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Mandy's Web Page

Labrador Retriever / Mixed (short coat)  : :  Female (spayed)  : :  Young  : :  Medium


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Learn more about the Labrador Retriever.

About Mandy

  • Status: Adopted! | View Mandy's Success Story!
  • Adoption Fee: 300.00
  • Species: Dog
  • General Color: Tan
  • Color: Tan
  • Current Size: 38 Pounds
  • Current Age: 10 Years 9 Months (best estimate)
  • Microchipped: Yes
  • Housetrained: Yes

Foster Update 4/22/14:
Due to a snafu in the adoption system (no fault of Mandy’s), we’ve been able to keep Mandy for almost a month now, and we’ve really gotten to know her well.  Here is what we’ve learned.

One amazing thing about Mandy is how athletic she is.  My kids’ beds are about hip or waist high to an adult (it’s like a bunk bed, but with dressers underneath instead of another bed)­­.  For me to get in, I have to back up, put my hands on the bed and boost myself up and back.  The first time the kids told me Mandy jumped onto the bed, I didn’t believe it, but since then I’ve seen it myself several times.  She doesn’t even take a running start!  Also, when the kids are chasing her around the house, she’ll go up and over couches, completely clear dining room chairs in one jump, and just run so fast she makes me think of some super matter from physics class that can literally be in two places at once.  Just so you know, she doesn’t go on beds or couches just to hang out, it’s mainly when she’s been invited, or once or twice when she just really wants attention from whoever is up there.  We don’t have a problem where she’s climbing up on the couch by herself every time we aren’t there.

 

We taught her a few things, too, and she’s a really fast learner.  When we got her, she would jump up and grab at her toy with her mouth, so the first thing we taught her was to sit when she wants something.  Now she is so good, you don’t even have to say “sit,” just hold the toy and be still for a minute until she remembers what to do.  She knew “sit” when we got her, and now she knows “down,” and “stand,” and can do them all with hand signals or verbal cues in any order.  We also taught her “leave it.”  Tell her leave it, and she will ignore a hot dog dropping to the ground in front of her until you give her permission to eat it.  We are trying to transition this to her toy, so we can say “leave it” and have her drop her toy or ball for us to throw for her.  It’s a work in progress.

I also taught her to run next to the bike.  She’s just beginning to learn this, so I keep my eyes on her the whole time, looking for cues that she’s spotted a squirrel or is beginning to cross in front of me.  I taught her to stay on the right side of the bike by stopping every time she would cross in front of me and calling her back over to my right side.  She’s really good at it so far, takes instruction well—if I catch her thinking about a squirrel I tell her “no” right away and give her a little tug in the right direction and she refocuses on the road in front of her. We go in a quarter mile loop in my quiet neighborhood several times.  I can imagine that we will widen our route soon if I still have her.

Housetraining:  Mandy is the first dog we’ve had who didn’t have an accident while she was getting used to our house.  In fact, she seemed perfectly housetrained.  Then we had a no-school day where we didn’t follow our usual schedule.  I took her out when we got up, at 7AM, but then not again.  So here we all are at about 11AM lying on the carpet playing a game, and Mandy got up, walked over to the other side of the carpet, and squatted to pee.  We were all pretty stunned, and it made me realize that she never “asks” to go outside, because she never has to.  On a normal day, she is in and out of the house about 5 or 6 times a day dropping off and picking up kids, jogging, walking, watching yard work, etc.  She never needs to ask, so we never really developed a system.  This is something you’ll have to work out in your household after you bring her home.  But I can say for sure, that if you take her out often enough, she won’t mess in your house.

