‘dogs’ Category

Connor

I think LRR was meant to have Webster. About a year ago, LRR saw Webster in a shelter and wanted to rescue him, but another person adopted him from the shelter before LRR could, so off he went to his new home. Unfortunately the new owner wanted Webster as a junkyard guard dog because he was black and big (over 100lbs), and I guess the owner thought Webster looked pretty mean. However Webster is a lab after all, so he didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Webster was put outside in the junkyard to guard, but the junkyard got broken into a few times and he probably didn’t do anything more than bark and wag his tail. The owner figured if he didn’t give Webster any food or water for a few days at a time, that would make him meaner, but that didn’t work, so after about a year the owner brought Webster back to a different shelter to try to find a meaner dog. Fortunately there was an LRR volunteer at that shelter at the same time and recognized Webster so LRR ended up taking him!The first time all of us saw Webster was at the LRR Christmas party in December only a day after he had been picked up from the shelter. Poor thing was so frightened by all the people he stood around shaking the entire time. However he really loved all the petting and attention we all gave him. LRR found out he was heartworm positive and treated him. He’s doing just fine now and probably needs just one more treatment in June to finish it all off.

We got Webster in February. He is a gigantic lap dog! He weighs about 105 lbs and all he wants to do is crawl as close to you as possible for lots of petting and loving. He is huge though, because when he jumps on me his paws rest on my shoulders and he’s as tall as me. That makes him quite an effective counter-surfer! We’re used to dogs going up on the countertops to check out food, so we’ve always just moved all our stuff as far to the back as possible, but that doesn’t work for Webster. We went out for a quick trip to the grocery store and when we came home, everything that was on the counter was on the floor! Including what used to be chocolate donuts (I’m sure Sheba and Quinn cheered him on and helped finish up the donuts) and even inedible items. We’ve started to put all our counter items into cabinets and shelves so Webster can’t get to them anymore.

He is quite gentle though and plays pretty well with Sheba and Quinn, more with Quinn than Sheba. We think Webster must be going through his puppy phase again because he is a voracious chewer! He ripped apart a stuffed animal that’s made it through about 4 other dogs before him and it was gone in about 10 minutes after he got his jaws into it! He also made a pretty good dent in our rubber flying saucer, which we thought was indestructible! And the weirdest thing is that he goes after all our rubber doorstops! We’ve had to take them all off (and hope our doors don’t get damaged) so that he doesn’t put them all in his mouth. He is an absolute sweetheart though.

Webster is now in a great new home with two brothers (water spaniels) and great humans. After they got Webster, they went to three different pet stores that same day to find him a crate that fit. They absolutely adore Webster and I’m sure he loves his new home. We can’t wait to see him at the reunion picnic in May!

Brock

Brock is a 3-4 yr old black lab mix weighing in at about 75 lbs. He’s probably mixed with a little bit of shepherd which you can see in the ears and the coat. Brock’s previous owner found out he was in the shelter, but was unable to pay to get him released. His original name is Broccoli and he’ll actually respond very well to both names. He is housebroken and crate trained. Brock is a low energy dog, but gets along great with other dogs. Currently Brock and a dog we’re dogsitting will literally play for hours. He will play with other dogs if they want to play, but he is just as happy to sit by you and get lots of hugs and kisses.Brock is actually the most affectionate lab I’ve ever met (so far). He truly believes he is a lap dog and will do just about anything to get his whole body into your lap. His favorite trick is to come up to you, put his head as far into your lap as he can, then flip over on you to get his belly rubs. He loves to give kisses, but he’ll also give love nibbles when he gets a bit excited, especially on the ears.

We believe that Brock was fed human food from his old owner since he plants himself very close to anyone with human food. Also, he doesn’t eat dog food very fast, and will sometimes have leftovers (which is up for grabs for the fastest dog in our household). Brock is a bit overweight and needs a little bit of exercise to work some of it off. He will retrieve balls, but he will get distracted outside and sometimes forget to bring the ball back to you. He walks pretty well on a leash, with only a little bit of pulling. We’ve tried to take him swimming in a pool with little success. We persuaded him into the pool once where he did swim around, but was unable to convince him a second time to come in, and he ignores the kiddie pool we have in our backyard.

