Indio

#13-030 Indio, age 1 1/2

Updated: 03/15/13

Weight: 51 pounds

AVAILABLE

He runs! He plays! He wags! This pretty platinum-blond stray seems every inch the typical young Golden—with the bonus that he is housetrained (pleasant surprise!) doesn’t even try to get on the furniture. He’s crate-trained, too, though crating is frankly not his favorite thing.  He jumps a bit and chews a bit (he’s still a puppy), but nothing too bad. He was overwhelmed by his foster mom’s other dogs at first, but now he plays and invites play; and he likes to just race around with a toy in his mouth, too. He seems to enjoy people and other dogs, and he loves to be petted.

So… totally typical, right? Well, not quite. In just one respect, energetic Indio is a bit of a Mystery Man. Read on:

First meeting at the shelter, February 14: “He’s not unfriendly, but seems reserved. Not the goofball Golden we normally see (especially in young dogs).  When I dropped my clipboard on the concrete behind him, I'm not sure he heard it hit. I wondered if he was deaf?”

Pick-up, February 16: “I no longer think he’s deaf. He sure isn’t the aloof dog  I met a couple of days ago! He wagged his tail in greeting, listened to me, seemed  delighted with getting out of puppy jail. Great car rider, too!”

At the clinic, February 19: Our vet reported, “His ears are clean as a whistle, but I don’t think he can hear much. We did simple tests—whistling, clapping, and calling him when he couldn't see us.  He didn’t respond. When we stood right in front of him, though, he reacted right away. He might be able  to detect reverberations from extremely loud sounds such as a gunshot.”

From his foster mom, March 4: “Well, supposedly he’s deaf, but he has turned his head to acknowledge me on several occasions—and he responds to me scolding him to leave the cats alone. I will do some more experiments with him one-on-one and check his response.”

One thing is crystal clear, though: Indio isn’t bothered by a thing! He’s just a typical happy-go-lucky young dog in all other respects. We’ve been in touch with a trainer for help in working with a hearing-impaired dog (since, even though Indio isn’t saying exactly what he can hear, we know he has SOME hearing loss!), and we’ll be hooking Indio’s new family up with the trainer so they can get all the tips they need.

Foster mom says, “He would do well with another dog or as the only dog.  Very sweet boy.  I will be testing him with kids later this week, but I expect he will be great with them.  He is a cat chaser - I think he’s just curious about them, but they don't appreciate his interest! So I’d be looking for a no-cat home for him.”