Buckley

Update: 12/31/09

Buckley is doing beautifully! Here is the latest:

Buckley is a REALLY sweet dog.  He looks like a real live stuffed animal.  His pretty light brown eyes just gaze up at you with love and adoration. He has great house manners—he only puts his front paws on furniture, and that’s only to get your attention for some lovin’. Just scratch his head for a bit and then he goes back to snoozing on the floor. He does not get underfoot when you’re doing chores around the house, and he’s not afraid of any tools,  appliances, or the vacuum.  He just finds a comfy place and hangs out while everything happens around him. 

He loves to go for walks, and when he can tell it’s time to get ready, he does a “wiggle prance” dance. It really is too cute.  He has good leash manners too; he will walk out to the end of the leash but no longer pulls.  He will of course show an abundance of interest in squirrels and other quick critters but a verbal correction reorients him. 

Buckley is good with other dogs, too.   He does not show any possessiveness around food or toys; in fact, though he does like mealtime, he isn’t really very food motivated.  He is the first dog I have ever met who does not like peanut butter!  He gently takes treats he finds acceptable and turns his head away from those that aren’t to his taste.  Buckley and his GRR buddy, Happy, like to wrestle.  Buckley always follows gentlemanly wrestling rules even if Happy does not. (:

He likes to be brushed, too, which is good because he has a very fluffy coat—though he’s not a fan of having his tail brushed. Like the gentleman he is, however, of course he tolerates it.

When Buckley first came to GRR, he had some pretty serious separation anxiety—but based on what we’ve seen since then, we think it was probably just a transitional issue due to his being put into a new and confusing environment. Now that he is settled, the problem seems to have resolved itself. We leave him loose in the house when we are gone, and he just naps on the floor. We often wake him up when we come in! We haven’t a single incident.

Sweet Buckley will fit right into any home looking for an old-fashioned Family Dog who’ll fit right into any less-hectic household. He’s a pretty low-maintenance kind of guy!  He is content to hang out, get some food and water, some daily exercise, and of course his daily ration of attention and affection.

“Time.”

That was the only explanation Buck’s owner gave when she filled out the “reason for surrender” on his shelter paperwork. She was an older lady, and it just may be that taking care of any pet was getting to be too much for her. A shelter volunteer alerted us to Buck in late October—but it took a few tries to find him, as the first time a GRR evaluator headed out to meet him, he’d been “misplaced.” A week later, though, he appeared again. “Very  well mannered and sat while we talked about him. Approached me very

quietly and showed pleasure at meeting a new person. He will make you melt with his bedroom eyes.   He let me check him all over and loved to be hugged. I started running and roughing him up and he thought it was a great game! He would jump up gently, putting his paws on my waist but didn't stay long. He calmed down immediately and was very happy to walk on my left side w/out pulling.” Buck earned an A-plus for sure!

When he came into care, though, we found out that he had severe separation anxiety—this came as a surprise, since with people around, he was so relaxed and calm. But his whole life had changed, and he was doubtless very stressed and needy. When his foster mom tried to crate him, he began breathing heavily and produced pools of drool; he pushed the crate pan out, bent the crate wires, and so on. He’d jump or knock over baby gates to get to the humans; if he couldn’t see his people, he’d begin to scratch at doors and cry. Poor Buck…“This could have all been brought about simply with a new environment. It's one of the triggers. Dogs can be fine in the only home they've ever known and exhibit separation anxiety when moved,” said trainer Cheryl Croft, who helps GRR all the time! “It is treatable. The protocol for SA (and this is what we are doing for Buckley) calls for behavior work, which involves getting the dog acclimated to being alone; not being left (so someone needs to be with the dog for a while); and medication.”

Since a foster home with a mom and dad who worked all day obviously wouldn’t do, Buck headed off for board and train with Laura Harvey, another trainer whose help we are very fortunate to have. In just a week of intensive training, she got Buck used to the crate—he got lots of in-and-out activity, with breaks and lessons throughout the  day. He was even able to go off one of the meds (Valium) he’d been on, as Laura noted that “He is so much better in spirit without the Valium—he has his ‘luster’ back and is doing fine with the lessons and crating.”

A major test came when Buck moved to a different foster home for respite. It was such good news! Foster mom Emmy reported, “His separation anxiety seems to be transitional only.  YAY!  Laura had him off his meds since he didn’t seem to need them for her.  We never needed to give them to him either.  We got him Weds PM, and Friday AM, I went out to run errands.  My husband said Buck whined at the door for a while after I left, but settled down after a while.  Monday, I was waiting to see how he reacted to Dana going to work; he watched him go, and that was it.  When I was gone, I left him in his crate with no problems.  On Wednesday, I ran to a neighbor’s at the last minute and totally forgot Buck might need to be contained. I was worried about what I might find when I got home ten minutes later— I found him chilling out on the dog bed asleep!!!  I woke him up coming in the door!  I left him out Thursday, too, and same story as Wednesday.”

We’re all optimistic that Buck will do fine in the right home, and our trainers will of course give his new family all the help and advice they need in getting him to settle in. Laura suggests that Buck would thrive in a family “who will allow him to do a job, so to speak—work him in a dog sport, where he can use his energy and animation and tire out his mind. He can jump like a hunter—beautiful form!” By the way, Buck is living with TEN cats and just weaves around and through them, no problems.

If this wonderful dog sounds right for you, please give us a call!