Nooch

My story

**IF THIS LISTING IS STILL POSTED THIS DOG IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION. NO NEED TO EMAIL ASKING IF THE DOG IS AVAILABLE. PLEASE READ THROUGH THIS BIO THOROUGHLY AS INFORMATION ON HOW TO APPLY IS CONTAINED IN THIS LISTING** For Adoption: Nooch! Please read our dog bios carefully to be sure that the dog you are applying for suits your family and lifestyle. We at PDR believe in the benefits of post-adoption training for our dogs and their families. This allows for continued socialization, learning and helps to create a well-mannered and balanced dog. Post-adoption training is a requirement in our adoption process. To apply for adoption and for more information on our process and requirements, visit our website at https://pounddog.ca/adoption-info/. Nooch, named for the golden colour of the versatile vegan all-star ingredient “nutritional yeast,” is an 8 year old all-star Golden Retriever who weighs about 55lbs. He has been neutered and is up to date on his vaccinations and veterinary care. Nooch entered rescue from a puppy mill, where he was used to produce puppies in mass quantities. He lived his life in a barn or similar enclosure and was not exposed to the outdoors. Despite his lack of socialization, Nooch is quite people friendly. He enjoys meeting people and will rush right up to them for a quick pat before trotting off in a new direction. He has no fear of greeting people of various gender presentations, determining that there is no such thing as a stranger. He will attempt to greet people on the street and in the home with equal enthusiasm. He enjoys physical affection and absolutely loves being talked to. He does not bond excessively to a single person, and can be an ideal multi-person dog. He is full of joy and his tail is always wagging. Though he is a very happy dog, coming from a puppy mill where he did not receive routine veterinary care, he has been left with compromised vision. He is developing cataracts, and has been diagnosed with uveitis and glaucoma, both of which were untreated for some time. These medical conditions, when left untreated, result in pain, inflammation, and irreversible blindness. Nooch seems to be able to see light and motion the best, but he does bump into stationary objects, and will approach obstacles within an inch before he bumps into them or realizes they are there most of the time. Once he has learned a space he is much better at navigation. Most of the time though, people do not realize Nooch is vision impaired with the confidence with which he moves around. He does not hesitate to move forward and give most things a try. Nooch has been started on dexamethasone eye drops to treat his eyes. His forever family will need to be comfortable with administering eye medication to Nooch daily for the rest of his life to keep his condition controlled and his eyes comfortable. He is very accustomed to his eye drops and they can be easily administered by one person. He may need to visit a veterinary ophthalmologist in the future if his condition deteriorates or cannot be managed by his regular veterinary team, and his forever family should be prepared for this possibility as well as the costs of his current medication and treatment. He may also need additional medications for his eyes should his condition change in the future, but his eyes are currently well-managed. Due to his low vision, Nooch thrives on routine and structure. Once he has learned the blueprints of space he will automatically follow what he thinks is expected of him in that space. For example, now that he has learned the routine of our home, once he is done his business outside he automatically heads into the approximate location of the door and will prod at the wall until the door is opened, without prompt. He often struggles to aim for the opening of doors, but tries his best. Nooch’s forever home will ideally have very minimal stairs that he is required to use, as he does not understand how to walk down the stairs appropriately, and will launch into the void. He does travel up the stairs quite easily, but a ramp at minimum will be required to traverse the downward inclines safely. He generally does not try to go use the stairs on his own, but baby gates will be recommended for any flights of downward stairs to keep him from stumbling down. Thriving on routine and structure, Nooch loves having access to a crate. For many puppy mill dogs who have never been in a larger space, a crate is something familiar and comforting. For the first week, Nooch would go outside to use the bathroom and run back to his crate. Now that he is much more settled, he occasionally rests inside his crate on his own during his free time, but often just visits it for a moment, or rests in front of his crate. He happily eats his meals in his crate, and appreciates a dental chew in there. Being a retriever, Nooch loves to collect toys and bring them to his little crate nest. He sleeps in his crate overnight without issue, and is very clean in his crate. Nooch has not demonstrated overt signs of separation anxiety, and is very calm in his crate when he is left alone. If you are nearby and it is the time of day in his routine where he should be out of the crate, for example first thing in the morning, he does tend to pant in the crate once he registers your presence, and gently paws the air in the direction of the cage door as you approach the crate, but does settle if you leave him