Stella # 7 Fox Red Labrador Retriever Female 2 Years Old ID #3199

April 26, 2023

April 22, 2023

Just checking in with Stella’s current happenings.  She’s still in heat, so we’re waiting for that to end, which should be soon.  We’ll all be happy to put the fancy pants away!  She has an appointment with the vet this upcoming week for her vaccine booster.  I’ll be interested to see if she’s lost any weight.  We thought we were seeing a bit of waist there, but now we’re not so sure.  She also wasn’t eating well at first, but we switched her food and now she dances when I pour the kibble and gobbles her whole bowl.  There’s that labby appetite!

Stella got her first kong today.  She LOVED it!  It had a little bit of king squeeze cheese and some treats in it.  Sometimes with a farm dog I have to show them how the kong works and encourage them to lick it.  Not Stella!  She figured it out right away and got to licking the goodness out of the kong.  I made sure to give her one of the extra tough black kongs we have here. She loves to chew the bones and antlers here and her jaws are so powerful.  I’ve seen her break off pieces that I have not seen other labs do.  Impressive!  She did very well with the kong today.

Stella has not done stairs at all yet here.  That will likely be something an adoptive family will have to work on with her if they want her to go up or down stairs.  She just prefers living her life on the first floor here.  I tried encouraging her up the stairs with me, as she really likes to follow me everywhere.  She got like two steps up and turned around and leaped off.  It was funny as she looks like superman doing her leap with her front paws out in front of her.  That’s how she handles our 3 steps off the deck here, she leaps rather than taking them one at a time.  She’s a funny girl!

Enjoy the video of Stella fetching and then rolling over for belly rubs.  That just about sums up this pretty girl!

April 16, 2023

Stella continues to do well here in foster care.  She’s still not loving the diapers, I mean fancy pants, but she now waits patiently at the back door to get it on.  She really does want to please!  Stella does very well in her crate and has accepted the crate as her safe space, which is so nice to see.  She will periodically go into the crate on her own when the door is open just to nap. She goes right into her crate when she can’t be supervised with the command, “CRATE!” and a point of the finger towards the crate.  She is thrilled to get a small treat and the door is closed and she settles nicely.

Yesterday while I was using the scary vacuum, she trotted right into her crate keeping an eye on the noise monster from a safe distance.  She did seem a little concerned that I was so close, as I am by far her favorite person in the house. However she decided that I would have to deal with the vacuum on my own, fair enough!  Normally I have my “red shadow” aka Stella trotting after me wherever I move.  Not when I had the vacuum turned on.  😆

Stella and her two foster dog siblings went chasing after a squirrel in the backyard today.  She is definitely showing some prey drive, nothing crazy and so far only in the yard, but it’s something to consider.

She is really loving her leash walks as she’s gained confidence and some stamina.  Today she had a first on leash, she peed and pooped while out for our walk.  Normally she waits to do this until we get back home and she’s off leash in the yard.  I call that progress!

Stella had a potty accident in the house this week.  Foster mom and dad had some work to do outside that was best done without furry help.  We tried leaving Stella out of the crate while we were outside for about an hour.  She had an accident in the house, so we know she’s still learning about housetraining.  We’re very good about taking dogs out regularly and limiting the opportunity to go in the house.  She will get there, they all do.

Stella is still in heat, as expected and our poor male dog is surrounded by her enticing hormones.  He is neutered, but Stella and he are having quite the love fest this week with kisses and loving looks.  They both went into the crate together (which to be fair is large enough for two labs) and I told them absolutely not.  It’s like having two hormonal teenagers in the house!😂

Once Stella’s heat is finished, she will be looking for her furever family.  She’s a great dog and has the sweetest temperament.  She loves her people and does so well with our resident dogs.  I am certain she will make some lucky family very happy!

April 11, 2023

Stella continues to do well in her foster home.  She was originally just staying here for a week until her foster mom got back from vacation.  Her planned foster mom has some changes in her schedule so it was decided that Stella would just stay in foster care here.  She’s doing so well and it was just as easy for her to stay here until she’s ready for her furever family.

Stella had a surprise for her foster family this week.  She went into heat!  She is now sporting what we call her “fancy pants”. She’s not loving them, but she’s handling it well.  She did manage to get her diaper, I mean fancy pants, off while foster mom was in the shower.  Foster dad is not as observant as foster mom, so Stella took full advantage of that!  We’ve got about 2 weeks of her wearing the fancy pants until her heat cycle is over.  I told her this will be her last heat cycle, she was happy to hear that!

She’s getting more confident on our walks around the neighborhood.  I used to have to encourage her periodically.  Now she still prefers to be in the back behind the resident dogs, but she trots along at a good pace.  Of course she still stops to smell all the good smells along the way too.  Stella showed some interest in a bunny that was just on the other side of our fenced backyard (smart bunny!).  We’re not sure if it was a little prey drive or just curiosity.  That is still tbd.

Oh and this girl can snore with the best of them.  Sound on for this video!

