Harley - Adopted April, 2008

Little Harley is one lucky boy to have found the family that he did! Harley came to his new home with some pretty challenging behaviors, but his adoptive family has worked diligently with him and a professional trainer, and has made phenomenal progress with him since his adoption. Here are some highlights from a wonderful update they sent Harley’s former foster mom, Heather:

Jean and I took Harley with us to visit our daughter in Rochester one weekend staying over night in a pet friendly hotel. Harley did fine both in the Hotel and traveling in the car. We put him in the kennel during the drive. He whimpered a little bit at the start of the drive but then settled down and was fine.

Harley sleeps thru the night and despite going to bed and getting up at different times, not once in twelve weeks has he wanted to start his day before we did!

Harley loves to go for walks. When he sees the leash come out, he gets very excited. He walks on the leash very well and does not pull on it. He does like to stop and smell things a little too much sometimes but a gentle pull on the leash and he is usually fine. We have a small pond near our home with a sidewalk around it. We go there frequently usually making him walk there with out sniffing and once we are there let him sniff a lot (after all his nose needs exercise also). We have also taken him walking around Lake Como in St Paul. Because of his need to sniff, we usually take Harley on a walk for him and walk separately for us.

Harley loves squeaky toys. When his little football that came with him stopped squeaking we noticed he was disappointed. We bought him a small squeaky toy shoe and he loves it. It is hilarious to watch him play with his it. Sometimes when he is playing with his squeaky toy, he sings along with the squeak, it is hilarious.

Heather was right, about mid evening Harley likes his lap time and will usually go to Ed first and then to Jean if Ed’s lap is not available. In the last few weeks he has started to go to the lap of his choice. If no lap is available, he usually goes to an old blanket we have thrown on the floor for him. Either lying on top or burrowing his way underneath. We have also noticed that he no longer has to be in the same room that we are in.

Jean is now off for the summer and the two of them during are doing well during the day together. He has become a good companion for Jean during the day. I have also been working at home one day a week or so. This results in less kennel time for Harley.

Recently we discovered that Harley can climb the ladder to get into our pool. We now use the child safety feature to lift the ladder out of reach when he is out in the yard.

Harley is an adorable little dog and has added a lot of life to our home. Attached are several pictures of Harley in and around his new home. We will continue to let you know how Harley is doing.