be. He will be fine with a family that needs to leave for a standard work-day, as he naps peacefully in his crate when left alone. He has not been protective of his crate space from other animals. Nooch is very quiet in the crate, and we don’t suspect he would have issues in an apartment with elevator access in a quieter neighbourhood or a shared-wall dwelling. Nooch does not necessarily need a backyard of his own either, as he does not tend to spend much time in the yard right now and definitely does not want to sit outside by himself for an extended period of time. Being a clean fellow, Nooch is doing quite well with housetraining. He should be treated like a puppy in his new home for a bit to help him learn the routine. Since we always go out the same door for him to use the bathroom, he is learning to stand at the top of the stairs to the backyard to go out (just two large wide ones don’t worry!), and only has had minimal accidents. He was not much of a marker before being neutered so he did not need much phasing out of this behaviour, but making sure he has had time to pee outside will be important to his continued success. Other than one night where his tummy was upset right after entering foster care, he has never defecated in the house. He is very endearing and tidy in his habits that he touches the earth with a front paw before deciding the substrate is an appropriately absorbent place to poop! As weird as it is to say he has cute toilet habits, he does! In the home, Nooch’s typical day consists of checking various seating surfaces in the home, checking on the other animals, and eventually relaxing nearby or near his crate for a nap. Sometimes he will spend some time collecting every toy in the toy basket and transporting it to his crate before determining his work is complete and settling for some rest. Nooch enjoys stuffed toys and plays with them for a brief amount of time after gathering them. Any soft toys should be monitored for tears as sometimes he likes to chew on the seams and pull out small pieces of fluff, but most of the time he is fairly gentle with his toys. He has not demonstrated resource guarding of his toys in his time with us. He is otherwise not destructive in the home. He is fairly quiet indoors, unless he discovers something new, where he may bark once or twice. He accidentally woke up the roomba vacuum once, and studied it very closely before deciding it needed a single bark to settle itself down. Otherwise he is quiet and relaxed, especially once he is more comfortable in the space. He has not demonstrated fear of common household noises like the TV, vacuum or blender and is very curious. Nooch is currently fostered with two medium-sized female dogs and gets along with them quite well. He has also met a smaller male dog and was neutral in his presence. Although he was used as a stud dog exclusively, he has been respectful and mannerly greeting dogs and is genuinely excited to meet them. Occasionally he will try to play with them when our dogs are excited, but he does not follow them well due to his compromised vision, so it’s difficult for him to engage in full play beyond a brief chase at this point. Once he is more settled in his new life he may get a bit better at playing, but he does not need another playful dog in his forever home, as he is usually happy to co-exist nearby and check in on our dogs every now and then. When Nooch first entered foster care he was quite nervous and unsure of new things, and following the direction of our dogs was helpful for him. Now that he is more accustomed to home life we do not think he will need another dog to live with, but he would also be happy with a gentle canine companion in the home. Any dog in his forever home should be tolerant of a dog bumping into or accidentally stepping on them, as Nooch sometimes stumbles into/onto our dogs, and he won’t be able to read visual cues as well as a fully-sighted dog. At the same time, a very young or very playful dog might be confusing for him to live with all the time, so a mature, tolerant dog will be best. Nooch is also quite interested in dogs on walks if they are close by and turns his head in the direction of barking, but does not try to pull towards them on walks at this time. Nooch is also fostered with two cats. He is interested in cats, and liking his routine and structure, likes to check where the cats usually sleep to see if they too, enjoy the routine and structure of always being in the same spots. He likes to follow the cats and gently see what they are up to, and does get some pep in his step when they jump up on surfaces (movement is fun!) or play. He is always gentle with the cats, but may accidentally step on tails by mistake. Any cats in his forever home should be tolerant of an interested and sometimes clumsy larger dog. Our cats are very tolerant and seem to understand he means no harm. For walks, Nooch is best handled with a gentle leader. He tends to surge forward quite confidently for a mostly blind dog, and will veer in unpredictable directions while pulling hard in the direction he has decided is correct. He is almost acclimated to the gentle leader, but may try a few times to paw it off at the beginning of the walk once in motion. We walk him on a modular leash with a traffic lead handle, which helps us direct him around obstacles he cannot see and prevent him from falling off the sidewalk. He is learning various direction cues to help him anticipate