Sunday, May 9, 2010

Slate Needs A New Family!

Slate, from the Gemstone litter, came back to us a few weeks ago and is now ready for a new home. His owner was a young woman who lived in an apartment and Slate apparently really didn't like being the only dog. He is a sweet, rather easygoing fellow, but when he was left alone in his crate, even for just a few hours, he announced his unhappiness to the surrounding apartment dwellers and even managed to get out of his crate!

Here, he has stayed quietly in his crate for varying times as I tried to reconstruct the problem so we could deal with it.The only time he cries is when he is left alone, without other dogs, and then it doesn't matter whether he is loose in the room or crated. So it's not the crate, it's the loneliness! I suspect this is because he stayed with us till he was almost five months old. They usually leave at ten weeks, but Slate's new owner was not able to take him then, so we held him for her. He became accustomed to always having other dogs around and I think he is just not going to be happy anywhere unless he has some canine company as well as an owner to love.

Slate is a lovely blue fawn boy, just turned eight months old. He's mostly well-mannered (which is the best you can say about any puppy if you're honest), crate-trained, housetrained, and leash trained. He's very, very affectionate and just likes to cuddle. He's a typical energetic whippet who needs to run a couple of times a day, but is happy between runs to hang out on the sofa.

The pictures are of him with his dad, Blue. Slate is the lighter one in the picture. He gets along very well with males and females and has met a number of other breeds. Like most whippets, he likes other sighthounds best, but I'm sure he would adjust to any friendly doggy roommate (he says especially if she's a girl!).

He is AKC registered, up to date on shots, and has a microchip. He still gets a little woozy in the car sometimes, but is growing out of the typical whippet-puppy-carsickness. He will need to be neutered around a year old. His parents were both health screened clear for eye problems and heart issues.

If you'd like to talk about whether Slate might be a good dog for you, please fill out our questionnaire and give me a call at 540-464-8046. Mornings and afternoons are best.

1 comment:

michele said...

He's beautiful. sounds like a great young dog.