Harper

Harper has been adopted and is settling in with the C. family in Ames, IA.

Harper is a beautiful, sweet adult female goldendoodle. She has the softest, silkiest black coat and beautiful brown eyes. Her mom was a golden retriever and dad was a black and white poodle. She has one little patch of golden hair on her chin that is just adorable. Harper has an easy, even temperament and has easily adapted to our home. Harper was surrendered from a family who loved her dearly but with recent health issues in their family they made the decision they felt was best for Harper and let her go so she could find love a second time with a new family.  And she is SO easy to love!  

Harper arrived in our home just a couple of weeks ago and settled easily into our home of three adults and a resident dog . She loves people and adores any and all attention given but handles her alone time well too. I work from home and am a bit of a homebody, so there is almost always someone home, but the few times we have left both dogs alone at home, she did not show any sort of separation anxiety or destructive behavior. We did crate her the first night or two and the first couple of times we left the dogs home alone, and although she did not seem to mind the crate, lately she has been free roam day and night - and we haven't regretted that decision, she's done great! Her happy place seems to be the comfy bed that came along with her, and that is where she chooses to spend most of her time when not cuddled up next to us. 

Harper and our 8-year-old resident dog get along great. They aren't play buddies (yet?) but that might change over time. But they do enjoy each other's company and there have not been any instances of resource guarding with her food/water or toys. Our resident dog has taken the lead (although she is not a strong alpha dog) and Harper is fine with that and has not exhibited any attempts to exert dominance. She did not live with a cat previously and has not been cat-tested while with us. But there is a cat who roams freely in the vet office Harper visited recently and while it did catch her attention it did not cause a reaction by Harper - so that's encouraging she might do well with a cat (especially a dog-savvy cat). 

Overall, we haven't really found any situation that distresses Harper or puts her at unease. She quietly rides in the car and does not seem to experience motion/car sickness. We are told she does well at the groomers. She handled her vet visits well (and won a few hearts while there!). She really has no behavior or health issues - and is totally housebroken. However, at her first vet visit with us, blood work showed an infection of two tick-related diseases (Lyme and anaplasmosis) but she is not symptomatic. As a precaution, she was started on a four-week course of daily doxycycline. She had her spay procedure done on December 9th and recovery is going well so far.

She has not spent much time with children during her life, but she has always been calm and gentle in her interactions with us.  Perhaps Harper would function best in a household with children of an age that understand dogs and likely would do best in a home with a calm, quiet lifestyle.  She previously lived on a large, fenced acreage and loved to run with the other dogs.  While her foster family has a fenced back yard, it is rather small, and the daily walk seems to be enough exercise to make her happy. She is a fairly low-energy girl both inside and outside the house.   She doesn’t seem to need extended adventures to keep her happy. She does enjoy her daily walk(s), but on days we’ve had to skip it (for whatever reason), she has done fine and has not acted out at home from the missed activity.   

Now that we've covered the basics of how Harper might fit into your family, let’s talk about what a sweet, gentle girl Harper is! So low drama. She does enjoy attention but doesn’t seem to be a Velcro dog that always need you nearby. She seems to easily adapt to most situations and should be a pretty easy dog to have in the family.  Harper has been well-loved and cared for throughout her life, but she needs you to keep that lovefest going!