Update 03/23/2005:

Ricky ...That face!

How could anyone resist this face?

Ricky is a gorgeous red 2-year-old patiently awaiting the special family who will fall in love with him and make him their “forever dog.” Since he can’t tell you his story, I’ll tell you as much of it as I know.

Just before Thanksgiving 2003, GRR got a call from the San Antonio Humane Society. A young male Golden with a badly injured tail had been picked by the city’s Animal Control. He was a beautiful boy and a real charmer, but the shelter couldn’t nurse him back to health on their own. They had limited funds for medical needs dogs and no vet on staff, and Ricky’s tail was already severely infected, with probable nerve damage. Could we help? If not, they’d have to put him to sleep. We couldn't let that happen, so we picked him up and took him straight to one of our vets. The verdict: the nerve damage was extensive, Ricky was in intense pain, and the tail simply had to come off. Surgery was done the next day.

Ricky healed beautifully, but as is often the case when a limb is lost, he experienced “phantom limb syndrome”: his tail wasn’t there anymore, but the sensation of it remained. He’d try to bite at the painful missing tail, but since it was gone, he bit his foot instead. As we observed Ricky and talked with his vets, we began to think that the original injury to his tail may have been self-inflicted, a result of severe, long-term stress in his former life. We’ll never really know, but we do know that highly stressed dogs may turn to chewing on a paw or tail to relieve tension—and this can be a very hard habit to break, as anyone who’s ever been a nervous nail-biter knows only too well!

When Ricky came to live with us, our goal was to make him feel secure enough to abandon this habit, so he’d be able to go on to the full, wonderful life we wanted for him. And with a few months of working with his vets, consulting with a wonderful trainer, and practicing basic obedience to teach him confidence and just plain old good doggie manners, Ricky has become a marvel, the epitome of all things Golden!

Ricky’s trainer soon learned that he’d already had plenty of training—in fact, he performed at near-competitive level. And in fact, intensive training with no positive reinforcement may be the initial source of stress that created his tail- and foot-biting problem. Some dogs are trained with too much correction and not enough praise, and that can be stressful. Just imagine how tense you would feel if nobody ever cheered you or rewarded you for all the things you got right, but just punished you for every little thing you did wrong!

Ricky knows sit, sit/stay, wait, come, down, down/stay, leave it, take it and give—and now that he’s praised to the skies for his good work, he just loves to show you what he can do. And I am sure there is yet more untapped talent in this Golden guy. You should see him out in the yard in the early morning dew, nose to the ground, following the trail of some night creature’s scent. We play a recall game of “find me,” where I hide and blow a silent whistle to see how long it takes for him to track me down. This is one of his favorite games and he is very, very good at it. His reward is a bit of hotdog with lots of pets and praise—and my reward is the look of sheer joy on his face over his own success.

Ricky has a very social, friendly, outgoing, personality (if you’re one of the many folks who met him “working the crowd” at last month’s Golden Afternoon in the Park, you already know that!). He is good with children, other dogs, and dog-savvy cats.

If you want a Golden guy who will bond with you, adore you, and work for you; who will follow you to the ends of the earth or lie quietly at your feet when asked; who will delight you, make you laugh out loud, and help you forget all the stresses of the day—then Ricky is for you.

Aren’t you glad we saved him for you!
 

View Pictures Here