 

We take Mandy many places with us.  She walks the whole neighborhood, and even jogs with me outside the neighborhood.  She goes to the school gate twice a day to be petted by the moms and dads waiting for their kids, and then by the kids on bikes, scooters and on foot flooding through the gate at the end of the day.  We have a lot of kids in our yard and in our house, and she loves the attention.  She loves to play with one dog who stays behind his invisible fence, and she can’t understand why he won’t follow her out to the sidewalk.  However, in the middle of all this friendliness, we’ve discovered that at times she can be protective and growl or bark at some people.  She occasionally barks at my husband, and she’s barked and growled at two adults who came into our house.  We’ve had a few other adults in the house who she greeted with a friendly demeanor.  And twice on a walk she acted aggressive to someone who wanted to pet her. When she acts this way, she is not “out of control,” but does bark and growl in a way that makes you want to pull your hand back.  Myself or the children can still pet her, hug her, try to comfort her, and easily restrain or remove her, and she never turns the aggression on us. One day she was in my front yard, tied up while I was doing yard work when my next door neighbor came to visit.  Mandy growled and barked at her.  This neighbor is a dog trainer, and she showed me what to do.  She got a bunch of hot dog bits and began to throw them where Mandy could reach.  Meanwhile, she talked nice to Mandy without looking her in the eye, and also calmly continued her conversation with me.  She threw the hot dog bits one at a time closer and closer to her own feet.  Mandy stopped barking and growling by the second or third treat, and I could see from her demeanor (and how she stretched to eat the treats, trying not to get close to the lady) that she was really just afraid.  The hot dog ran out before she could get Mandy close enough to take one from her hand, but I could see that this was definitely the way to remedy this situation.  So, Mandy’s forever family will need to introduce her to strangers slowly (everywhere, but especially when she’s on her home territory), and if there is someone you need her to accept and she reacts negatively to them, you’ll have to break out the hot dogs. 

Foster Update 3/16/14:

As soon as we saw that smiling picture of Mandy on her website, we knew we wanted her for our next foster dog.  I told my kids not to get their hopes up, because she looks so perfect that she probably doesn’t even need a foster.  We were so happy to get a chance to spend some time with her, and I know it will be short.  You know how people call some homes “move-in ready”?  Well, Mandy is “family ready.”  She’s healthy, beautiful, friendly, fun, fully housebroken, heck, she’s even a member of the loose leash club, trotting right along without pulling on walks! 

She’s full of personality, too.  Lizards drive her to distraction.  She pounces on the grass with one paw on each side of the lizard in a very undog-like way that is quite comical.  Once I even saw her leap with all four paws about a foot off the ground to recapture a lizard who had moved.  She doesn’t grab for it with her mouth, but just stalks it and stares with a cat-like intensity while her tail does these up and down and circular motions like a radar antenna.  We’ve noticed her tail doing that same motion when she crouches down to play with another dog.  I wonder if it’s possible she wants to play with the lizard?

She also likes to hide her bone when she’s not got it in her mouth.  So far, she’s put it down the crack of the couch, under the curtain that hangs on the floor, and in the corner of my bedroom between the nightstand and the wall.  I found her in my bed once, nosing around in all the pillows, and couldn’t figure out what she was trying to do, but later I realized, I’d come upon her trying to hide her bone, and foiled her perfect hiding spot.

She also likes fetch and catch, but her absolute favorite is chase.  She loves if you will chase her down and try to get the toy from her.  She races around the house or yard like lightning, and then when you corner her she rocks back and forth, then picks a side and zooms past you like she’s making the winning touchdown.  Most hilarious is when she’s running so fast she drops the toy, then she slows down and turns to see you holding the toy.  She gets this determined look, like, “you may think you’ve won, two legged human, but I will prevail!”  She’s teaching my kids to keep their stuff picked up, because she will play this same game with whatever you leave in the middle of the floor; shoes, Wii remotes, etc.  At first she didn’t chew the stuff, put now we’ve realized that if we don’t take it away from her; she will chew whatever she finds left out.  So far, she doesn’t  bother things that are put away, even shoes on my daughter’s shoe shelf, which is eye level for Mandy and near where she sleeps.  Only items left in the middle of the floor.  Leaving me to shrug and say, “Well, I told you to put it away!”  Funny, my living room floor is clear for the first time in months! 