April 9, 2023

Stella continues to impress us with her resilience.  We went to visit some family this weekend with a resident toddler in the household.  I wasn’t sure if the boisterous nearly 2 year old child would spook our sometimes shy farm girl.  Stella proved that she would have made a wonderful momma.  She happily trotted around after the toddler wagging her tail, taking pets and sharing toys.  Well done Stella!

The farm girl is not completely out of Stella though as when we were in our backyard the other day, our male neighbor came over to the fence to meet the new foster.  Stella hid behind foster mom and eventually got close to the fence, but not too close.  Slowly, but surely!

Stella is doing so well in the car now.  That first car ride she was so scared.  She’s still apprehensive to get in, but once in she’s great in the car.  She likes to take walks with the resident dogs too.  She’s not quite so fast and does enjoy all the new smells.  She definitely has the labby nose!  She sometimes needs encouragement to continue moving forward, especially if someone is cutting the grass with a scary lawn tractor.  However, a light word of encouragement and crossing the street to put some distance between us and the lawn tractor and we were moving forward again.  Good girl Stella.

Stella is still not eating as well as we would like, but with some wet food mixed in she’s eating some.  Oh, she does like wet food!  I was using it to give her the dewormer the vet prescribed for her.  No problems eating that, but the dry kibble, she’s meh about it.  We’ll get there.  She’s very interested in people food too.  Her nose wants to get really close to get a good sniff.  We’re working on teaching her boundaries.  She did attempt to put her paws up on the counter to check out said people food.  One horrified gasp from foster mom and she scooted right out of the room.  We haven’t had another attempt since.  She will learn, she really, really wants to please.  She has a wonderful temperament!

April 5, 2023

Check out Stella’s before and after photos. On the left is Stella coming off the farm for her rescue ride. She was scared and nervous having never been in a car or off the Amish farm in her life. She was born there and spent her entire two years of life there.

On the right is picture of Stella on day 3 in foster care. She climbed up onto the couch with me for the first time for some love. Big step for a farm girl. She is so much happier now and adjusting so well. Fostering absolutely makes a difference. You can see it all over Stella face!🥰

April 4, 2023

Stella is currently napping after her big vet visit today.  She was a very good girl at the vet’s office.  She needed a little coaxing to go into the front door, but once in she walked into the exam room with foster mom.  She was a little nervous and tried to sneak behind foster mom when the vet and tech came into the room, but she was very compliant for all handling.  She got some vaccines, microchipped, a thorough exam and she checked out healthy.  She does need to lose some weight, not surprising.  She weighed in at 83.5lbs, but she’s very short so she can certainly stand to trim up a bit.  I’m sure there’s a waist there somewhere!

She does have a recessed vulva per the vet, which is so typical of labs these days.  It has not caused her any problems so it should be a non issue for her.  Losing weight will also help with that.  Stella says, alright, enough about the weight!😆

Last night I lured her into the crate with a treat and she slept quietly all night.  Foster dad slept downstairs with her just in case, but she didn’t wake up until the resident dogs did this morning.  She ate her breakfast, which was an improvement from last night.  She would take mouthfuls of kibble and carry them across the room and drop them next to her pile of toys she collected.  She’s quite the collector!  All this while the resident dogs sat staring and drooling on the other side of the gate.  They questioned her labbiness at that point.  I reassured them she was a lab, just a little stressed and she would eat when she was ready.

Stella has done all her potty business outside so far.  Yay for Stella!  This morning I crated her while I had to go out for a bit.  She went in willingly, but scratched the door when I walked out of the room.  I was watching her on the camera from the other room.  I told her to stop and she did, then she settled down and was  laying quietly while I was gone.  Good girl Stella!

We also went for a short walk this afternoon with the two resident labs.  She likes to follow their lead.  We checked out the local stream and at first Stella wasn’t so sure, but she did venture in a little and then back out quickly! Check out the video of her adventure.

April 3, 2023

Stella made it off the farm and into foster care today with a stop at the dog wash for a scrub. She is 2 years old and a gorgeous chonk of fox red lab.  She needs to shed some pounds for sure. She was not getting pregnant so was no longer needed for breeding.

She was a little nervous with all the change today, but is already starting to open up in her temporary foster home.  She’s staying here for the week until her foster mom gets home from vacation.

Stella met resident labs Pepper and Colin and was a little intimidated, but is already giving them kisses.  I think in another day she’ll be ready to play, especially with Pepper, our playful lab. Stella has taken to slowly carrying all of her “finds” aka dog toys, bones and antlers to her spot which is right in the middle of the walkway.  It’s quite cute actually! Here she is braving the threshold to carry another toy back to her spot.

She surprised me today when I threw the ball in the yard and she happily ran right after it and brought it back to me. She easily gave me back the ball and we repeated the process.  It seems we have a natural retriever on our hands!

Stella will be going to the vet tomorrow to get checked out and brought UTD.  We’ll update after our vet visit. She’s such a sweet chonky girl, I’m sure she’ll be a hit at the vet’s office!