Lolly Black Labrador Retriever Female 3 Years Old ID #3161

January 16, 2023

Lolly was spayed on January 4 and has had a smooth recovery.  She was not happy at all in the cone and couldn’t figure out how to move around with the giant thing on her head, but she is a terrific patient and leaves her stitches alone, so she didn’t have to wear the cone much at all.  Giving her the medicine was easy when it was covered in peanut butter.  She gets her stitches out next week.  Her weight was around 76 pounds at the surgery, which means she has lost about 5 pounds since she arrived.

She continues to find new food that she enjoys – bananas, oranges, blueberries, cheese, turkey, etc. She takes the food so gently.

She now provides the “pre-rinse” cycle for dishes before they get put into the dishwasher, and we are working with her on “wait” while we put the plate down for her.  We are also working on “walk” (to walk on the leash and not pull), “look” (to look at her human) and “rug” to go to a blanket on the floor (so that she isn’t quite so underfoot when cooking – she has the habit of sitting herself in front of the stove or refrigerator otherwise).  She had previously discovered plush squeaky toys, which she loves to squeak and pounce on and manipulate with her paws, but hasn’t destroyed.  She recently discovered chewing on Nyla bones.

She has mastered the elbow/wrist bump to divert our attention away from typing on the computer if she needs something, but other times she is content to curl up on her bed next to us while we work.  She has not bothered socks, shoes, furniture, etc.  She hasn’t counter surfed in several weeks, but we try not to leave her in the kitchen unattended.  She has been my shadow, but recently I was not available to walk or feed her for a day, and foster dad stepped in.  And now she is hanging out with him more, so I think she is able to shift alliances as needed!

Her permanent family will need to continue to provide training to help her adjust to life outside the farm, but they will be rewarded with lots of snuggles and brown eyes of adoration.

December 30, 2022

Hi everyone –

Wanted to share some recent photos and updates for Lolly. She continues to be fantastic with crate training.  She was so resistant to it in the beginning, so I am thrilled that she now views her crate as a safe, comfy space.  She goes in easily when we say “go to your room” and will sometimes go in on her own.  She is not sure about having new people come into the house (she barks at them when they move, and her bark is deep so it can startle you!), so we put her into the crate for a few hours while family was visiting, and she settled in and didn’t bark while in the crate.

She has also adjusted to our vacation schedule this week, and let us sleep in until 8:00 AM ish each day.  She still goes to bed around 9:30 PM. She has two blankets on the bottom on her crate, and has started to move one blanket towards the front of the crate each night, we think to make it more like a nest/cave in there.

Lolly would love to be a lap dog or couch potato, so we all end up sitting on the floor so she can snuggle in our lap.

She has finished the medicine to treat her Lyme disease, and now wonders why she doesn’t get a spoonful of peanut butter dessert after each meal (sometimes she still does).

She is scheduled to be spayed in early January, and will be ready to go to her new home after she recovers from that.

December 10, 2022

Good morning!  Lolly is still available for adoption.  As I write this she is curled up at my feet.  I am sure if I move in the slightest, she will be up ready for the next adventure.

Last night she went into her crate and put herself to bed!  She now goes into her crate when we ask her to “go to her room.”  (And fits in there even when I forget to take her food bowl out from breakfast).  She has not had any accidents in several weeks.  We continue to work with her on her greeting when we come into the room, reminding her that she needs to sit rather than jump up.  After a few minutes she settles down.   She has not taken anything off the counters in a few weeks.

She visited the vet in late November, and was diagnosed with Lyme disease.  She is now on antibiotics for 30 days, taking 2 small pills in the morning and in the evening.  She takes them with peanut butter and a piece of kibble, and is quite happy to do so.  The vet also treated her for ear infections and she is feeling better from that.

As she settles in to living inside, she is experiencing new things like reflections in the windows at night and hearing people walk around in other parts of the house.  She does bark at them and we remind her to “settle”.  She is still very alert and barks when she sees cats.  We have been letting her come with us to other parts of the house, and she continues to leave most non-dog things alone.  She did discover the stuffed animals in the kids’ rooms, and very gently picked one up and walked slowly out of the room.  She gave it back when asked.  And then she went and found another one, and tried to slowly walk off with it as well.  She also gave it back when asked. To her defense, they don’t look very different from the Kong plush dog toys, and she hasn’t picked any of them up since then.