Brock is actually already spoken for, but we were still working on an ear infection which is almost fixed. So unfortunately we won’t have him for much longer. We’ll miss him a lot, but the new home he’s going to has a 9 month old puppy that he can play with all day, and then Brock can flop down for hugs and kisses from his new family.

Frankie

Frankie is a 6 mo old black lab. He and his littermates have been in a shelter for several months. Apparently the shelter they were in finds it very difficult to place black male dogs. He weighs in at about 45 lbs or so. Of his littermates, he’s the most people friendly. We brought him home and need to housebreak and crate train him. Overall, he’s been pretty good, he’s had a few accidents in the house, but he seems to be learning.He seems to think he’s the dominant dog in the household. He’s tried to establish dominance with Sheba and Quinn. Sheba would not tolerate it a bit, while Quinn was ambivalent. If Quinn is distracted by the tennis ball, Frankie can do anything, but when Quinn is not distracted, he won’t allow it either. Frankie has tried to play with our dogs, but since they are old and cranky, they only sporadically play with him. I’d assume after a few more weeks, they’ll start to play a little more.

When it comes to food, Frankie is definitely psychotic. Apparently he was only fed once a day at the shelter, so he’s still always very hungry. Whenever he sees food, he’ll go a little nuts and shove his way to get it. We didn’t think it was possible, but Frankie actually eats faster than Quinn. We currently feed him three times a day to try to fill him up. If that fails, we’ll have to try overstuffing him to see if that helps. When you overstuff, you give the dog as much food as he can eat. He’ll probably throw it up, but it might help just to have a full stomach for once.

Frankie Update

After about a week of feeding Frankie three times a day, he finally stopped gorging his food and now he’s just chowing it down like a normal lab. Its amazing how much energy he has; he always want to play and Sheba and Quinn have not gotten any better with playing with him. Frankie did help us realize that there is no way we’d ever get a puppy. Housebreaking, crate training, and entertaining a puppy is a lot of work. To housebreak Frankie properly, he needs to either be in his crate, or monitored at all times while he’s out of the crate. That means we weren’t free to do things around the house if Frankie was out of our sight. However Frankie is very cute and cuddly, and was fun to play with. He was adopted fairly quickly to a family that absolutely adores him.

Connor

Connor is a 3-4 yr old black lab weighing in about 90 lbs, and he probably needs to gain more weight! He was a stray brought into the shelter. When he came in, he was so infested with ticks, that they had even burrowed into a wound in his side. He also had a very bad case of Lyme’s disease. Before he was put on medication, he couldn’t even raise his head to look at anyone. After about a week on the medicine, he was raising his head and thumping his tail. His soulful eyes did their magic, and he was on his way to LRR.Connor is very laid back and low energy. However a lot of that is due to the Lyme disease, since it causes joint/muscle aches, and listlessness. He’s been on the medication for about 3 weeks now, and he will need it for at least 5 more weeks. As each week progresses, hopefully more of his personality will show through. He has tried to wrestle with Sheba and Quinn a couple of times, but he runs out of energy pretty quickly. He’s also not too familiar with how to retrieve a tennis ball. He will pounce on the ball and chew it, but he doesn’t really chase after it, nor does he bring it back to you. He’s a pretty sedate walker on a leash and never strays too far from your side.

He absolutely adores attention. He’ll fall over on his side right next to you and wait for you to pet him. If you stop, he’ll whack you with his paw to tell you to continue. We think he’s probably not had much attention in the past, and he probably spent a lot of time outdoors. When we first got him to the house, he was very unfamiliar with steps and wouldn’t leave the first floor until he watched our dogs several times walk wherever they pleased without recriminations.

Its amazing how similar Connor and Quinn are in both looks and temperament. From a distance, its actually difficult to tell them apart. Quinn may be feeling a bit threatened by Connor’s arrival, however other than asserting the hierarchy of the household, Quinn has been very friendly towards Connor. Sheba, of course, is doing just fine with Connor. As long as she’s always treated like the princess, she has no issues with any of the foster dogs.

