Maggie, Black Labrador Retriever Female, 2 years old

August 25, 2018

FOSTER OR FOSTER ADOPT NEEDED

Meet Maggie, a beautiful 2 year old black lab, who needs your help.  Maggie is currently in a board and train program in a beautiful spot in PA, and she is looking for her foster or better yet, a foster to adopt “furever” home.  Maggie needs an experienced and patient large dog owner to help her be the best dog she can be.  She will make an excellent companion and alert dog, but needs someone that can also redirect her and stop the over the top alerting.  Consequently she’d probably do better in a quieter setting with less coming and going of people she doesn’t know.  Maggie is currently doing well with other dogs as long as they are OK with her rough play style.  But Maggie’s strength is that she is a great house dog and loves nothing more than to hang out with her person. Maggie is good in a crate, and is treat and clicker trained.  When you have neither, she isn’t good (Maggie is a smart dog).

For such a young dog, Maggie has had a tough life and one with a lot of change.  While change may be good for people, it takes its toll on dogs who thrive on schedules and consistency.  Maggie originally came to Brookline as an owner surrender.  This owner was already her third owner; we know nothing about the first owner but the second owner was the current one’s son who fell upon tough times so Mom took Maggie in.  Her intentions were good but it was a small house with many animals (three other dogs and a cat), kids including a disabled young grandchild, and the owner was in poor health herself, and it was too much for her.  She knew Maggie deserved better.

Maggie wasn’t that hard for Brookline to place, but neither of her matches worked out.  The first one was one where the owner worked full time and had an older dog who she wanted a companion for.  She had originally said she wanted an older dog, but she fell for Maggie’s good looks and her personality.  So then she moved to another family, but at this point they started to see some behavior changes.  Maggie became reactive to a neighbor across the fence, she was fearful and growled at the vet and then she growled at a pet sitter/relative who was going to stay with her while her new owner’s  went on a short trip.  They returned her as they felt that didn’t have the experience to handle her.

So back Maggie came into Brookline where, because we didn’t have an open foster, she went to a foster that had too many dogs and too much going on and it didn’t go well.  At the same time Brookline was forging a relationship with an organization that trains dogs to be companions for war veterans.  We thought that this might be great for Maggie- to have her very own person.  So Maggie did their 30 day program.  She did great (she lived in the trainer’s home) but ultimately, she was still too stranger-reactive to be a companion dog; companion dogs have to have very calm and consistent personalities as they have to be “on duty” 100% of the time and only a small fraction of dogs fit that bill.  Nonetheless Maggie has been doing

well there. The structure and stability of the board and train and play groups have been good for her,  and we now know so much more about her as a result and where she will do best.

Maggie really needs her hero.  No two year old dog should have had seven addresses already.  Her eighth home is the one and final one she is waiting for. Enough change she says,  Might that be yours?

Please contact Brookline at info@brooklinelbrescue.orgfor more information on Maggie or to learn about our adoption process.