Jazzy

Hello everyone! I’m pleased to introduce you to Jazzy, a beautiful girl is a 5-year-old Golden Retriever who is ready to be your new best friend. Jazzy is a medium-sized girl weighing around 60 pounds and her coat is such a stunning rich golden colour with an adorable white sugar face around her eyes. We have noticed that her coat and tail are continuing to fluff out a bit more with a healthy diet and we imagine her coat will continue to come in as she continues with a healthy diet, regular brushing and just general love and care.  

Upon her arrival in foster care, Jazzy was a very shy and scared dog and had her tail tucked between her legs for a few days and super unsure of her new surroundings. Her life up until now was used for breeding purposes and has never known the simple life of a family pet. She came around pretty quickly but she is still a work in progress in her trust building of the people and world around her. With some time and patience, Jazzy has come out of her shell and has a massive desire for physical attention, basically any opportunity she gets! She has the sweetest face and a small little nose that she will nuzzle through your hands and arms begging for pets and attention. She loves head pats so much and will just close her eyes and drift off while you give her gentle little head pats – she has come so far from tucking her tail to being an attention queen! 

Since Jazzy loves physical attention, she has started to enjoy being bathed and brushed more. When we are brushing her foster brothers, she wants in on the action which is a great thing since she is a golden retriever, and her double coat is prone to shedding (especially during those dreaded shedding seasons!). Jazzy will require regular baths and a brushing routine to maintain her beautiful coat (and also keep your floors clean). 

As Jazzy started to feel safe in our home, her personality started to come out. She is obsessed with toys, any kind of toy. She loves to collect them and bring them to her bed where she hoards piles of different stuffies, ropes, kongs, balls, you name it she is adding it to her pile. Jazzy is also a comfort queen and the more blankets the better for her, she will kick them around along with her collection of stuffies to create a cozy nook to nap in. If she isn’t napping on her bed, you can find her sprawled out frogger style in the middle of the room, she is just pure comfort all day every day. She also loves if you sit down next to her on the floor and she will curl right up to you for some head scratches and kisses. Jazzy hasn’t quite figured out how to play with her foster brothers yet, she prefers to watch them from the sidelines and dive in to steal their toys to hoard when they are done with them. But she is very polite and will never interrupt them while they are enjoying their kongs or bones, she is very respectful of their space and has settled in well with her two foster brothers. She enjoys following them around and has learned the basics of being a well-mannered house dog by watching what her big brothers do and following their lead. Jazzy just wants to be around her pack and is a very chill dog, but at the same time she can be quite startled by louse noises or sudden movements but each week that passes she continues to get better and beat her fears. This brings me to my next point is that Jazzy is still living with the trauma that she suffered while being a puppy mill mom and can be insecure at times, especially with loud cars or sudden movements. It is going to be very important that her forever family demonstrates patience with her as she continues to grow and move through these obstacles that she has in her mind so she can trust that you and the home that she is living in are safe spaces. She will require a home in a quieter neighbourhood without a lot of traffic or on a busy street…a rural area, small town or tucked away subdivision would be required for her. 

During her time with us, she has gained a lot of confidence outside of her confined crate space and she loves to sleep on her cozy blankets while we work from home. She will start to whine which can escalate to barking and scratching in the crate when she is crated, but she will settle down after a while. Jazzy will go in the crate but sometimes requires a bit more encouragement as she does not enjoy it, so her forever family will need to continue working with her on that. It is very important that she keeps up learning to have independent crate time so as not to instill separation anxiety into her.  Although Jazzy must learn she doesn’t need to be always attached to her people, she would not enjoy a home where her people are gone for a full workday or most of the day. Someone home more than away will be best for her. 

