Toby - the Big Guy!

At almost 11 years old, and 120 pounds, Toby came to us in early 2011 when we got an urgent email from a neighbor concerned about a large golden who was wandering the neighborhood after his owner was put in a nursing home. Toby was crossing a busy road to visit with friends on the other side and would be completely homeless in a day or two when his owner's caretakers were going to move out.
Although the plea came to the Middle Tennessee Golden Retriever Rescue email, no surrender form was forthcoming because the owner in the nursing home had to be contacted. He was not aware that he would probably never leave the nursing home and was not anxious to surrender his dog. We agreed to take Toby in right away, to keep him safe until we could get a surrender form and put him in the MTGRR program.
Toby came in like a hurricane, he barked at everything, growled randomly, humped the furniture, ate holes in the linens and was a general pain in the neck. He got along well with everyone, but we couldn't wait until we could move him along and on his way.
Then, on about the second week, Toby caught wind of the fact that he was going to be moving on as soon as his paperwork came through. Overnight, Toby figured out the rules and became a civilized Golden Retriever. A few days later when his surrender form came in, we agreed to keep Toby until he found his forever family.
After we got the surrender form, we took Toby to visit Les, his former owner in the nursing home. Toby was a complete gentleman when we visited. Les was in very bad health and was relieved to see that Toby was being cared for, was happy and doing well. Les asked us to please keep Toby with us and, happily and with no regrets, we will keep that promise we made to him. Toby became a permanent part of our family. Les passed away about a month after we adopted Toby.
He may be twelve, but he acts like he is half that. Gracie teases him relentlessly, which he loves. She will walk by him with a toy and bat her eyes and he's off after her. He'll follow and make grabs for the toy and finally, in the end she'll give it up. For some reason, Toby is obsessed with paper and envelopes. We have to be careful to keep the mail away from him. He thinks it's all his. He has a way of talking we call his a-grrs. It may sound like growling to the casual observer, but it's his way of communication, no aggression there.
Last time we weighed, Toby was at a svelte 104 pounds. Dr. B said that he should be around 100 so we think that he's doing pretty good. He's on the Gracie exercise plan, so we know that he'll stay fit.
Toby answers to "Big Guy" as well as he answers to his name. He's a needful guy, loves his cuddling and is always right there beside us if he's not after Gracie. He is happy and comical and we are so happy that he stayed here. We have brought Toby to several  MTGRR events to show people just how friendly and energetic a senior golden can be.

Toby on arrival day

Fun in the snow

some dogs chew on sticks, Toby gets a log

He just made it through the doggy door

Toby in front relaxing with friends

Happy Toby

Toby 2012

Doggy smiles to brighten your day.....

Dog smiles make me smile. 

Here are some of my favorite smile shots.

My all time favorite smile - Lucy

Charlotte

Rannie

Group smile - Gracie , Lucy and Ginger

Gracie

Reggie

Asteroid

Toby

Layla

Ginger

Daisy

Belly

Leo

Rosie

Maggie

New Friends at Old Friends - Introductions

We often have new dogs join our pack. Because of the differences in each dog's previous experiences and temperaments, we have to introduce each dog in a way that we feel is best suited to their personality. Some of the dogs who have come in have already been with a family, so we know a something about their reactions to other dogs and new situations. On the other hand, some of our dogs have been picked up at a vets office or a shelter, or even off of the street, so we have no idea of what to expect.
In the first situation, with a dog who we know is well socialized and used to being with other dogs (Maggie for instance), we simply allow them to simply walk in and join the group. After a few minutes of sniffing, they have acclimated and are part of the group.
For the more sensitive, fragile dogs (Lucy, Rosie or Hunny Bunny), we let them into the back yard with no one else there. We start introducing dogs to them one at a time, always starting with Gracie, our self appointed welcoming committee, who immediately sets the dog at ease. There is nothing frightening about goofy, happy Gracie. We follow with Ginger, the tour guide, who shows the new dog around the yard and then add the rest of the pack one to a few at a time. It is again, only a matter of minutes before everyone is acclimated to one another.
It becomes more difficult with some of the others. We are worried more for the safety of our pack than for the newcomer. Especially considering our smaller dogs, Asteroid and Belly, we do not want to put any of them in danger. We will first leash walk the newcomer in a neutral area with a couple of the more concerning dogs; Gracie because of her energy, Toby because of his large size and excitement, Belly because of her small size. Once all goes well, we will walk the dogs back into an empty yard and will proceed from there adding dogs a few at a time. This was how we successfully introduced Leo to the pack just a few weeks ago.
In our most concerning case, introducing Layla to the pack, we were much slower and more careful. We did not know how Layla would react to being with a large group since she had never been with one and everything that we had read about German Shepherds made us worry about how well she would acclimate. During Layla's several weeks of recovery, we transitioned from a solid door to a chain link gate between her and the rest of the dogs. After some barking between her and Toby, the others started to sit next to her on the other side of the fence. They became familiar with one another through sound and smell and visually. During this time, Layla took walks with everyone, a different dog every day. When it was time to fully introduce her to the pack, we walked her with Toby, walked them both back into the empty yard and then let everyone else join them. The introduction was perfect and within moments Layla was part of the group.