November 19, 2022

Lolly is making so much progress on crate training.  She will now go in when we say “go to your room” and will settle in there for an hour or two.  We’ve been practicing her doing that when we are home and when we need to leave the house.  She has grabbed a few food items off the counter if we leave the kitchen and she is alone, even for a few minutes, so knowing she is comfortable in the crate if we need to do something else is important.

She has also mastered our wooden stairs from the first floor to second floor, going up and down in a controlled manner.

Last week she did have some accidents with peeing inside, so I’ve been taking her out for a short walk midday (10 min) as well, and there haven’t been any accidents in the past few days.  I take her for a short walk in the morning as well, and a later afternoon walk.  She is more likely to pee and poop on the walk than when I take her into our backyard.

She is such a love bug.  She loves snuggling with our kids on the floor.  She seems to like meeting new people, and loves getting lots and lots of pets and butt scratches.  She does jump sometimes, but asking her to “sit” gets her butt on the ground and the jumping stops.

She has a vet visit next week to get some missing vaccinations.  She’ll be available for adoption soon with a spay contract.

November 11, 2022

Lolly has been with us about 10 days now.

Since the last update, she has discovered playing with squeaky toys – we toss them about 5 feet away, and she will bring them back to you to toss again.  Sometimes she will toss them herself, and then pounce on them.

We cut her toenails and cleaned her ears, and she tolerated both just fine.  She met more people this weekend – both at the house and on a walk, and sat very nicely to be petted.

She did reach up onto the counter for a package of deli ham and hamburger buns when left alone in the kitchen for a few minutes.  My fault for leaving them out, and I’ve learned that lesson!  We continue to work with her on crate training – she settles in the crate overnight and does great, but does not want to go in.  We also continue to work on leash walking – she can walk very nicely beside you, but if she sees something she is interested in (squirrel, bird, remote control car) she will pull toward it quite strongly.

November 1, 2022

Lolly did great last night with trick or treaters coming to the house.  No issues with seeing our kids in costumes or when people came to the house.  She sat next to foster dad and watched through the window as they came up to the porch with no barking at all.

On Sunday we spent a bunch of time outside.  She sniffed in the garden beds and scared out a vole, but she didn’t see it run away.

She doesn’t love being in the crate when we leave the house, so we will keep working with her on that (shorter amounts of time, trying it while we are here, etc.).  She is doing great in the crate at night.  She is an extremely polite house guest, and has not bothered shoes, backpacks, books, blankets, etc. left on the floor or in chairs. She is very sweet with my kids, and soaks up all the loves and butt scratches.

Lolly is in heat as well, which will delay her spaying.  Diapers arrive today for her.  She will paw at the door if she wants to go out, and I’m trying to take her out every couple of hours as well.  We walked to the bus stop this morning, and she will need help/training on her leash manners and so she doesn’t pull.  She saw several cats on the walk and was very focused on them, so I think she should live in a home without cats.

October 30, 2022

Lolly is settling in and feeling more comfortable. She slept in her crate last night and didn’t make a peep all night.

She likes to watch out the windows.  She is very attentive to cats, squirrels, and birds, and barked. She also got excited when she saw the neighbors’ cats.  We went for a short walk, and she does pull.  However, when I don’t move (and therefore the pulling has no effect) she stops.

She does not know what to make of the noises from the tv!

October 28, 2022

Lolly (short for Lollipop) is a beautiful, barrel-chested, 3-year-old, female black lab that was raised with Carmie, and arrived in our care yesterday.

She did great with meeting my husband and our kids (boys, ages 10 and 14). She loves cheese, but not carrots or broccoli.  She knows her name, as well as how to “sit” and “come”. She loves butt scratches.  She ate her dinner once we added a little chicken broth to the kibble, but was less interested in breakfast until I fed it to her by hand.  She stays close and has started to settle – one of the pictures is when I was trying to make dinner last night, she decided the best spot was at the back of my feet. She settled in her crate at bedtime if I stayed near her, so I slept on the couch.  This morning she barked when people came to mow the lawn, but then stopped barking and just watch them speed around.

More to come as we get to know her personality!