these obstacles, such as sign poles or waste bins, and stepping up and down off curbs. Nooch is adapting very well to walks and is starting to learn to sniff and enjoy his time outdoors. He is very curious of the outside world, and although some sudden nearby noises make him startle a little, he recovers quickly and is usually more keen to investigate the noise rather than run away. He is a bit uncertain about large vehicles passing by, but rallies quickly. He has been on walks both solo and with our dogs together in a group and performs equally well. While he is usually fairly quiet, he now cries when he thinks he is being left behind when we are getting leashes together for a walk, so we know he is starting to truly enjoy them. He is walked about 30 mins at a time, but will also be happy with shorter walks. He has been on longer walks, but his endurance should be built up slowly as we did find him getting tired closer to the one hour mark. Nooch has not been reactive to dogs or wildlife on walks, but we could see him being interested in the fast movements of birds or squirrels with curiosity, mostly because the motion is easiest for him to see. He usually walks in a quieter urban area but we have also walked him closer to the busier parts of town. Other than the large vehicles giving him pause, he is generally tolerant of a busier neighbourhood, but he would ideally like to live in a quieter suburban or rural neighbourhood than the busier urban centre he is fostered by now. Overall, he is best described as having a low-medium energy level. The majority of Nooch’s time training with us has been targeted at life skills and directional cues to help him navigate the world. He is learning luring, and is very food motivated. He has not demonstrated food resource guarding around us or our pets. He tries to take treats very gently but may mistake your fingers for the treats, but never clamps down hard once he realizes his error. Ideally, his forever home will have some prior knowledge of positive reinforcement training to help Nooch progress in his training at home or have access to a small-sized group training class at a basic level that won’t be too overwhelming for Nooch. We do not recommend a first time dog owner for Nooch for this reason. Being mostly blind with historically painful eyes, Nooch has some body handling sensitivities. To help Nooch, we are always very intentional about his handling and first speak to him, then touch a fairly neutral area like his shoulder, before gently running a hand to the area needing attention. We also avoid reaching out fast to pet him or approach him to not scare him. We are teaching him a shoulder touch equals a treat reward. He usually focuses on the touch as we handle him, and we have not had issues handling him for baths, grooming, nail trims or eye medication administration at home. Helping him to understand that touch is neutral and/or positive is important, as he cannot see what is happening to him it is understandably frightening, especially since body handling is not really something that has been asked of him before. Predictable, routine movements build confidence and trust for any dog, and Nooch in particular strongly benefits from this. He is very tolerant in general, but in unfamiliar situations like veterinary exams he can feel overwhelmed, and will growl to communicate his discomfort. While Nooch would be fine meeting some dog-savvy children, we do not recommend him living with them full-time as he would be stressed and confused by the sudden, unpredictable things that young kids do. Despite his blindness, Nooch has come to quite enjoy car rides. He currently travels in a small hatchback without issue. He rolls all over the blankets in the dog seat hammock after jumping in without prompt, as he has learned the routine and what is expected of him. He will likely need a boost into a new car but will pick up on entry into his new car easily. Initially, being a new source of stimulus, he would bark at the occasional passing car, but this behaviour has faded now that so many cars pass that it has become normal to him. He loves to stand as close as possible to the window or look out the rearview to take in whatever his eyes can see. He does tend to pant in the car while he is doing this, but it seems more from excitement than anxiety at this point as he only does it when studying the windows, with a softly wagging tail. Occasionally he will lay down for a break and rest calmly. We do recommend a leash tether to the headrest for Nooch as he is quite busy checking out the windows, but he does not bother the driver directly and remains in the backseat where the best views are. He has not demonstrated car sickness in his time with us. Nooch is ready to find his forever home. He is a sweet and gentle soul looking to have some relaxing golden years. You can find some of his foster journey @twiceluckyfosters on Instagram. Thank you for considering a rescue dog! Name: Nooch ID # PDR1376 Age: 8yrs Gender: male Neutered: yes UTD vaccines: yes Breed: Golden Retriever Colours: gold Coat length: med House trained: yes Special needs: yes, vision impairment OK with kids: no OK with cats: yes Ok with dogs: yes Status: adoptable Microchip: yes Size: large Location: Hamilton Adoption fee: $700

If you have any questions or would like to adopt Nooch, please reach out to the adoption group directly. PetSmart Charities does not facilitate the adoption process. Thank you.