Asteroids first day - meeting Belly

Toby's first day - meeting Ginger

Rosie meets Ozkar

Layla meeting Lucy

Maggie's first day

Leo's DNA Report - makes sense to me

The results are in!! Leo's DNA report came back today! It makes a lot of sense. Leo is 1/4 Chow Chow (his puffiness and short face), 1/4 Siberian Husky (his coloring), 1/8 Australian Shepherd (spots and herding tendencies, 1/8 Shetland Sheepdog (herding tendencies), 1/8 Cocker Spaniel (spots) and 1/8 Akita (coloring, tail). Technology is amazing!
Here is a link to his entire DNA report.
Leo's DNA test results

Leo when we first met him (3/16/12)

Leo Now (4/18/12)

Charlotte - our first rescue dog

We were a one dog home. We'd had our collie, Nikki, for 10 years, and when he went to the bridge we got Ozkar.....we never intended to have more dogs.
One month later, along came Charlotte....
On my way to work in downtown Nashville, I saw traffic slowing ahead on a busy five lane street, Charlotte Avenue. I saw what looked like a small cat in the middle turn lane and slowed down. When I looked closer, there was a tiny black puppy wandering straight down the road, oblivious to the traffic going by. Automatically, I pulled into a gas station and, somehow, miraculously, the little puppy was safely next to my car before I could even get out. I swooped her up and took her to work with me. Many of the people that I worked with were out of the office for a trade show that week, and anyway, they were dog lovers too. What did it matter, now I had this little girl and was going to do what I could. She spent the day in a US Mail Box, which was about the size of a milk carton, under my desk. It wasn't until the afternoon that she started to climb her way out into my office to explore.
A trip to the vet that night put her at 3 pounds. She grew like a weed, outgrowing collars almost as quickly as we could buy them. Within only a week or two she was 10 pounds and just kept going. Our vet at the time predicted that she would be about 20 pounds, but she surpassed that and just kept on growing. She's now about 75 pounds.
When Charlotte was six months old, I woke up to find her panting and shaking uncontrollably on the bed next to me. Michael was out of town at the time and I was terrified for her. What I later learned was a seizure, lasted for several minutes and left her dazed and wandering aimlessly for the next hour or so. Our vet said that it may be an isolated, or at least rare, incidence. We hoped so. Over the next few weeks, the seizures grew in intensity and frequency. She sometimes had 3 or 4 grand mal seizures a day. Charlotte was put on Phenobarbital to control them. It took another 6 months to get the dosage level correct, but it did finally happen. Charlotte has now been on the same dosage of Phenobarbital for almost 11 years and we have never seen another seizure since she was just over a year old. We guess that it was those rough first few weeks of her life that stressed her system and caused the seizures. We are thankful and amazed that she has been able to live a normal life after witnessing those seizures during that first year of her life.
Charlotte grew both in size and into our hearts. She and Ozkar were play buddies, getting into more trouble than two puppies should. She rounded off the coffee table corners, brought our Christmas presents out the doggy door into the back yard, ate our son's retainer, and one day ate the heel off of my interview shoes five minutes before I had to leave for the interview.
As our pack grew, Charlotte became the calm, stable alpha. She never snipped or got angry, just gave a quick growl when anyone got out of line. They understood.
At almost 12 years old, Charlotte is slowing down now. She has distinguished looking white highlights on her face and has trouble coordinating her back legs, especially when she gets excited. She can't get up in the chairs or on the bed as easily as she once could, but she's still getting around and makes the trips up the hill for treats several times a day. She relinquished her alpha position without incident to Ginger a while back and is content to sit with the pack and get head and belly rubs as often as she wants.
Time sure goes by fast.....

