Good afternoon. We wanted to give you an update on Ella, who we adopted from your organization as Dora, on 1/21/09.
She is our second adopted lab pup, though the first from your organization. You never can tell fully what to expect, but we at least had an idea so we were and have been quite prepared (of course, we notice many differences too but that's why we love the dogs and cats so much...all the different personalities and behaviors certainly keep us on our toes.)
Ella has settled in nicely to her new home. She can never get enough of trying to figure out the cats and she still tries to "play" with them. She has even picked up some of their behaviors, mainly the "swat" when she wants another dog or cat to get out of her face. She is still quite a chewer/nibbler and so we are working on training her to get out of the habit of chewing non-dog toy/chew things as best as we can and we are on the road to getting that significantly lessened. Her backyard is quite large and she takes full advantage of the space, running circles around the full perimeter of the yard or chasing sticks and balls; she is getting much better with the concept of "fetch". Ella is also getting more confident with being on her own in the yard for awhile so one of us doesn't have to always be out with her. As soon as we got her home she was able to get around our house on her own, up and down the stairs inside and outside, navigating the hallway and rooms. We think she is very nearly potty-trained and has very few and occasional accidents in the house. She enjoys meeting new people and dogs to varying extents- she'll go up to any adult or child and is only a little shyer with dogs. She is an incredible snuggler and will sleep on laps or with any part of her in, on, or next to a lap. If someone starts petting her, she will lean up against the person's legs then lay down on their feet while she gets petted. We are crate training her, which is not her favorite thing, but she can typically go for 6-7 hours before she needs to get up in the morning.
The weather seems to faze her only slightly. She is not a huge fan of walking right out into the rain, but she will go out and will even play a little before she wants to come back in. She seems to have loved the snows, eating snow, making puppy snow angels, and running around in it. Of course the sunshine seems to be her favorite and she will spend the most time in the yard on her own when she has sunshine to roll and play in.
This week she starts her first training class (a group session at Positive Dog Training School) and we are looking forward to the socialization. We took training classes with our last dog so we have been working on training pretty much since we got her. She is excellent with "sit", "down", "shake", and "high five." She is working fairly well on "come", "off", and "stay" and we are constantly working on "leave it". She has started barking a little more though usually only after any of the neighbor dogs start up so we are working on that too. Oh, and "fetch" of course, which we are now finding she is pretty good at until she gets bored or distracted by something else.
She just finished her last set of puppy shots, exams, and tests and has basically been given a clean bill of health. We look forward to taking her to dog parks now and out hiking and to beaches and such. She is now about 24 pounds and full of energy and joy.
We are so in love with Ella and love her (even in the less good behavior times) and would not trade her for anything. Our last lab dog was also a rescue dog and though he had epilepsy, which was unknown at time of adoption due to no family history/info, we were still looking forward to getting another rescue dog and could not imagine going to a breeder for a dog.
Mary Irving and Brian Geijsbeek
She is our second adopted lab pup, though the first from your organization. You never can tell fully what to expect, but we at least had an idea so we were and have been quite prepared (of course, we notice many differences too but that's why we love the dogs and cats so much...all the different personalities and behaviors certainly keep us on our toes.)
Ella has settled in nicely to her new home. She can never get enough of trying to figure out the cats and she still tries to "play" with them. She has even picked up some of their behaviors, mainly the "swat" when she wants another dog or cat to get out of her face. She is still quite a chewer/nibbler and so we are working on training her to get out of the habit of chewing non-dog toy/chew things as best as we can and we are on the road to getting that significantly lessened. Her backyard is quite large and she takes full advantage of the space, running circles around the full perimeter of the yard or chasing sticks and balls; she is getting much better with the concept of "fetch". Ella is also getting more confident with being on her own in the yard for awhile so one of us doesn't have to always be out with her. As soon as we got her home she was able to get around our house on her own, up and down the stairs inside and outside, navigating the hallway and rooms. We think she is very nearly potty-trained and has very few and occasional accidents in the house. She enjoys meeting new people and dogs to varying extents- she'll go up to any adult or child and is only a little shyer with dogs. She is an incredible snuggler and will sleep on laps or with any part of her in, on, or next to a lap. If someone starts petting her, she will lean up against the person's legs then lay down on their feet while she gets petted. We are crate training her, which is not her favorite thing, but she can typically go for 6-7 hours before she needs to get up in the morning.
The weather seems to faze her only slightly. She is not a huge fan of walking right out into the rain, but she will go out and will even play a little before she wants to come back in. She seems to have loved the snows, eating snow, making puppy snow angels, and running around in it. Of course the sunshine seems to be her favorite and she will spend the most time in the yard on her own when she has sunshine to roll and play in.
This week she starts her first training class (a group session at Positive Dog Training School) and we are looking forward to the socialization. We took training classes with our last dog so we have been working on training pretty much since we got her. She is excellent with "sit", "down", "shake", and "high five." She is working fairly well on "come", "off", and "stay" and we are constantly working on "leave it". She has started barking a little more though usually only after any of the neighbor dogs start up so we are working on that too. Oh, and "fetch" of course, which we are now finding she is pretty good at until she gets bored or distracted by something else.
She just finished her last set of puppy shots, exams, and tests and has basically been given a clean bill of health. We look forward to taking her to dog parks now and out hiking and to beaches and such. She is now about 24 pounds and full of energy and joy.
We are so in love with Ella and love her (even in the less good behavior times) and would not trade her for anything. Our last lab dog was also a rescue dog and though he had epilepsy, which was unknown at time of adoption due to no family history/info, we were still looking forward to getting another rescue dog and could not imagine going to a breeder for a dog.
Mary Irving and Brian Geijsbeek
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