Misty #9 Yellow Labrador Retriever Female 2 Years Old ID #2763

February 9, 2020

Misty was spayed on January 30. The vet tech reported that although she was timid and scared at first, she did calm down after a while and warmed up a little to some of the staff by the time she left. She also is being a very good girl in regards to her stitches. She has not attempted to get to them even once. The hardest part is not allowing her to lay spread out on her back which she loves to do for belly rubs. Misty knows sit, but so far will only do it for a treat. She’s mastered sitting while waiting to be fed and has figured out the magic break word “ok”. I have also started doing this when giving treats because if you aren’t paying attention, she will snatch them out of your hand.

When we’re outside, Misty does pull a little on the leash, but it’s really only initially. After she does her business, she relaxes more. She’ll walk ahead of me but will come back closer to me whenever I call her. When she sees people outside she seems interested at first and really wants to go over to them, but when get closer, Misty suddenly stops and gets nervous. Per the advice of a dog trainer, I had a friend come over and completely ignore Misty. I kept giving my friend treats for Misty to take out of her hand while paying no attention to her at all. After a while, we sat on the floor and Misty would go over more quickly to get the treats and eventually let my friend pet her, not only on her head, but also on her back. This was a huge improvement and the first time she’s been ok with a stranger petting her over her head. Hopefully she’s realizing this is the type of attention she gets when she lets a stranger approach!

Misty is such a sweetheart and so loving. Once she trusts you, she loves to cuddle and wants to be pet and get belly rubs. She loves playing tug-o-war now and is finding the joy in the squeaky toy, and she seems to have an affinity for the Lamb Chop over any other toy. She has finally started to destroy it and now I must keep a watchful eye to ensure she doesn’t swallow any pieces. She has successfully removed her first squeaker! Misty is also starting to taste test random objects and unfortunately has eaten a couple things. In her furever home, they will have to be vigilant at putting things away and keeping things out of reach from the counter when leaving the house.

Misty sleeps in a dog bed next to my bed and seems perfectly content with that. I did let her sleep in my bed the night before her spaying. She is perfectly fine throughout the night however when she first gets in she’s seeing it as play time instead of bed time. She also wants to be laying on top of me which is not what I prefer. For that reason, I keep her on the dog bed, but if someone wants a bed time cuddlebug, she’ll be the right there.

January 18, 2020

Miss Misty has been getting a little more mischievous when being left home alone. She is still not destructive by any means, but she is starting to move my shoes around the house and the floor mats in front of the doors. I watched a replay on the camera of her pulling my purse off a counter and when she did that a bunch of other stuff came down with it. This definitely startled her, and she walked away from everything and didn’t go back into the kitchen for the rest of the day. However, the coffee table is at her head level and she never takes anything off of it. I see this as a good thing – that she’s getting comfortable enough to wander around. She seems to do this as soon as I leave the house so I try to watch her on the camera so I can catch her in the act. After the last few days, it seems as though she’ll only jump up if she can readily see something hanging near the edge. In addition, I bought Misty a lickmat since she appears to LOVE licking. When I leave for work, I put peanut butter in it so after I leave she goes over to that instead of sniffing around the counters.

When I’m not home, for the most part Misty sleeps on the couch curled up into a tiny ball. She’ll get up every now and then to go to the lickmat or drink some water but she doesn’t do much else. When I’m home, we play with a squeaky toy or chase a tennis ball. Or we’ll have some cuddle time where she may fall asleep in my lap. She is not interested in the nylabone, the soft or hard ones. She loves the bully stick or anything else like that. At night time she curls into a tiny ball again and sleeps throughout the night next to my bed. She even lets me hit the snooze button multiple times in the morning. This past weekend we watched the Secret Life of Pets 2. For most of the movie Misty didn’t really pay attention, but when they got to the farm and all these other animals started popping up on the screen, she got really interested. I’ve including a couple pictures including the one where she looks behind my TV to see if there’s anyone back there. I think in the future Misty may enjoy watching TV once she realizes these animals are not in the house.

Misty still has some trust issues with strangers or even my family members that she’s met multiple times. We can make progress in a day, but by the next day it’s like starting all over again.  She has also had a few positive interactions. She approached my neighbor on her own for a little hand lick. This is the first time Misty has approached a stranger without me coaxing or giving treats. Yesterday I ran into other neighbors who have a 2 year old male lab named Cooper. I was shocked to see she approached them without hesitation. I think she really wanted to see Cooper and play and ignored the fact that there were also two strangers standing there, so that was really nice to see. She definitely wanted to play and did a little bit of play bowing. I think Misty would love to be in a home with another dog and I think it would probably help the transition with her anxiety in mind.

