Chase...Here's a very early report on Chase. He is a real sweetie and the soul of good nature. At night he is quiet as a mouse in his crate with no fussing at all. In fact he is unusually quiet overall-I haven't heard even the tiniest bark out of him. The most you get is a soft whine when he sees another dog.

I am happy to say that he should do great with cats. He is interested in Grant (our cat) but not aggressive.  It's more like, "Gee, what's that?" as opposed to "I want to catch and eat that!" She has bopped him on the nose once or twice and he does seem to have absorbed the idea that she doesn't want a big old snout shoved into her at all times. He still follows her around, but if she turns and gives him a filthy look he cocks his ears and cautiously backs up. Sunday all three animals were snoozing quite companionably together on the family room floor. (However, any adoptive family with a cat needs to come up with something other than "Chase, don't chase the cat!"   That command could confuse anyone.)

This is an active dog-he definitely needs a family who can give him tons of exercise. He'd probably fetch the tennis ball a hundred times in a row if we had the stamina to keep throwing it. I have been taking him on three pretty brisk 20- to 25-minute walks a day, plus he probably chases the tennis ball for a total of half an hour or so, and even then he has oodles of pep in the evening. Lulu, our GR, has been inviting him to play since Saturday and today, spurred on by the cool weather no doubt, they finally had a prolonged wrestling match. She wound up on the bottom every time, which is kind of odd, since the two of them look like a defensive end vs.. a marathoner-she sure has a lower center of gravity and definitely outweighs him!  Can't see as weight is ever going to be an issue with this guy as long as he gets the exercise he wants.

It would be a good idea if the adoptive family had a 6' fence. When I let him outdoors, I always go with him, so I have been able to call him away a couple of times when it looked like he was just about ready to launch himself over our cyclone fence (about 4 feet high). He has jumped at squirrels on the 6-foot wood fence and can almost get the tip of his nose above that.

At the start of his walks, he pulls like a locomotive on lead, even with the pinch collar on, he tends to race out to the end, then get snapped back. I have been doing lots of quick turns and heading in the other direction, then turning around quickly again to get him in position by my side. After three to five minutes or so that seems to settle him down. (Not like with Lulu! I tried this "Sneak Away" technique with her when she was about 1 year old-felt like I was competing in the Olympics at the hammer throw event. Every time I got her facing forward again she zipped ahead with renewed vigor. After about eight sneak-aways my head was spinning and she was still pulling.) He's very good about not veering far off to the side but he does try to cross in front and needs to be nudged back to the left.

He is quite good on "sit" most of the time, fairly good on "down" and "come". What needs work is "stay" and "wait"-he doesn't seem to understand those at all. We are trying to get him to stay when he's in a down. I have noticed that if you try to get him to come (or more precisely, to leave an area) by pulling on his collar, he backs up, plants his feet, and looks very mistrustful. I wonder if this has something to do with his former life? If you drop the collar, back up a foot or two, and lightly clap your hands, all the while calling him in a cheerful voice, he trots right up with a smile on his face. Good boy!

He was great when I cleaned his ears-no struggling or head tossing. He doesn't mind having his paws handled (wiped clean after he's been running through mud). He does LOVE being brushed and that helps calm him when he's getting hyper.  I can't wait to see what he'll look like in 4 months or so with healthy skin and coat! I bet he will be gorgeous.

update 09/30/01:

If he gets enough exercise, sweet & cheerful Chase will be the very best dog anyone could ever want! With plenty, and I do mean PLENTY, of exercise, plus lots of happy, upbeat obedience work to occupy his doggie mind, I don't think he'll get into  much trouble. I suspect that if he weren't getting enough activity he might chew things out of boredom, dig holes in the yard, etc. (He hasn't shown the least inclination to dig here, even after watching me bury the contents of the compost jar, and  his good Sam in San Antonio said he didn't dig there either-but digging was one of the problems the original owners cited.) Agility would be just perfect for him: exercise plus obedience. He would have a blast and be super at it, too; he bounds along like a gazelle and can really jump high.

We are giving him three fast walks a day (1 to 1 1/4 hours of walking), lots of fetch, and he plays vigorously with Lulu and with Dixie (our day-care Golden). Even then he spends a lot of his time indoors bustling from room to room instead of just lying on the floor. He is improving on obedience-will stay 3 to 5 seconds at a time now-some of the time. Hooray-progress!! He's also starting to understand that he must wait before going out the door instead of just barging past me, though I do have to place him 3 or 4 times. On his walks he sits like a champ at all intersections and waits for you to say OK before crossing (earning many indulgent looks from passing motorists), and when you do a sneak-away and he comes around by your side, he also sits right down if told to do so and usually waits for the release. Katherine must have taught him this, because I sure didn't! He was already doing it when he arrived here. It's really cute.

He still pulls quite hard on the lead and starts jumping around wildly when he sees another male dog (I don't think he's that excited by females). Some days he's friskier than others and doesn't really walk nicely by my side until the end of the walk, when we are BOTH pooped. Still, he's better than Lulu was at his age. (We had a little chant we used when walking her: "No pulling, no tugging, no lunging, no plunging, no leaping, no jumping, no whirling, no twirling, no lagging, no dragging, no veering, no stopping, no turning, no sniffing, no snorking") He's polite and friendly to people we meet and to folks who come to the door, but he DOES NOT jump on them, again unlike somebody else I could name.

He is just great with the cat. Sometimes he doesn't even raise an eyebrow when she goes by! If he does start to trot after her, he'll turn away and come to you if you call him off. Also,  we have a sweet neighborhood cat who strolls down his driveway to greet all friendly dogs, and Chase stood very calmly, gently wagging his tail, while the kitty crossed back and forth under his tummy. He sniffed the kitty very cautiously. What a good dog! He really is unaggressive.

We have only had one mishap: Lulu and Dixie were frolicking in the yard and Chase was so eager to join in he hurled himself full-force at the sliding screen door and knocked it totally off its tracks and completely crooked, such that we could barely get it open far enough to squeeze ourselves and the dogs in and out. The handyman we called out had a horrible time wrestling it back into place. Live and learn! Eric has noted that, late at night, coming in from a bathroom break, Chase doesn't always seem to realize the sliding glass door is a solid surface-he can see right into the house, so he has tried to run right through the door. He has also jumped at the door when he sees a squirrel on the patio.

His coat is still thin, but it's getting some gloss and starting to feel much softer and smoother. His head feels nice and velvety. His fur is growing FAST (already noticeably much longer than when we picked him up a week ago; almost covers the back of his collar now), and I think he will soon have a luxuriant wavy auburn coiffure with a lighter golden mantle over the shoulders. He has such a pretty face, so with a thick, healthy coat, he will be a fashion-plate ! 

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