Poppy

Poppy and Meadow are two beautiful, spayed, female Golden Retrievers aged 6yrs and 7yrs respectively. They were vet checked and received their rabies vaccinations so they could obtain Pet Passports for travel to the UK           

HISTORY

They were surrendered because their human mum is expecting a new baby and, having her hands full, felt she would be unable to give them the amount of time they deserved.

She told us they have no bad habits, are good with everything and are a very bonded pair of girls so they will only be rehomed together.   After their vaccinations, they stayed with their family for the required 3 weeks and then moved into the kennels 48 hours before transport.

On arrival in the UK, they went into foster with Marilyn and Malcolm for their first two weeks.

ON ARRIVAL

As soon as the girls arrived in the house, it was clear that they had been used to living in a family unit and had been well looked after, properly socialised and were very happy dogs with no obvious issues. 

Marilyn said, “They have made it easy for our own dog, Cody, to carry on as usual by not disturbing his normal routines or trying to dominate the household, although Poppy did once make the mistake of trying to lick Cody’s food bowl and was told off in no uncertain terms and the lesson was learned”. 

AFTER TWO WEEKS

She continued “It feels as if Meadow and Poppy have been with us for much longer than two weeks as they have fitted in so easily to our family life and routines.  They are excellent with our grandchildren and we are quite happy to leave the pair of them with Cody to go shopping etc.  It is a delight to return to three smiling faces and three wagging tails. 

POPPY, in particular, makes sure she has one of my cushions in her mouth to greet me as I open the door but she would never bite or rip it.  It is lovely to see her gentle loving side.

 MEADOW is definitely the older sister, being very sensible and very quiet, and she is loved and fussed by every human we meet on our walks as she always sits politely and waits for cuddles with her big expressive eyes asking for love and attention”. 

PERSONALITY

“They are like chalk and cheese but in a pleasant complementary way. Meadow is calm and relaxed whereas Poppy is more bouncy. They both seem very intelligent and had already acquired a lot of social learning skills before arrival in the UK.

They are very different characters.  Meadow is the quieter, sensible, more placid dog whereas Poppy is bouncy, inquisitive, has endless energy and is the one who will follow you around the house. Poppy absolutely loves playing with us with the water hose too while Meadow watches her from a safe distance!

They both have a lot of love and affection to give in their different ways and both will make ideal family dogs.

They are typical Goldens in many ways in that they love human company and other dogs and food and are keen to please but they also enjoy quiet periods of dozing and watching the world go by”.                                                           

HEALTH

“Both are a healthy weight and have lovely “girly” waistlines! We give them a good grooming every day which they both enjoy.  They also love to be towelled down after a wet walk”.

SOCIAL LEARNING

TRAVEL: They are both happy and content travelling in a vehicle. They were driven up to Burnley to stay with David and Alison and they were excellent in the car all the way. 

They have both undertaken a one and a half car journey with no problem – the pair of them lie down in the back and just go to sleep. 

They also settled down very quickly with their 4 new companions (two resident girls and 2 foster girls).

HOUSETRAINED:  Meadow and Poppy have been clean and dry in the house from day 1 and will happily go to the toilet either outside in the garden or out on their walks.

BASIC TRAINING: They have been well socialized and they both respond well to a range of basic commands such as sit, paw, no, down, wait, ok and leave it. They both sleep through the night downstairs in the same room as our Cody.

Meadow and Poppy continue to be a pleasure both inside and outside the house, always friendly with every dog and human visitor.   

LEADWALKING:  Meadow walks well on a loose lead. Poppy is stronger and did pull on a lead but we found her to be much better on a body harness despite setting off like a train with excitement at the beginning of a walk then settling down after a while. 

After two weeks, Poppy is much better out on our walks now that she is used to her harness and she, now, walks alongside her companions. 

We walk the three of them together and we have no problems, especially now that the girls wait on command at the roadside before crossing on the ok command. 

RESOURCE GUARDING: We do not believe that either of them has an issue with resource guarding but we decided to feed them separately from Cody as Poppy is very greedy and guzzles her meals quickly to try and steal from Meadow’s bowl.  Meadow is obviously used to this and it causes no problem but Cody is not so placid!

We have continued to feed the girls separately from Cody and we are still training Poppy to sit and wait for her bowl and we are trying to slow down her eating, although this is not easy as she loves her food so much! 

SEPARATION ANXIETY: They show no signs of separation anxiety They don’t make a fuss when we leave the house. We felt confident enough to try leaving them on the second day and came home from the shopping to three sleeping Golden Retrievers.

ADULTS:  They are both very friendly with all adults. They love having visitors to the house but we needed to instruct Poppy not to jump up with excitement.   Like her sister, Poppy now also understands social etiquette when we have visitors and she refrains from jumping up immediately.  CHILDREN:  They are very friendly with children and we noticed when our two small granddaughters visited (aged 5yrs and 3yrs) they made no attempt to bounce up at the little ones. You could see that they are certainly used to being with small humans.

DOGS: They have met a whole range of different breeds and sizes of dogs whilst out on their daily walks and have been friendly and polite to them all. They are quite happy to say “hello” and then walk on. 

CATS:  They are untested with cats

THE DREAM HOME FOR POPPY AND MEADOW

We feel the girls are now ready to go to a forever home where they will undoubtedly shower their new family members with love and loyalty.

They are perfect ambassadors for their breed so they would fit in almost anywhere but they are so good they deserve the very best home they can possible have.

SEPTEMBER 2018

Poppy and Meadow have gone to live in their Forever Home