Dixie

Dixie, age 15 months

AVAILABLE SOON

Update 7/20/12:

Dixie moved to a new foster home a couple of weeks ago and is making amazingly good progress. Her foster mom says:

Dixie is doing great and can now be listed for adoption! She is walking on a leash and has overcome some of her shyness, though it still takes her some time to warm up to men… just go slow and don’t push it, and all will be fine. She’s warming up to my husband and sons already, with gentle coaxing, and they can pet her. She’s a bouncing, active girl when she relaxes! She will need some gentle training, but she wants to please and takes to training quickly.

Dixie has a problem with closed-in spaces, but with time, patience and a lot of loving attention, she should overcome this issue. She’ll already go into her crate, though she does prefer an ex-pen with an open top.

She loves to wade in the water, go after a Kong football, play chase with our other dogs, and get tummy rubs from the two women in our house. She has no problems with cats—in fact, she she leaves them alone and goes her own way, though she DOES enjoy watching them on their cat tree!  

Best home for Dixie will definitely be one with other playful, easy-going dogs and with committed, patient, loving humans to help this pretty girl blossom.

Update 7/8/12: 

At barely over a year old, Dixie is just now learning what it means to be a house pup. She spent almost all her life at a boarding facility, training to be a hunting dog—and only then came to live with her owners. She was joining a household with two other Goldens, and mom & dad realized within two months that three Goldens was at least one too many for them.  

Dixie ADORES other dogs, but at initial meeting, she’s extremely shy with humans, especially men—which all makes perfect sense when you consider her life until now. She was doubtless spending a lot more time with dogs than she was with people, and it certainly seems possible that she’s been subjected to some pretty harsh training methods that have left her leery of men in particular.

But give her time! When she stayed with Margo for a few days, she hung back and hid for a day or so, but then:

Does Dixie jump? Oh yes -- like a ping pong ball!  This started 36 hours ago.  She got comfortable & then she became a typical wild & crazy 15-month-old.  She jumps on me (but not Gary), and bounces through the house like a bunny.  Due to her previous fearfulness, skittishness & subdued behavior, I'm not reacting much to the jumping for now & am letting her feel happy & silly & crazy. 

I wouldn’t say she is housebroken yet, but it’s improved significantly in the past 3 days.  When she first arrived, Dixie refused to potty outside & instead just used the rugs.  We closed the door to the bedroom, babygated off the living room, and put her on a puppy housetraining routine.  At night, we babygate her in the tiled master bath.  Dixie is getting the idea & has not pottied indoors for 24 hours or more -- yay!  Keep up the puppy type housetraining & she'll do fine. I do suggest baby-gating instead of crating, because at first she simply would not come out of her crate. At bedtime, she is gated in the master bathroom, which is right off our bedroom where she can see us, and she sleeps fine, right through the night.

Dixie really does need to be with a couple of other dogs at least. She’s still learning from them, so don’t be alarmed if you hear some pretty stern corrections from the old folks when Dixie gets to be too much. These appropriate corrections are good for her! When she gets with a similarly peppy younger dog, watch out—they’ll run through house and yard at 60 mph, chase, act crazy, wrestle and generally have a gay old time (until they wear each other out & crash, fast asleep).

Dixie’s still a puppy! She’ll carry shoes and chew them if she gets the chance. She’s a big-time counter surfer, too. And once she relaxes, she’ll come up for pets and try to clamber into your lap.

Dixie isn’t too familiar with leash walking—she’s way more interested in sniffing than walking! But with positive practice, she should improve quickly.  Warning -- make sure she is on a martingale collar or that her buckle collar is plenty tight, as she would be the type to bolt if startled.

The ideal home for Dixie?  Several other dogs of various ages.  Patient humans who believe in ignoring negative behavior & rewarding behavior that they want to encourage.  People who will not get upset about housetraining accidents.  People who will have patience with shyness or fearfulness.  Avoid wild children (they would rev her up too much) and big, scary, deep-voiced, impatient men.  Pleasant, calm leadership will work nicely for  pretty Dixie!

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