Jazzy is slowly learning that the outside world is not so scary or overwhelming as she once thought. It was a challenge getting her to leave the front hallway and porch area and she could only go for brief walks before something spooked her and she would just freeze in place. She has graduated to longer walks accompanied by constant encouragement and head pats to keep her moving. She had very limited leash experience prior to foster care and would just pull in different directions or freeze in place right in the middle of a walk. Jazzy has made huge progress and has been learning how to properly follow her handler. She is being walked on a martingale for safety as she is a flight risk and needs to be safe and secure while walking with no risk of slipping out of her lead. Jazzy also does not take treats on her walk which can be a bit trickier for training, but she does respond very well to positive reinforcement and head pats and this has been working well when training her to walk beside you and not into you. She has this weird quirk (that has been getting better) where when you turn around to walk in a different direction, she will run a circle around you tangling her leash, so proper leash skills and training are required for her to continue to gain confidence and walk in a straight line. Jazzy is continuing to enjoy longer walks, slowly adding small increments of time onto them as her confidence grows. Loud cars can be startling to her, but once they pass she shakes it off and as more continue to pass she gets conditioned and they bother her less and she is easily redirected to focus back on the walk. Continued exposure to these things will just help this sweet girl gain more confidence. When it comes to car rides, she won’t jump in on her own and needs some help but she remains calm the entire drive. Then when it’s time to get out of the car, she wants to jump out so she must be safely secured in the vehicle to remove the risk of her escaping. 

In terms of other animals, Jazzy is being fostered with two-large-sized dogs and 1 cat. She loves her dog brothers and even her cat brother (who mind you is a very dog-savvy cat). She takes cues well from her pack and when it’s time to relax and chill, she is right there with them, she just loves being a part of the pack. Jazzy has not demonstrated any resource guarding of toys, food or beds with her foster brothers or people. She is an easy-going girl and honestly just wants to make everyone happy, she isn’t here to cause drama, she just wants a cozy quiet life. She would do well in a home with other dogs, or as a solo dog where she can get all the attention she deserves, and she can also live with other dog-savvy cats as she has shown zero prey drive. 

Jazzy is the typical golden retriever and is very food-motivated, we’ve got zero issues with appetite over here! She is fed two times a day and finishes every last bit of her food, she has picked up on the feeding time routine very quickly. The minute we start preparing all of the bowls for meal time she is standing there just wagging her tail waiting for that bowl to make its way in front of her. She isn’t a fan of people walking past her while she eats, so we are working on that by doing things around her while she is eating and she is getting better at just continuing to eat even if things are happening around her. You have to just remember that so many things are still very new to her, like grinding coffee beans and making a smoothie, those used to be sounds that would make her jumpy but as she has heard them more and more living with us it becomes less of a big deal and she can eat with that going on around her.  

In regards to her activity level and her daily routine, she is happy with her efficient daily walks to gather and learn the typical sights and sounds of living in the city, we are working on increasing the time on her walks but that is a work in progress as she learns her leash etiquette. She will need a home with a yard that is fully and securely fenced for bathroom duties and play time.  Jazzy only had a couple of accidents in the house while she was learning, but since then she has been fully housebroken and does all her business outside. She will let you know by either circling around or whining to let you know that she needs to go. Outside of the whining to let you know she has to go, she is generally a really quiet dog but she does make really funny grunting noises when she gives herself a good scratch and hits that sweet spot.  Because she is sensitive to noises and sudden movements a home with young children is not suitable for Jazzy. She requires an adult home or one with teen children that can be cognizant of Jazzy’s fears of loud noises etc. 

Jazzy’s forever family will need to understand the patience and work that it will take to help rehabilitate her and incorporate her into their family. It will not be overnight but rather it will take some time, patience and care. With all of that being said, Jazzy has made tremendous progress while we’ve had her and we know that in her forever family it won’t take long for her to settle and enjoy her new life. Important to note for her forever family, our veterinarian has taken a good look at her teeth and has recommended a dental within the next 12 months. This is not urgent but is something that her adopters need to be made aware of as Jazzy does require some dental work in the near future. This can be potentially delayed some with continued feeding of her top quality diet, and access to sturdy chew toys like Nylabones, to work away at the tartar, but it is something that needs to be taken into account when considering Jazzy.

This sweet girl is just waiting for her forever family to take her in and make her feel safe and loved for the rest of her life. Jazzy has really started to shine over the last few weeks and has become such a fun loving dog, she is going to light up someone’s life and that’s all she wants to do for you. Her forever family is going to be so incredibly lucky to have her in their lives, she just wants to love you for the rest of hers. If Jazzy sounds like the right dog for you, please apply!