January 3, 2021:

Life with Oliver in our home has been an adventure. Once we learned more about his needs and how to work with him he has been a joy to have in our lives… but there were moments of frustration and exasperation before we had help to know what to do. It has been a lot of daily work with Oliver to get to this point, but worth every effort. Patience doesn’t come easy when a dog is destroying your things and biting at you. RIP to several socks, dish towels, boxes, pieces of paper, an end table, gloves, hats, dog bed, winter coat, before we learned. We were slow learners, but oh was it worth it. Oliver, who we affectionately call Ollie is a wonderful companion to our dog Wendy, a goofball, and a snuggler. We love him to death. He fits perfectly in our home. He loves the backyard with a frisbee, a good wrestling match and then a snooze sprawled out on his back on the couch. He’s also quite impressive with his Cato board tricks! Oliver is a very fast learner and too smart for his own good! We have lever door handles and we can see he is just about to learn to get the door open… we are not encouraging him!

December 28, 2021:

Oliver has been adopted! Watch for an update on his progress in his new forever home!

December 4, 2021:

Oliver has been responding very well to training. The training instructions are intense. It is a change for everyone. For Oliver to be successful we have to keep his needs in the front of our minds all of the time. There are some things you can’t set down for even a second like silverware, your phone, or a remote- Oliver will have it before you can blink. It is not easy but we are seeing a change.

We have created a space in our home where he can’t get into any trouble and he can’t get attention by biting us. We are rewarding his good behavior 20 times a day and teaching him to trade when he grabs something he shouldn’t have. We have tools to calm his biting like PVC over his leash to hold him away when he gets worked up on a walk or short breaks in his kennel when he can’t calm down. We don’t ever say the word ‘no’ and he’s overall responding positively. He absolutely loves to train with his new Cato board.

There is still more to go. The biting has stopped for the most part with only an occasional over-stimulation event. Oliver is making great progress and does not fight back against commands like he did to the word ‘no’.

Now that we know what Oliver needs to be successful, he is ready to match for adoption.

November 13, 2021:

Oliver has been with his new foster home for a month. He is a loving and sweet dog but it has been a little rocky. After discussion with a trainer there are some behaviors that Oliver exhibits that need some attention while he is still young to prevent more serious concerns in the future.

Oliver is an obsessive counter surfer looking for objects around the house that he can get for sometimes hours at a time. His reaction to the word “no” is to try harder and to sometimes turn his attention to his fosters.

He also displays something the trainer calls excessive social arousal where he gets very worked up and turns to to “pinch-biting”. These bites are not meant to hurt, but are to get attention. They do not break the skin, but they do hurt! This arousal is brought on by saying the word no, or entering a room.

While these behaviors can be considered naughty puppy; since he is over 6 months, they can escalate to guarding and biting to injure.

The trainer explains that she has seen his pattern before in several other dogs and that he first needs some medication to calm the obsessive need to “shop” the counters and the negative reaction to the word no. He will start on Fluoxetine and then begin training.

He is a beautiful loving boy that needs a little help along the way. He has enjoyed playtime with the resident dog Wendy and has very appropriate dog-dog interactions.

October 3, 2021:

Happy start of Fall everyone! Oliver is continuing to do well in foster care. He really loves any chance he gets to play fetch with other dogs. He’s also learned to enjoy running alongside someone while they are biking and comes back exhausted after his runs! He has also discovered how fun playing fetch with a frisbee can be! This fall weather has been his favorite because he doesn’t get too hot while playing!

Obedience training is still a work in progress, he likes to listen to his foster dad way more than his foster mom. He definitely is in his teenage defiance stage of life! We are still looking for Oliver’s forever home.

September 15, 2021:

Oliver is doing well in foster care. He loves to play fetch with other dogs, even if he never gets the ball because the other dogs are faster! He is starting to show he knows his training better, listening to drop things and leave it when he finds a tasty shoe or sock in his area.

He does very well going into his kennel at night and has had no potty accidents! He loves to run wild outside and play tug of war with toys inside. After lots of play time he settles down under the table or right next to a person on the couch for a nice long nap. Oliver is officially starting his search for his forever home!

August 30, 2021:

Oliver is new in foster care and learning how to be a well behaved boy. He has been sharing his home with a big English Mastiff and loves having a play mate 24/7 but needs help learning when to take a break from playtime. He has lots of energy for a young puppy and likes to go for long walks and games of fetch to work it off. He does very well during sit down obedience training but needs more work putting the training to use when he is getting up to no good around the house. He will be a wonderful dog for someone with the time and energy for training and exercise. An extra bonus is when he is tuckered out for the day he will often like to cuddle into ones lap to relax.

August 22, 2021:

Oliver is new in foster care. More information will follow.