Midnight #7 Black Labrador Retriever Male 4 Years Old ID #2947

Midnight, a handsome, 4 year old black labrador retriever was living life as a farm dog.  His farmer has decided to stop his breeding business and wanted to find a new home for this guy.  Please read Midnight’s blog from the bottom up.

April 30, 2022

Hi everyone, Midnight here. I had a very big surprise today.  My Brookline friends who let me crash at their house after that surgery (you know which one I am talking about) came to visit me. I was frantically wagging my tail when I saw them. After they both got over their blubbering when they saw my handsome face again, we got down to business with lots of pats and kisses.

They brought me string cheese which they know I love love love! We walked around the big yard together and I stayed close by. I love being with my peeps. I thought I would impress them with my new found running skills. I came running full tilt towards my friend and we almost had a collision because I forgot to apply my brakes in time. They hope I find my furever home soon because I am such a good boy.

April 27, 2022

Midnight met Otis, another Brookline foster at BCK and they had a good time playing chase!  He also met some nice female dogs through the fence, and he did really well with them too!  He’s settling down, and getting used to his canine companions.

April 25, 2022

Now that Midnight has recovered from his neuter, he was moved over to canine Kamp to work on some leash skills since he was previously a farm stud dog and hadn’t had any leash experience.  After a couple of weeks there, he is becoming calmer in his run.  Midnight is very sweet and affectionate with people, and he does excellent when his is out of the run.  He loves exploring the yard with people, and getting loved on.Midnight does get very excited when he sees other dogs, and tends to bark but wags his tail the whole time.  Midnight was not a huge fan of the gentle leader, so his trainer is trying out other options to get him out on walks to work on his dog to dog socialization.  This handsome boy has some more work to do, but he is off to a good start and will learn a lot of new things at Kamp.

April 11, 2022

Midnight has been with us for 11 days now and he is doing well.

He has not had any accidents in the house. Good boy Midnight! Although he does not signal to go out, we take him out every 2-4 hours since living in a house is still new to Midnight. He goes through the night without needing to go out.

He decided to join us in bed the past two nights and slept soundly. He got a little confused when he tried to exit at the middle of the foot of the bed where we have a bench which he knocked over in the process. I think it startled him more than anything.

We have started again with the crate training by placing his bowl in the back. He willingly goes in to eat. Mark also sat in the crate with him for about 20 minutes this morning. He has shown the propensity to take non-dog items, mostly he has just moves them but some (underwear I dropped on my way to the laundry room) have been chewed. For this reason, Midnight should probably be crated until he is deemed reliable in the house.

He eats his kibble at a nice pace. He does not inhale it like some Labs are known to do. He takes pieces of string cheese from us very gently. We have tried several types of dog treats which he does not seem to like. We believe he looks forward to his peanut butter dog ice cream treat every evening. It is made by a local dairy which includes a small Milk bone in the center. It is interesting he will eat this Milk bone, but not others, maybe because it tastes like ice cream.

He is definitely a Velcro dog as he likes to be with one or both of us at any given time. He has not shown any real interest in toys although he does enjoy chewing on a Nylabone.  For a dog that lived on a farm being used for stud work until recently, he is acclimating to life inside of a home very nicely.

April 3, 2022

Since Midnight was napping (and snoring I might add) at the time, I decided to write his next blog update.He continues to do well living in a house. We started with crate training yesterday. We fed him his dinner last night and breakfast this morning in his crate which he willingly went into for each meal. We are leaving the door open in case he wants to venture in on his own.

We were able to do a meet and greet with Nikki, a former Brookline alumni, and Midnight today which went very well. We initially introduced them through the fence around our pool and then on leash where they did play bows. We took them on a short walk down our street.  Well done Midnight! Midnight is very much a Velcro dog. He follows Mark or me wherever we go in the house. In fact, he has perfected walking backwards because he is generally following us so closely.

Since he has mastered the stairs, we moved the air mattress upstairs. We are keeping him out of the master bedroom because we do not want him to try to jump up on the bed yet because of his recent surgery.While preparing dinner earlier, Midnight joined me in the kitchen to help supervise. He is very interested in the counters, especially if food is involved so we are working on learning boundaries. For a dog who has only lived in a house a few short days, Midnight continues to amaze us all!