Connor Update

Connor has moved onto a new foster home. He became pretty attached to us, so we thought moving him to a different home would be the best thing for him. In the time he stayed with us, his personality started to come through. He became more active and actually had the puppy crazies a few times. He chased Sheba around the furniture, and played tug of war with Quinn. Heaven only knows how many stuffed animals got ripped apart during their play.

We also discovered his love of food. We have a dog food bin that hangs on the wall. Connor figured out how to open the bin with his nose so the food would come out. We had to tape the bin closed so he could no longer get extra helpings of dinner. We also found out that he can jump any fence he can get his front paws on top of. While working in the front yard, I put all three dogs in the backyard. Imagine my surprise when Connor comes trotting up to me. I put him back in the backyard and peeked through the garage window. He showed no hesitation in putting his front feet on the fence and jumping over it pretty easily. This is from the dog who six weeks ago was unable to even raise his head to look at you because of the Lyme Disease.

Every single person who came to our house fell in love with Connor. He was very good while around our friends’ 8 mos old twins. He sniffed one of them, licked their hand, and laid down right by their feet. He loved any stranger that came to our house. If you pet him, you were his new best friend. It was tough to give up such an amiable dog, and I can’t wait to find out who adopts Connor.

Connor Update

Connor has been adopted to a perfect home for him. A principal of a school for mentally handicapped students adopted Connor and takes him to school everyday for the students to pet. Since Connor loves to be pet, and he’s so very calm, this is the perfect way for him to spend the day. I’m sure he’ll be very good for all those kids.

Winston

Winston came to us April 28th. He has a pretty unfortunate story. He was an LRR dog rescued from the shelter about 6 years ago. They placed him in a great home who loved and spoiled him. Unfortunately, his owner had a terrible accident and broke her back. She was able to keep him for almost another year and a half because her daughters still lived at home and took care of Winston. However, when her youngest daughter went to college, she had no choice but to return Winston to LRR since she could no longer take care of him.Poor Winston was devastated. He was totally spoiled and happy in his last house, and he got yanked into some stranger’s house. We’re actually his second foster home. When he came to our house, he was very stressed. The first two days, he spent pacing, panting, and barking at nothing. He also had a few accidents in the house due to the stress. The first night he was with us, he kept us awake most of the night. However, he settled down pretty quickly after about two days.

He’s got some pretty funny quirks. We were told that he can open screen doors, and refrigerator doors if there is a towel hanging from the handle. He accidentally locked Mike outside because he was jumping up on the door and hit the lock. He also loves to play keep away. When I came home from work, he slipped past me through the door. He then proceeded to stay about 10 feet away from us. If I got too close, he would trot away, and if he got too far away, he would come back towards me. We spent about 40 minutes trying to get him back, but he was having too much fun to be caught. A kindly neighbor finally helped us when Winston walked right up to her to say hi. Needless to say, we are now very careful when we open the front door! Another quirk we discovered when we tried to discipline him. When our Quinn barks and won’t stop, we squirt him with water which quiets him down. When we tried to do that with Winston, he would eat the stream of water! He also does that with the hose when we try to water the plants.

Since he’s settled down, a lot of his cuter traits have come out. He’s such a sweet dog. He loves his butt scratches and has these great soulful eyes. He loves to give great big labbie kisses right to your face. He’s 7 years old, but acts a lot like a 3 year old when he’s playing. He does like his naps during the day though. He’s going to be a great dog for someone who’s lucky to adopt him, and I can’t wait until he’s in a solid stable home.

Update to Winston: Apr 28 – May 6th. Unfortunately Winston proved to be too much for us to handle. We only had him for a week, but in that time, he ran out of the house three times and led us on a 40-60 minute chase each time, and jumped through a screen window once. He also exhibited some agressive behavior. He mouthed Mike on the arm when Mike pulled him away from our dog’s food. Also, he growled and snapped at me when I tried to take away his rawhide treat. So we brought him back to the director’s house so she could further evaluate Winston.