Adopted
Shadow
has been with us for nearly a month now and is a true Couch Potato: he just
loves to sleep on the couch in the corner of the living room at night. We don’t
even allow our own dogs up there!! … but now, the couch is covered with a
slipcover just for him.
Shadow
has a very mellow personality. Out in the backyard, he sometimes barks a little
at the neighborhood dogs, but he stops right away if you tell him to. He’s very
polite with us humans. If he gets too near the kitchen counter sniffing at food,
just a quick “no” is all it takes to deter him. He loves to be scratched on his
back and his tummy. He’s a great traveller in the car and likes to poke his head
between the two front seats, so as to get petted even on the road!
It took Shadow a little while to settle in – the first week he was here, he lay
out on the patio almost ignoring us, but now he doesn’t want to go outdoors as
much at all, and definitely lets us know with a bark when he wants to come in.
We later learned that in his original family, he got scolded for being “in the
way,” so he had to learn that we actually wanted him to keep us company! Now he
likes to be wherever we are. The one exception is the office: he hardly ever
comes in. We don’t know what the reason is—maybe he doesn’t like carpeting?
Even though he’s so laidback, he loves to walk and is up to about 1-1/2 miles a
day. The other day, he saw a cat sitting in her driveway and went to
investigate, coming within about 6 inches of her. She hissed loudly at him, so
Shadow took the hint and just walked away. He didn’t bark at the kitty or try to
chase her. As for other dogs we meet on our route, he doesn’t show much
interest, even when they are barking at him. Kids are another story! He loves to
have them pet him: he’ll just sit there and take all the hugs and pats he can
get. After his walks, he cools off by stretching out on the laminate floor with
the ceiling fan on high and a portable floor fan blowing directly on him. (“Ah!
This is the life.”)
He
also likes to relax on the back porch, watching the squirrels play and the birds
splash in the birdbath. Sometimes he decides to get up and chase a squirrel up a
tree. When it gets too hot for that, he comes in and continues to watch “dog TV”
from indoors— lying by the storm door and looking out.
Shadow isn’t too interested in the “retriever” part of being a Golden Retriever
-- if we throw a tennis ball or a toy, he MIGHT get up and get it, but
definitely not every time! If he does get it, he adds it to his stockpile of
toys right off the patio. He is not really interested in playing with Gordon
(our mixed-breed dog); they’ve played with each other only a couple of times,
for just a few minutes each time.
Shadow is definitely a low-key boy. He’d be great in a home with or
without cats; if there’s another dog in the household, he’ll probably ignore it
most of the time. He’d be great with a single person or a couple; he’d be
wonderful with kids, but they shouldn’t expect an active play partner. He is on
a slimming plan, so if you are too, he would love to be your partner while you
BOTH trim down with a lean, healthy diet and moderate exercise!