She’s a tug of war fanatic also, and we keep her tug toys close at hand because when she gets into what my daughter calls “puppy mode” she’ll grab whatever’s near and tug.  She has grabbed onto clothing in this way, and she’ll mouth your arm or hand in a very playful way that still can hurt.  Sometimes when we’re out for a walk she grabs the leash and tries to walk herself or play tug of war.  I hold her by the harness and have her sit and get calm, then we start the walk again.  If she does it at home, we just give her the tug toy, and she happily takes that instead of whatever she’s not supposed to tug.

Her coat is most like a lab with a thick hank of fur behind her ears that’s perfect for sinking your fingers into when you’re giving her a good scratch.  She’s got a touch of white on each paw, and a little triangle of white on her chest.  And you can see in the picture, she’s got the gorgeous smoky black around her eyes and mouth.  At only 38 lbs, she’s smaller than most “big dogs” her age, but not small enough to count as a small dog.  She’s just the right size to be big, but still easy to handle or pick up if you had to.

Mandy is very people oriented, hanging around wherever we are in the house.  She walks my daughter to school, then comes in the car to ride with my son to his school.  During homework time, she lays at my daughter’s feet and takes a nap.  Right now she’s snoozing on the floor next to me.  She’s still puppy enough that she loves to play, so she’d be great with older kids or grownups who act like kids once in a while.  She does great on jogs with me, so far she’s gone three miles, no pulling, no problems at all.  She does like squirrels and birds of all kinds, but when she gets that look in her eye, I just make a disapproving noise, and she falls right back in beside me.  Her hyper, puppy behaviors will occur more when she isn’t fully exercised, so she will need a routine that includes several long walks and playtime sessions daily.  She’ll probably do best in a home with a secure backyard for her to run.  I think she’ll need close supervision with small children, because she is very fast, and she does use her mouth to play in a way that could scare or hurt small children.  However, she’s shown no aggression to me or my children.  She barks at Daddy sometimes, but we pet her and hug him, and tell her, “that’s Daddy!” and she gets over it.  I thought it was something about him invading her territory when he arrived home, but now she’s done it when he’s leaving, too, so I’m thinking it’s the work clothes.  She’s completely normal and friendly with him most of the time, but something makes her see him as a stranger once in a while and she barks at him.  She’s also friendly when we meet other dogs on walks.  She does raise her hackles, but she doesn’t bark or growl, and her tail wags the whole time.  She is crate trained and sleeps in her crate.  I also put her in her crate when we are not home, but when we are all home she prefers to hang out with us.

As an update one month later, the foster reports great things about her! 

One amazing thing about Mandy is how athletic she is.  My kids’ beds are about hip or waist high to an adult (it’s like a bunk bed, but with dressers underneath instead of another bed)­­.  For me to get in, I have to back up, put my hands on the bed and boost myself up and back.  The first time the kids told me Mandy jumped onto the bed, I didn’t believe it, but since then I’ve seen it myself several times.  She doesn’t even take a running start!  Also, when the kids are chasing her around the house, she’ll go up and over couches, completely clear dining room chairs in one jump, and just run so fast she makes me think of some super matter from physics class that can literally be in two places at once.  Just so you know, she doesn’t go on beds or couches just to hang out, it’s mainly when she’s been invited, or once or twice when she just really wants attention from whoever is up there.  We don’t have a problem where she’s climbing up on the couch by herself every time we aren’t there.

