Gunner #9 Yellow Labrador Retriever Male 2.5 Years Old ID #3167

Meet Gunner.  This handsome one year old was found as a stray and was brought to a shelter.   The poor boy was very thin, and had ear and skin infections.  Gunner spent the following 3 weeks in a vet’s office being nursed back to health.   Once he was feeling better and was able to put on a few pounds and was neutered, Gunner transferred into Brookline’s care. Please read Gunner’s blog from the bottom up to learn about his journey in foster care.

March 1, 2024

I’m going to start to work on Gunner’s social skills here at Kamp for a couple of hours here and there, now that Gunner is comfortable in our house, and has hit his target weight. It’s been stable on two meals a day plus a little extra kibble for training treats.  He’s great with dogs that he knows, but needs some more practice meeting new ones.  Today I took him over to Kamp for a couple of hours and he met fellow foster Frankie, and they hung out in the yard for a while running around and doing their own thing.  Frankie was interested in playing but Gunner was more interested in his ball.  He’ll get it with more practice.

February 17, 2024

Gunner has now reached his goal weight of 75 pounds and looks great! The vet wants him to stay on the special food and allergy medicine for a bit longer before we try to reduce or go off of the medication. We are hoping that he won’t have to be on them forever, but have to give his body time to heal. Gunner has been such a delight to have in our home. He’s always happy and eager to please. He’s always hopeful that we’ll drop food when we’re cooking or eating. He tries to stay close by, just in case.

January 26, 2024

Gunner is doing so well! He has been off all medications for the past week and has not any any digestive or itchy issues so far. He is still gaining weight and is looking even more handsome (if that were possible!)He is still on the Royal Canin HP food and will continue that possibly long term. It’s a bit expensive, but it’s worth it for him to be happy and healthy and not have to take medicine.Gunner is getting much better at leaving us alone while we cook or eat. He counter-surfs much less often, but we are always very careful to keep the counters clean. I know that he works take any food off of them if left unattended!
Gunner’s favorite activities include walks with his friends, playing with sticks and balls, chewing bones, and most of all, snuggling on the couch with his family. He is such a sweet sweet dog.

January 10, 2024

Gunner is having the time of his life in foster care! He loves his foster fur brothers and his foster parents. He loves to cuddle on the couch. He’ll snuggle up with his fur brother, often laying on top of each other!We all go for daily walks, exploring new places. Gunner loves to find sticks and will carry them with him along the walk. He recently discovered that water is very fun to play in and a great resource for sticks. Gunner has been on a special food and medication for tummy trouble, and has also been having trouble itching and scratching. We’re switching to a new food that will help the allergies as well as the stomach issues. So no chicken products for Gunner. He needs to gain at least 7 more pounds to get to ideal weight.We love having him stay with us! He’s the sweetest boy and loves everyone!

December 18, 2023

Gunner moved into foster care with us.  His first few nights with us have been fantastic. He is adjusting well to our schedule, and sleeps all night, mostly on the couch in the living room. Everyone is adjusting to the new sleeping arrangements, and it doesn’t bother our two residents dogs having him there at night. Everyone has been getting along well during the day too.Gunner and Takoda especially have been bonding and even cuddling.

They have been going on daily walks together and going out to the yard without any issues. He’s a cuddle bug and learning fast what the boundaries are in our home, especially in the kitchen. He still tries to counter surf, but does it much less. He is much better about staying back when we are cooking or eating. It took a lot of repetition to remind him to back away, but I think he’s starting to understand.  He’ll have all the new rules down in no time! Stay tuned for more updates as he gets settled in.

December 11, 2023

Gunner is a friendly, happy, food motivated sweet one year old yellow lab.  Gunner has been having some trouble gaining weight and has an upset belly so Brookline is running a blood test as well as changing his food to try and get to the bottom of it.  Gunner would love to be in a loving home while he is recuperating but we currently don’t have any available foster homes and Gunner has been spending his days in a kennel. Gunner loves attention, cuddles, exploring and playing with his toys.
He has seen cats, chickens and goats, and has shown little interest in them.
Gunner is neutral around other dogs. He will run and play with other dogs but is happy to ignore them as well and entertain himself with a toy.