Charlotte and Ozkar 2000

Charlotte grew to twice Ozkar's size

Charlotte 2008

Charlotte 2010

Charlotte playing with Ginger and Gracie 2011

Charlotte with Rosco 2012

Daisy Mae - the dog formerly known as "Scrapper"

Daisy Mae came to us about a year ago as a foster, actually as half of a bonded pair with her sidekick, Bo. Bo was the sweetest guy in the world, Daisy argued with everyone.....They were surrendered as a pair to a local animal shelter, Daisy 13 years and Bo, 10. I will never understand....Since it is very difficult to find a home for a pair of dogs, they came here. Only about 6 weeks after Bo and Daisy came as fosters, Bo became very sick and went to the Bridge on the Fourth of July. We found out later that he had cancer in his lungs. Daisy had friends here, so she immediately went from foster dog to permanent dog. By this time, she had worked out her differences with the other dogs, and was fitting in very well. She earned the nickname "Scrapper" after she and Ginger had a disagreement that started with two or three minutes of heavy barking and ended up with them kissing noses.
Through the months Daisy became more and more cuddly and worried less and less about the dogs around her. She loves to lay with the others and spends a lot of time rolling upside down in the hay or on the rug. She seems very happy here.

Daisy with Bo when they arrived

Daisy was shaved because she was so matted

Daisy upside down

Daisy now.... isn't she beautiful?

Layla - Home - Part 3 of 3

The next day, it was time to introduce Layla into the pack. The blue doughnut around her neck came off, but the familiar yellow bandage (no chew flavor) stayed on. It was a month more before the bandage came off - I was so afraid to let her at her tail again. We walked her with Toby, put everyone else in the house and brought her back into the yard with Toby. We then let the others out one or two at a time.....amazingly enough, it went perfectly. Within minutes, Layla was hanging with the pack, getting along well with everyone. Was this possible? Everything that we had read about GSDs said that we would have problems.
Layla got along well with everyone, especially Gracie and Ginger, our welcoming committee, but was still quite timid for a long time. For the first couple of weeks, she didn't trust Michael at all. When he came in the front, she went out the back. She would spend most of her time in the downstairs room that had become her safe place for 6 weeks. The only difference was, now she was there by choice. She was free to come and go as she pleased.
Gradually, Layla spent more time upstairs. She, Gracie and Ginger played with each other regularly and she gained confidence along with weight. She grew to love her schedule and accepted Michael as well as everyone else.
Gracie had her effect on Layla too. Goofy Gracie couldn't stand to have a stoic German Shepherd dog in the family, so she worked on Layla to give her the Goofy Golden personality. We now have a GSD who is as silly as the rest of the gang. She is healthy and happy and completely loved by all.
Later on, we found what may have been the reason for Layla to chew on her tail. She had problems with incontinence which kept her tail wet all of the time. The irritation may have made her chew at her tail. She is taking a supplement now to solve the incontinence and she has a beautiful, but short, tail. 
Look at the pictures below..... it's hard to tell that this is the same dog who came here skinny and sick last Summer.

The day Layla joined the pack (with Lucy)

Layla learns to live the good life

Layla with Charlotte

Layla Today

Layla playing with Ginger

Our Start in Dog Rescue

In Winter of 2010, we adopted Gracie from Middle Tennessee Golden Retriever Rescue to keep our six month old Pyr mix, Ginger, company. Freedom, our only other young dog had just gone to the bridge and Ginger was longing for a young friend to play with. Gracie came in like a tornado, she still does. With her came our association with  MTGRR. We volunteered as much as possible with MTGRR; the only thing that we couldn't do was foster for more than a day or two at a time. We knew that any foster situation would work out one of two ways, either the dog wouldn't get along with our pack of 7 (at that time) or things would go great and we would fall in love. That Spring, we took in Bandit, a 15 year old Pyr mix who was in desperate need of a new foster home. We agreed to keep Bandit for the remainder of his life, as a long term foster dog. Sadly, Bandit only lived for a few weeks, but we knew that he had helped us to find our niche in rescue. Older dogs, especially those over 10, are hard to place and need a peaceful place to live. Moving is hard on these dogs, and we could commit to giving them a place to spend the rest of their lives. Many of our existing dogs were getting older too, and Ginger and Gracie were sensitive to the limitations of the older dogs but added a little excitement to the mix.

Since then, we have adopted several senior dogs through our association with MTGRR. The first was Lucy (then 10), followed by Rosie (14), Toby (11), bonded pair Daisy and Bo (13 and 11 - Bo passed only a month after they came), Hunny Bunny (15) and Maggie (13). All are still with us except for Rosie and Bo. We are happy to say that they all are or were enjoying their retirement years.

