Chip 4

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Update 09/24/08: Chip recently attended the MAESSR picnic in Pasadena, Maryland. He was a wonderfully well-behaved boy the entire day. Many people who met him remarked that they could not believe this was the same Chip from the website. Chip is currently enrolled in an obedience class. He enjoys going to class and really enjoys the extra practice he gets at home. Chip really wants to be a well-behaved member of a family. He continues to make excellent progress and will make some family a wonderful friend.

Update 08/25/08: Good news is always great to share, and, with the work that Chip and his foster family continue to do together, his is good news indeed. Chip has continued to improve and is a total love bug. He gives the best kisses. He has had visitors that came to see him recently and they thought he was wonderful.

Chip is now ready for a new level of learning. He is enrolled in a beginning obedience class starting at this end of this month. This should greatly improve his manners and give him a foundation for further obedience training with an adopting family. Best wishes to Chip as he ventures to school this fall with the rest of America’s youth!!!!!!

Update 07/17/08: Chip has been with the same foster family for several months now. He has come a long, long way from the headstrong puppy that came to his foster family. They have worked on commands with him, and he knows sit, down, stay, and will shake sometimes. A treat helps to entice Chip to do these tricks, but he can do them without treats also. Chip loves to give kisses and hugs especially if he can sit on the furniture with you. He enjoys eating pop tart corners in the morning with his foster dad.

He is crate trained but prefers to be loose. He has great house manners, so he is not crated very often. Chip walks fairly well on a leash, will attempt to counter surf (but he is not very good at it), and loves to ride in the car. He is great with other dogs and loves to play with children. His foster parents really like him and 98% of his personality. They have considered keeping him but would really like to see him in a family where he would get more attention than they can provide.

His foster mom is frank about the negative things about Chip, but she wants to stress first that he has NOT bitten anyone.

1. Chip will guard the food bowl from people and occasionally other dogs. In the beginning if you even looked at him when he was eating, he would jump aggressively at you growling and snarling. Now his foster mom can pet him all over while he is eating. He will occasionally give her a look telling her to back off which she ignores. She has not taken the food bowl from him. If she wants him to leave the food bowl, she does one of two things:

A. She takes the loop leash that is kept handy. Now, as soon as he sees it, he comes. She used to have to loop it over his head and then tell him to come.

B. She gets a high value treat and calls him away from the bowl. He comes very willingly.

Because Chip is a food guarder, MAESSR will not place him in a home with children under the age of 13. His foster mom believes this problem will continue to improve if the adopting family is committed to working on it.

2. Chip will occasionally guard a toy or piece of paper he has stolen from his foster parents. They do one of the same two actions as above, either the loop leash or trade him a high value treat such as a piece of hot dog. When one of these two methods is used, Chip has always given up whatever he has. With practice, he now gives up the item more willingly. Again, his foster parents feel that this behavior will improve with practice.

3. His foster mom advises not to allow Chip to sleep in the bed with you. He lies on the sleeper’s legs and then if the sleeper moves in the night and startles him awake, he will bark and snarl until he wakes up and realizes it is ok. The easiest solution to this is that he sleeps in another room on a comfortable bed in his foster home (this is the recliner). His foster family is hopeful that as he gets older and does not sleep as soundly, that this behavior will go away. It is already much less than it was in the beginning.

4. Chip has refused to get off of the bed or sofa in the past. He has not done this in a while, but his foster family wants to let potential adopters know that it was possible. When he refuses to move, they either use the loop leash, a high value treat, or they turn around excitedly exclaiming, “Lets go for a walk!” All three of these work for Chip.

MAESSR is looking for a family for Chip that understands that he is not perfect, and who is willing to put the time and energy into continuing to work with him. MAESSR will require that he attends two sessions of obedience classes. Also, Chip’s foster family would be available post-adoption to work with the adopting family.

If interested in meeting Chip, please email through MAESSR’s main email address. Chip is a special boy that some lucky family is going to enjoy immensely.

Update 06/20/08: Chip has continued to make small improvements in his behavior. His family is still hopeful that their work with Chip will get him to the point that he can be adopted.

This striking handsome boy recently got groomed in preparation for MAESSR’s Richmond picnic, a very fun part of Springerfest 2008. He did ok for most of it. Which is huge for Chip. His ears and feet have been sensitive areas for him to have people touch. Keep an eye out for new pictures too. He’ll likely be turning heads amongst the many springers and their people at the upcoming festivities!

Update 05/14/08: Chip has done very well in his foster home. He is still a work in progress, but his foster mom feels that he will be able to be adopted soon. When Chip came into foster care, he did NOT like to have his ears messed with or his feet handled. His foster family has worked with him on these issues, and he now willingly lets them look in his ears, clean his ears, and rub his ears. He still does not like to have his nails trimmed, but they are working on that too.

The biggest issue remaining with Chip is his possessiveness over certain items he has in his mouth or between his feet. He does NOT want to give them up. His foster parents have been working with him on trading for another item when he is guarding a valued prize and are definitely seeing progress.

Chip’s foster family loves him very much and thinks he is an absolutely wonderful boy. He loves to give kisses and be hugged. He likes to play with toys. Chip is great with other dogs. Please keep this pup in your thoughts as he continues to learn how to be a great dog.

Original: Chip came in to MAESSR with his sister Abbie. They had been purchased by separate families as puppies. Chip began having some behavioral issues, so his family took him to an animal behaviorist. The behaviorist stated that the behaviors the family was seeing and the testing that was performed proved that his issues were genetic and only going to get worse. Chip’s family then made arrangements to relinquish him. When Abbie’s family heard what the behaviorist had said, they were concerned that she might also have “genetic” issues, so they relinquished her also. MAESSR considered long and hard about the decision to take these babies. It was finally determined that due to their age, they would be brought into foster care and evaluated to determine if they were adoptable or not.

There will be more info coming on these babies as time goes on and they are evaluated.