Chance

Profile

It's my pleasure to introduce Chance! Chance is a healthy, happy 1.5 year old male who came to us from a shelter where his time was almost up. The shelter staff just adored him and worked very hard to make sure that he made it safely into RAGOM. Thank you, Abby!

Chance has been with us about 18 hours now and we have nothing but wonderful things to say about him. He's just a darling. When I picked him up last night he greeted me like a long-lost friend with whole body tail wags and lots of kisses. He rode wonderfully in the car and met his foster dad and our fur-crew with polite and friendly enthusiasm. Within five minutes he and his foster brother were playing and having a ton of fun. He explored the house and then settled in for a nice quiet evening of petting. He sure does love his petting!

Chance came to the shelter after he was dumped at someone's rural home last fall. The man saw a car pull up, shove him out, and then speed away. He fell in love with Chance and really wanted to keep him but realized that he couldn't afford to care for him in addition to his two other dogs, so he regretfully surrendered him. He was then adopted from the shelter briefly but he didn't get along with the family's cat so they reluctantly returned him. They said he was perfect in every other way and were very sad to have to bring him back. (For the record, he's doing fine with our cats so far.) Despite all the changes in his life the past few months Chance is still an affectionate, confident, happy-go-lucky guy who just wants someone (anyone!) to love him.

Chance was a real favorite of the shelter staff and it's easy to see why. He's friendly, well-adjusted, well-mannered, and generally just all-around sweet. He knows "sit" and "come" and does both instantly, and he's so eager to please that it will be a snap to train him. He wants nothing more in life than to make his people happy and earn a treat or some pets. It took him 0.8 seconds to learn that he has to sit before he goes in or out of a door and by this morning he was already doing it faster and better than our resident dog. Good boy! He's housetrained (does his business outside right away with no dawdling), doesn't jump up, hasn't picked up anything inappropriate, doesn't seem to counter-surf, and overall has very excellent house manners. He did have one accident this morning but that was completely my fault. He went to the door and asked to go out but I was distracted and didn't get the message. Bad FM! I'm still counting him as 100% housetrained because it really was my fault - he tried to tell me.

The jury is still out about whether Chance is a purebred Golden Retriever or a mix. The shelter listed him as a mix, but only because of his size. He looks 100% golden except for his giant head, chest and paws. He's the same height as our PB male, but much wider. My best guess is that he's at least 75% Golden but maybe has a little Newfoundland or Saint Bernard in his heritage. But it's also possible that he's PB and just comes from lines with exceptionally big blocky heads. Whatever he is, he's gorgeous. He has a luxurious red wavy coat, a big handsome square head, and the most adorable white patch on his chest. He's a truly handsome dog.

Chance gets along great with other dogs and is doing well with our cats. He's very interested in them, but respectful. We'll render a final verdict on his cat-worthiness after a few more days, but at this point I think he'd be fine with cats who are used to dogs and know how to handle themselves. We haven't tried him with children yet but our neighbor girls will be coming over soon to give him their standard kid test. He's so sweet and friendly that I think he'll pass with flying colors. The only issue might be that he could accidentally knock over smaller kids. When he wags his tail his whole body wiggles back and forth and because he's so solid anything that gets in the way tends to tip over.

Chance is already neutered and the shelter brought him up to date on all his vaccinations and confirmed that he was heartworm negative (yay!) so as far as we know he's 100% healthy. He has an appointment with our vet tomorrow to get a microchip and a quick checkup and then he'll be ready to start meeting potential families. At this point we're still not sure what Chance is looking for in his forever home but based on what we've seen so far I think he could thrive in a variety of environments. His main requirements seem to be petting and love, so as long as there's enough of those I'm sure he'd be willing to negotiate about the rest.

More to come as we continue to get to know this delightful, loveable boy!