We are, however,  not tied only to senior Golden Retrievers, we have many breeds of dogs represented in our group.

While we continue to maintain a close association with MTGRR, I am on the board of directors and an adoption coordinator and we are involved in as many ways as possible, we are now creating our own dog sanctuary to focus specifically on the needs of senior dogs of all breeds. Although our time with a senior dog is not as long as with a dog who is adopted at a younger age, we strive to give them an excellent quality of life in their later years, and focus on the happy times.

At this time we are able to care for about 14-15 dogs. We hope to someday be able to expand our horizons and have the space and means to help more.

Bandit (center) with friends Ozkar and Charlotte

Bandit

 Daisy, Hunny Bunny, Lucy, Rosie and Toby

Layla - Recovery - Part 2 of 3

The next day, we head off with Layla to Dr. B first thing in the morning. I am sure that there is more wrong with her than we can fix. I am near tears thinking that we got to her too late. When we leave the prognosis is not as bad as we'd thought. She has fleas, worms, she will need surgery on her tail, she has a bladder infection and she is so underweight. The surgery to amputate part of her tail is done the next day. She's going to need some recovery time.
At this point, we are wondering what we will eventually do....we have goldens, not GSDs. Everything I read says this is not going to work out. We start off with a solid barricade between our pack and Layla. A few days later we replace the solid barricade with a chain link fence gate. First thing, Toby barks at Layla and Layla growls and barks back. As time goes by, this gets better and the others visit and sit with Layla, on the other side of the fence,  every day.
A friend who has a male GSD and a female Golden says that her family may be able to take Layla in a few weeks as they would like to get another dog. Although it is not likely to work out since her male doesn't get along with many other dogs, this sounds like the best hope that we have. If that doesn't work out, we'll have to look for a family for Layla.
Layla is starting to become comfortable in the cool house, where she's never been before. She remains timid and spends most of her sleeping time behind the pool table in the corner. She spends her days sleeping a lot, listening to calming music and we take her for several walks a day, some with other members of our pack so that she can get to know them. We are happy when she and the others walk together without paying much attention to one another. We are especially happy when she is able to walk with 8 pound Belly without even a second glance. 
As the weeks go by, Layla is healing up. We suffered a major setback when, left alone for a very short time without her no-chew collar, the day before her stitches are to come out, Layla eats the bandage and chews all of the skin off of the bottom of her tail. Back to the vet for new bandages, and a lot more healing to do. We are hoping that this doesn't mean another surgery and starting over again.
Dr. B put an interesting bandage on Layla's tail, now raw, which consisted of layers of honey and bandages. After a rough first try at changing the bandages, Layla was starting to trust me to change her bandages every other day. The tail was healing, but I would never be comfortable to take her anti chew collar off again. Poor girl would have a blow up doughnut around her neck for the rest of her life.....
This went on for a few more weeks, then, after she had been recovering for about 6 weeks, Layla was ready to meet her beau, the handsome black GSD. Many plans had been made for their first meeting but as soon as Layla saw him, she relaxed. After a few wanders around the back yard, it looked like Layla was leaving for a new forever home.
We watched them drive away in the back of a station wagon. They seemed the perfect couple. We knew that the family that she was going to was the best we could ever find for her. We were happy for that, but damn, we were sure going to miss Layla. It had been an intense six weeks and we had become very attached.....Our feelings were mixed, but we kept telling ourselves that it was for the best.
So....maybe Layla and the handsome black GSD were a happy couple, but no one had bothered to ask the normally easy to get along with Golden what she thought about her guy bringing home another gorgeous girl. It was not going to work out.....within hours Layla was on the way back HOME.
We decided before she got back, that we were going to put her with the rest of the gang.....we couldn't bear to have her leave again. Even though she was only gone a few hours, we realized how much she belonged here. We didn't even think of the possibility that it wouldn't work out at this point. We couldn't, we didn't have another good option.

Layla during her recovery period

feeling good on the couch

What in the world is Leo ???

I'm a sucker for technology, so when my curiosity gets the better of me (this is the 4th time) I send off a cheek cell sample for a doggy DNA test. Leo definitely has me baffled....the only idea I had was Teacup Tibetan Mastiff, but I don't think that they exist (ok, I know they don't exist). Below you can see the similarity between Leo (50lbs) and a Tibetan Mastiff (150lbs).
Any guesses? Results are due in 2 weeks.

Leo before groom

Leo post groom

Tibetan Mastiff