  This means he’s less afraid of being in the house and my husband’s and my comings and goings, and doesn’t now routinely go running the other way when something scares him.  Good boy Enzo!  However it also means that he has decided that he really likes being with everyone and does NOT want to be in his crate by himself.  We discovered this only a few hours after I typed the in the update other day that we hadn’t heard a peep out of him (do you think I jinxed us?!).  We went to bed and 10 minutes later Enzo blessed us with his big deep bark, and how he didn’t lose his voice by the morning is a wonder!  The next day I then tested if I could leave him in the crate with the dogs in the same room as him (they go upstairs with us at night) and leave to run errands after we had a long walk, and cameras showed that he barked for awhile but then gave up and took a nap.  Last night I tried sleeping on the couch in sight of him but apparently not close enough as he still barked, although this time my reassuring him that I was here and shushing him worked after about three times.  Tonight my sleep-deprived self will move the big crate so it is effectively adjacent to the couch and we’ll see if that’s close enough for Mr. Enzo to slumber peacefully.  Bottom line is I can tell that he is dog who is going to want to be near his people (he has a few years to make up for), so those of you who like to have co-sleepers, get read to apply!  Those of you who prefer the dog sleep elsewhere shouldn’t bother.  Unfortunately Enzo is not yet ready to try the stairs- he is just getting comfortable with the hardwood floors-  but I am hoping that within a few days he will brave it and master them, and that I will then be able to sleep in my own bed.  For now, wish me luck.   I can’t leave him loose until the marking is completely a thing of the past, but the last time he marked was first thing yesterday after I took him out, so maybe we’re almost done with that (oh man, did I just jinx myself again?!)

Enzo also thinks the sectional is his own personal jumbo dog bed, and he snoozes there regularly and very happily.  And while I don’t love dogs on the furniture, he is so peaceful there,  so there he is allowed to stay when I’m home (with lots of fleece blankets on top- we won’t win a home furnishing contest) but it works.  And if you happen to be on the couch, he thinks that his head in your lap is not enough  body contact and instead thinks he should lie on top of you. Yup an 80 lap dog.

Enzo continues to love his walks and alternates between pulling pretty hard (but manageable) and stopping for what seems like hours until I can coax him to move on.  Again it’s hard to blame him.  He’s never had the opportunity to sniff anything but the confines of his kennel.  Still I think neutering will help with just how excited he gets when he smells another dog’s pee!

Enzo is also learning to love toys and it seems like he is starting to hoard them.  He doesn’t guard them at all, and if one of his fur sibs takes one, he’s totally fine.  But I do notice that later in the day they are back in a pile on “his” couch.

Enzo continues to be a great catch but I will love him more when I get my beauty rest.

January 13, 2020

Enzo continues to rock his new life.  Our biggest challenges are his marking inside- yesterday he did so a few times- but today he hasn’t at all (did we just jinx ourselves?) so the trick is not to make his world too big too quickly.  So if we can’t keep an eyeball on him, he’s in a very large crate where he can see everyone but we don’t have to worry about the marking.  And honestly the boy is tired with all the change so he’s pretty content to snooze in the crate during those rest periods.  Baby steps.

He loves his woods’ walks  and we took advantage of today’s mild weather and took two long ones today.  EVERYTHING is interesting to smell so we are moving slowly.  One can hardly blame him as he’s never had anything to smell but the inside of his pen.  We’ve met a few dogs and people on our walks and, while he is hesitant meeting the people, he does indeed approach them.  Good boy Enzo!  And he is totally cool with every dog he has met so far.  Like many a breeder dog, people are way scarier than dogs.  Dogs he gets.

Enzo is eating well, is panting less, and spent another night in his crate without a peep.  And he discovered toys today- what fun! And the couch is still one of his favorite places to hang.  I had one other farm dog that claimed the couch, and like the other one, I don’t/didn’t have the heart to kick him off.  However if you sit on the couch next to him he ends up on top of you, so be aware.  He thinks he’s an 80 pound lap dog.

All in all, a great start. Enzo is a catch.

January 12, 2020

Intros with my resident labs went very well.  I am happy to report that Enzo didn’t grumble once in spite of the excitement and he was comfortable with all three right from the start.  He is pretty interested in their privates (not surprising since he is intact) but they were pretty tolerant of his rudeness.  We all went for a “walk”- walk is in quotes as he didn’t have a clue how to walk with a leash and he was SO interested in all the smells and stopped constantly and marked; although his tank was quickly empty since I hadn’t gotten him to take a drink yet, it didn’t stop him from trying!  Poor Enzo then had to suffer a cold bath in the kiddo pool but there was no way he was coming in smelling the way he did.

Because of all the marking outside, I was worried that he would do the same inside, so we let him explore in the family room/kitchen area a little on a leash (after he first ran right into the slider going onto the back patio- ouch) but then put him in his crate to decompress until dinner time.  Enzo didn’t want to go in the crate, but then as I suspected, he didn’t want to come out either later.  That’s OK. we’ll get there.  Eventually I did coax him out to eat,  and he did a decent job eating but that may be because his dinner was more scrambled eggs and poached chicken than it was kibble.  Again that’s OK, we’ll slowly add more kibble and less of the really good stuff.  he also ate his Nexgard that I chopped up.  That’s important as it was 65° out yesterday and I saw and murdered three ticks that were crawling on him.  Ugh, ticks in January 🙁

After dinner we all sat in the family room and watched Mrs Maisel- apparently Enzo likes his comedies as he seemed quite interested.  He also hopped up on the couch briefly which amazed me.  He is interested in the cat, but not in an aggressive way.

The best news is that once we got him in the crate to go to sleep, he didn’t make a peep once during the night.  I had a camera on him and while it took awhile for him to lie down, once he did, every time I checked the camera, he was still snoozing peacefully.  So this is probably the most sleep I have ever gotten the first night with a new foster dog.  There is no way he is going to master the stairs anytime soon, so I’m thrilled that he was OK by himself.  It took some coaxing to get him out in the morning, but eventually he came out and joined the others to do their business.  My husband is now walking him- hence allowing me the time to write this.

So all and all we’re off to a great start.  Some family is going to be very lucky to adopt sweet Enzo. It will be very rewarding watching this boy blossom.

January 11, 2020

Enzo is very happy to be leaving the farm and his life as a breeder dog behind.  He’s very sweet but shy and uncertain now, but I keep telling him his life has gotten a whole lot better, and that he is about to land in warm loving foster home with some fur friends to play with.  Poor Enzo spent his first few years in an  indoor/outdoor pen by himself except when his “services” were needed, but soon that will be a instant memory.  Enzo was a very good boy for transport, spending most the time looking out the window, and he was very patient as we waited in the long line to get his vaccines at a local clinic.  He’ll get a full check up next week (and eventually neutered as well).  Stay tuned for updates.