April 1, 2022

I am taking over for Midnight to write this blog update since he had quite an eventful day yesterday due to his neuter surgery and was still a bit groggy from the surgery and medications. Since our resident dog prefers to be the only dog in our home, she went to stay with her grandparents. She happily jumped in our vehicle for the short car ride to their house. This move allowed us to bring Midnight into our home for several days to monitor him during his recovery and to see how he adjusts to living indoors. He is now officially retired from breeding. Thus far, he has done very well at the vet’s office and he was a good boy for the vet and staff who had no issues handling him.He is acclimating very well so far to our house. We decided to stay on the first floor last night. He seems to have no problems with doorways or steps. We had a gate at the top of the steps so he was able to go up the first half of the steps. We slept on an air mattress last night. The plan was for Midnight to sleep on our dog’s bed but as you can see by the attached picture he had other ideas. I am amazed how quickly he has caught onto sleeping in a bed. Mark said it was like sleeping in a canoe every time one of us moved. In fact, he was snoring as I typed this update. He was quite thirsty and hungry when we were able to give him water and a light dinner which he seemed to tolerate well. I am so glad Autumn recommended using a belly band which is working like a charm because he did mark in the lobby of the kennel and at the vet’s office.  To be fair, he is far from the first dog to mark there.  He has not marked or attempted to mark in our house, which is very good news. We have the belly band if we need it until he learns. This is all new to Midnight.He was quite interested when he heard the washer running so he went into the laundry room and stared at it. He also discovered the Mirror we have on the one wall which is used for online workouts. We always tell him how handsome he is but now he knows it. We assume he thought his reflection was another dog and the good news is he did not react at all. He must have been charmed by his handsome face, I know we sure are!

More to come as he continues to settle in.

March 23, 2022

Hi everyone, Midnight here for an update. I had quite an exciting morning. My Brookline friends took me to see a doctor yesterday to get some important shots. They were talking about some surgery I need to have done as soon as possible. I think I heard the word neuter but I don’t know what it means but I guess I will find out next Thursday. Wish me luck!

I had some snacks while we were waiting for the doctor. My friends know I love chicken and cheese so they brought me some of each which I take very gently from them. They tell me I am the best boy in the car.

Well, that is all for now. I need to take a rest.

March 17, 2022

Hi everyone, Midnight here. My Brookline friends came to visit me yesterday and they were able to get me to eat a little bit of chicken they cooked for me and some cheese. I think I really like this thing called cheese. My humans at the kennel were so happy that I decided to partake of my dinner last night. I may have eaten with a bit too much gusto, maybe it was the parmesan cheese (did I say cheese again?) they used.

I loved my meal so much and gobbled it down so quickly that my friends were worried I might have something called bloat. My nice Brookline friends took me to the vet to have me checked out.  Thankfully I did not have the bloat thing they were worried about. The vet said she had two of her own black labs and she said I was a very nice lab too. That was great to hear!

While I was waiting to be seen by the doctor, I kept giving my Brookline friends kisses. I think I heard them say I will make someone very happy someday but I need to work on adjusting to life off the farm first. They said I was a really good boy (I love to hear that!) when they took some x-rays. I guess they are like pictures. The good news is I was given a clean bill of health. There were other dogs waiting in the parking lot and in the building and I took them all in stride. No big deal. I was a well-behaved companion in the car too. I either like to sit or lay quietly in the back. On the way home, I was pretty tired from all of the activity last night so I took a much-needed nap.

That’s all for now, I’ll check back in for another update soon!

March 15, 2022

Hi. My name is Midnight and I am a four-year-old black handsome (at least this is what I keep hearing) purebred Lab who was sprung from the farm on Saturday along with my best girl, Tippy.

We had a quite a ride in the snow and sleet but I was a very good boy. I kept hearing I was steaming up the back window of the SUV with my panting. I am currently hanging out at Greenlin Pet Resorts to brush up on my social skills when meeting new dogs but I love people.  More updates to come as the humans here learn about me.