 

We taught her a few things, too, and she’s a really fast learner.  When we got her, she would jump up and grab at her toy with her mouth, so the first thing we taught her was to sit when she wants something.  Now she is so good, you don’t even have to say “sit,” just hold the toy and be still for a minute until she remembers what to do.  She knew “sit” when we got her, and now she knows “down,” and “stand,” and can do them all with hand signals or verbal cues in any order.  We also taught her “leave it.”  Tell her leave it, and she will ignore a hot dog dropping to the ground in front of her until you give her permission to eat it. We are trying to transition this to her toy, so we can say “leave it” and have her drop her toy or ball for us to throw for her.  It’s a work in progress.

 

I also taught her to run next to the bike.  She’s just beginning to learn this, so I keep my eyes on her the whole time, looking for cues that she’s spotted a squirrel or is beginning to cross in front of me.  I taught her to stay on the right side of the bike by stopping every time she would cross in front of me and calling her back over to my right side.  She’s really good at it so far, takes instruction well—if I catch her thinking about a squirrel I tell her “no” right away and give her a little tug in the right direction and she refocuses on the road in front of her.  We go in a quarter mile loop in my quiet neighborhood several times.  I can imagine that we will widen our route soon if I still have her.

 

Housetraining:  Mandy is the first dog we’ve had who didn’t have an accident while she was getting used to our house.  In fact, she seemed perfectly housetrained.  Then we had a no-school day where we didn’t follow our usual schedule.  I took her out when we got up, at 7AM, but then not again.  So here we all are at about 11AM lying on the carpet playing a game, and Mandy got up, walked over to the other side of the carpet, and squatted to pee.  We were all pretty stunned, and it made me realize that she never “asks” to go outside, because she never has to.  On a normal day, she is in and out of the house about 5 or 6 times a day dropping off and picking up kids, jogging, walking, watching yard work, etc.  She never needs to ask, so we never really developed a system.  This is something you’ll have to work out in your household after you bring her home.  But I can say for sure, that if you take her out often enough, she won’t mess in your house.

 

We take Mandy many places with us.  She walks the whole neighborhood, and even jogs with me outside the neighborhood. She goes to the school gate twice a day to be petted by the moms and dads waiting for their kids, and then by the kids on bikes, scooters and on foot flooding through the gate at the end of the day.  We have a lot of kids in our yard and in our house, and she loves the attention.  She loves to play with one dog who stays behind his invisible fence, and she can’t understand why he won’t follow her out to the sidewalk.  However, in the middle of all this friendliness, we’ve discovered that at times she can be protective and growl or bark at some people.  She occasionally barks at my husband, and she’s barked and growled at two adults who came into our house.  We’ve had a few other adults in the house who she greeted with a friendly demeanor. And twice on a walk she acted aggressive to someone who wanted to pet her.  When she acts this way, she is not “out of control,” but does bark and growl in a way that makes you want to pull your hand back.  Myself or the children can still pet her, hug her, try to comfort her, and easily restrain or remove her, and she never turns the aggression on us.  One day she was in my front yard, tied up while I was doing yard work when my next door neighbor came to visit.  Mandy growled and barked at her.  This neighbor is a dog trainer, and she showed me what to do.  She got a bunch of hot dog bits and began to throw them where Mandy could reach.  Meanwhile, she talked nice to Mandy without looking her in the eye, and also calmly continued her conversation with me.  She threw the hot dog bits one at a time closer and closer to her own feet.  Mandy stopped barking and growling by the second or third treat, and I could see from her demeanor (and how she stretched to eat the treats, trying not to get close to the lady) that she was really just afraid.  The hot dog ran out before she could get Mandy close enough to take one from her hand, but I could see that this was definitely the way to remedy this situation.  So, Mandy’s forever family will need to introduce her to strangers slowly (everywhere, but especially when she’s on her home territory), and if there is someone you need her to accept and she reacts negatively to them, you’ll have to break out the hot dogs. 

 

 

 

More about Mandy

Good with Dogs, Not Good with Cats, Good with Kids

 
 

Other Pictures of Mandy (click to see larger version):

Mandy Mandy Mandy Mandy
Mandy Mandy Mandy Mandy
Mandy Mandy


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