Misty is almost housebroken minus the fact that she won’t signal to go out so that could be an issue if I don’t stay on top of her. We are also still working on sitting while being fed. She definitely knows ‘Sit’ but has a hard time sitting still while I am putting her food down. She hasn’t quite figured out the break word “ok” but I’m confident she’ll get it eventually. Misty is also still a little bit of a jumper. Her jumps are light and airy but they still leave little muddy paw prints when we’re outside, so we’re also working on that.

I also tried to get my dogs old reindeer costume in her. She was super squirmy so I couldn’t get a good picture with the ears up. But other than she really didn’t seem to mind having it on.

Misty has her spaying scheduled for the end of the month!

January 6, 2020

I am happy to report Misty has made a lot of progress in a couple weeks.  I’ve learned that, in contrast to when she’s crated, Misty will not bark if she has free roam of the house. She hasn’t had an accident inside since being left in the small room. For the most part she just sleeps on the couch or at the bottom of my steps. But she still doesn’t chew on her bone or play with her toys if I am not there. I don’t want to say she Is 100% housebroken, because I still don’t trust her when she starts to roam by herself,  and because I’ve been home more often because of the holidays than I usually am. But she’s definitely well on her way!

Misty did really well with everything going on during the Holidays. I only had a small tree which she definitely sniffed but didn’t attempt to eat or destroy. Good girl Misty!   And the neighborhood fireworks didn’t seem to bug her at all. This was surprising considering she still jumps whenever we hear a car door slam when we’re outside. She definitely perked up and looked around but after not seeing anything, she just laid back down.  These weren’t full blown fireworks like you might hear at July 4th; still it’s very encouraging.

She started playing tug of war (see video) but is still only sort of interested in the squeaky toys, and that’s usually only if they’re in my hands.

She walks well on the leash. There is not a lot of pulling, so I tend to give her a lot of slack to walk ahead of me and explore. But even when she’s ahead of me, if she calls her to come here she will come back to my side which is something we do whenever they approach a corner/road crossing.

Misty went to my mom’s house;  mom has a fenced in yard and another dog, Lucy. Lucy is a little dog selective, and while there was a little bit of growling on both sides at first,  Misty let Lucy sniff her whenever she wanted. Lucy did not want Misty to reciprocate but Misty was OK with that. This encounter was encouraging and made me think Misty will be fine with other dogs. She’s certainly interested every time she sees one but the closer we get to the stranger with the dog, her excitement turns into nervousness and she gets a little growly. With time, I am confident that this reaction will dissipate, if not altogether disappear.

I had a friend and her 8 year old daughter meet her and high value string cheese was used for the intro. Misty is getting better because she didn’t growl at them at all and didn’t shake, but was still timid and a bit scared. They got a few hand licks and head pets but that’s as far as it went.  So while this is a work in progress, she is doing much better.

Misty has learned her first trick, Sit! After she kept trying to put her face in the food container, I knew it was time to make her sit back and stay during feeding. I think she’ll be a pro in a few days.

Misty still needs to be spayed but should be made available soon thereafter.  Stay tuned!

December 16, 2019

December 7, 2019

Misty is settling into her foster home, and they are working on crate training and learning that the crate is a safe haven.

Her foster reports that she is pretty smart. She is a jumper but already seems to know the word “Off”(her slow motion jump without putting her paws on you is impressive). She took to the toy bin pretty quickly. She first pulled out the flying squirrel She seems to think anything within her reach is hers but as soon as I say “no” she drops it and doesn’t go after the same thing again. She took to the stairs like a champ, has finally figured out the front door, and is even getting used to the routine of taking leash off (getting it on is still a challenge). She is still a little jumpy at certain figures on the TV. She seems to be a natural retriever and loves the tennis ball (see video).

Misty is understandably very timid about meeting new people. She growls at some people but I had a friend come in and sit on the floor. She eventually came over but very nervous. He gave her some chicken and she would come over for that but would not stay. I think it will take some time for her to feel comfortable around new people.

The easiest part is at night. She sleeps on a makeshift dog bed next to my bed. She stays on it all night and doesn’t get up until I do.

December 4, 2019

Meet this pretty gal who was recently pulled from a farm and who is happily putting her breeding days behind her. She was therefore a little stinky and in need a bath after her vet visit. She were the best patient though and allowed easy handling. She even gave kisses!

Stay tuned for updates as she settles in with her foster.