He knows sit, down, come, wait and is learning stay.  He loves car rides!The trainer at Kamp is working on his leash skills and recall. He can pull when he wants to check something out, but has been introduced to the gentle leader so his walking should improve shortly. 

November 28, 2023

Gunner here checking in! I’m here at Kamp.  It’s pretty fun.  I get to play with other dogs a lot, which makes me very happy.   I also love to play ball, and run around and explore.  Another favorite thing is back scratches!  Boy does that feel good.  There’s always that one spot that I can never reach!They told me that another trip to the vet might be in order because my belly hasn’t been feeling the greatest so I lost some of the weight that I’d gained and I’m back down to 62 lbs instead of my high of 67 lbs.  I’m trying my best to gain it back and eating all my one and half cups three times a day.  My friends here have been trying out some new food so hopefully next time I report in, I’ll be feeling a lot better!

November 10, 2023

Fosters Abbey and Gunner finally got to meet, and they got along great.  They have been playing together for the last two days, and he seems very happy to have a friend.  Gunner wasn’t initially running and wrestling with Abbey, but Abbey quickly talked him into playing games of both chase and wrestling. Gunner is doing very well at Kamp.  His is the sweetest, most affectionate guy, even when you don’t have treats!  He is very food motivated so is always happy to offer any kind of tricks that you want him to perform for any kind of treats that you have.He is still pulling on leash so now that he is settling in at Kamp, the trainer will try out his walking skills with the head halter/gentle leader. Gunner is vocal when he is in his kennel but once he comes out of his run, he doesn’t bark at all.Everything is new to Gunner, and he’s learning the ropes of being a good Canine Citizen.  But with his loving personality, and his healthy food motivation, he should have it all figured out in no time.

November 7, 2023

Gunner here checking in from my new digs.  My new friends here at Kamp call me “Mr. Curious.”  I guess I might have been too curious for my furry foster friends because they kept telling foster Dad that they wanted him all to themselves.  We all talked over what would make me happiest since I haven’t had the best start in life.  Everyone felt that at Kamp, I’d get to meet new foster friends like Abbey who might be more down with my energetic personality.Well, I’ve been here since Sunday, and I can tell you that it’s pretty fun here.  The people are so nice, and they let me cuddle with them. Did I tell you that I love cuddles? They keep saying “What a Sweetie”!  I think that means that they like me. I’ve gone exploring in the yard and whew what a lot of sniffs there are.  They were right that I’m going to meet some new friends, I can smell them all over the place. I got to say Hi to fellow foster dog, Abbey. She was super excited to meet me and couldn’t wait until I could come out and play with her.  They said I really shouldn’t start running around with any friends since I just got “fixed” on Thursday so she’s going to have to wait for a little.I also got to go out on the leash.  They said I’m real strong.  My new friend has lots of treats though so I didn’t mind being called back to see her to get some snacks.  I’m still so hungry from not finding much food to eat before so I’ll do anything new for some yummy treats. We practiced going back and getting treats instead of trying to be first in line for a while during our walk.  I think that made her pretty happy because she kept on calling me a good boy!

Well that’s all the news for today but keep checking back in to see my latest adventures!

November 5, 2023

Gunner entered the rescue today. He was a bit nervous in the car,and when first meeting foster Dad’s two dogs, but he eventually settled. He slept in an X Pen so that he would have more room to stretch out. Foster Dad unfortunately had less room to stretch out because he slept on the couch.

In the morning Gunner had a good long walk, and it was determined that he could use a little help with leash walking.  We will work on that. After returning to the house Gunner thought it would be a good idea to check out the toy box inventory, so he systematically took each and every toy out for inspection. He settled on one that was suitable for a good game of fetch and engaged foster Dad in what seemed like an endless game of throwing the toy down the long hallway. Gunner, like all good retrievers, returned the toy again and again and again.