SampsonBlackDog


	Age & Sex: 1 1/2 yr old Male


UTD: Unknown


	Breed: Boxer Mix


Other Dogs: Yes


	Weight: 50 lbs.


Cats: Unknown


	Color: Flashy Black


Children: Under 5: No Over 5: Yes


	Ears: Natural Tail: Docked


Professional Training Required: Yes


	Neutered: Yes


Microchipped: No


	Shelter Surrender


Location: Olean, NY

Adoption Donation $300

12/13/06 - Sorry, it has been so long since I updated on Sampson. Everything is going well here. Sampson is really starting to settle in to the routines. He has even calmed down a bit. Not to say that he isn't still full of energy (because he is), but he seems to know the routine and he isn't so wild anymore. He's doing well with housebreaking. He has only had one peeing accident in the past 2-3 weeks. It was partially our fault too- I think he drank too much water before going to bed- he got up in the middle of the night and peed on our bedroom floor.
When he went to the vet last, there were no ear mites, and he weighed in at 55 lbs. He looks good, he has really filled out nicely. He is going to the vet again on Friday for a check-up for the worms he had when we first got him.
He loves attention and snuggling. He will come up and just put his head in your lap for a scratch and sometimes he will try to climb into your lap for a full body rub. At night, he has begun to snuggle with Haley. It's so funny to watch him, because usually he will lay down by our feet. And then gradually he will inch his way up until he is cuddling her.
He really has "sit" down. He knows that if he wants something, especially treats, he is supposed to sit, and he will do it without being told. We haven't really tried teaching him any other new commands yet. He is still doing well with "off" and "come" too. He is not nipping nearly as much, only when he is very excited/hyper, but not all the time, and he still responds well to correction with the water bottle. We are planning on enrolling him in an obedience training class that starts in January.
We did discover on my birthday that Sampson loves unwrapping presents! He was more than willing to help bite the wrapping paper off of my gifts, so Christmas should be fun for him. Other than that we are so pleased to be adopting him and adding him to our family.

11/30/06 - There’s not a lot that’s new with Sampson. We were gone for three days over the Thanksgiving holidays and our dog sitter stayed with the dogs. I think she was pretty tired after staying with them- but they were too; they slept for the next day. We have been working with him on some commands- he has “sit” down pretty well. He still jumps on the couch at will, and he is still responding well to “off.” He is starting to recognize his name, though not all the time. We haven’t had any accidents in the house since we have been back, but we are still taking him out about every two hours, depending on his water intake. We have been trying him off leash in the front yard. He loves running around with Haley. They run and tumble constantly. He’s been pretty good about staying in the yard. Only one mishap, this morning, when Haley decided to take off to the neighbors yard and he followed. But he did come when called which was good. He is still playing a little rough; I think that he sounds a lot worse than he is. But I have been interrupting the rough play consistently, and he seems to be learning how to play better. He just has a lot of energy and really is just a big dopey puppy. He is going back to the Vet tomorrow to recheck his ears (mites). He has had a scab that wasn’t healing, and two days ago it began bleeding. I am assuming during play, the scab was disturbed, not sure though- will have the vet take a look and let you know what we find out.

11/19/06 - Sampson is really starting to settle in here. We have been exercising him more, upon advice from Kim. He was getting two walks a day, a shorter one in the morning (about 30 minutes) and a longer one at night (45 minutes). He would still be really energetic when we got home, and it seemed hard for him to listen when we corrected his unacceptable behaviors. Kim said that he probably still had a lot of pent up energy, which was making it virtually impossible for him to comprehend what we were trying to train him. So, now he has been getting longer walks at night and I have been taking both dogs to the tennis court in our neighborhood and letting them run around off leash. He has been much better since we have been doing this. He still plays when we get home, but he doesn’t seem so wild. We were also having difficulty getting him to stop biting, he seemed to think we were playing a game and continued to bite after correction. So, we have been using the water bottle- a squirt in the face, and now he gets the point. He didn’t have any accidents in the house or in the crate, until yesterday- my husband was getting ready to take him out when he peed in the house. So, we are being very careful watching the clock, as he seems to need to go out about every hour to two hours. He does drink a lot of water- so we base the time on how much he has been drinking. He settles in the crate nicely now. He may whine or bark, but that lasts for only about half a minute (compared to ten minutes before). He will actually take his treat and eat it, and after that he may, or may not, whine. I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t like the crate; he would just rather be close to us. We have started feeding the two dogs together and they are both fine- neither one of them can pick one food bowl and just eat out of it, they seem to think the other dog has something better in their bowl. Sometimes, they even try to eat out of the same bowl at the same time, with no aggression whatsoever. Our dog seems to be doing better with sharing toys too, we haven’t seen any more toy aggression. We tried letting Sampson sleep in the bed with us last night, and he was good. Slept all night and cuddled with our girl for the past two nights. He is a real sweetheart, loves to cuddle on the couch. He still thinks he is entitled to jump on the furniture at will. We have been correcting him, he responds to “Off” most of the time by jumping off of the furniture. He is also learning “Sit” and we have been working on “Come” when we are at the tennis court, and he responds most of the time. We are still working on his manners- he is still jumping and he is still very nosy whenever we are eating. We see so much potential in him- he is a wonderful boy and we are so excited to have him here with us.

11/12/06 - We brought "Black dog" home yesterday afternoon. He was great in the car. Sniffed around, gave out some kisses, then laid down in the back seat and napped the whole ride home. We took him out, alone, for a focused walk. He did well- for the most part followed right next to us. He tried to pull to the front, but we corrected, and he responded to the correction by walking beside us. After that we brought out our girl. We had to walk her in front, because all she wanted to do was go meet him. My husband was walking Sampson (as we are calling him) and slowly they walked up so that they were walking beside us. When we got home, we did introductions in our yard. They both got to sniff each other, but then they immediately wanted to box- and we couldn't tell if it was friendly or not. So we took Sampson inside- put him in his crate with the Baby gate in the door. He is quite the barker in the crate. Our girl, Haley, kept pacing back in forth in front of his room and finally decided the crate was in her way- she pushed the crate aside and sniffed around his crate. Once Sampson finally settled, Haley decided it was time for him to come out, so she started barking at us to let him out. So, we took them for another walk and afterwards , we let them play for the first time. No problems whatsoever. Sampson is very energetic and Haley is happy to oblige his energetic side. They really enjoy playing with each other, they mainly box and chew on each other and occasionally they will play with a toy or chase each other around the couch. So far, no toy aggression, but we have only introduced two toys. They also drank from the same water bowl with no issues. We haven't tried to feed them together yet. We haven't had any accidents in the house. We have been taking him out every hour or so, or whenever he walks to the door. I don't think he knows to ask, but we have been interpreting him going to the door as him needing to go out- to try to build the connection of door means out. Whenever we take him outside he seems to know he is supposed to potty and he immediately squats down and does his business.
He did get sick last night. About three hours after eating his dinner, he threw up- and we noticed there were worms present. We suspect these are tapeworms, which would explain why he is so skinny. He has a wellness check scheduled for Thursday, but we are going to call the vet tomorrow and see if we can go ahead and get him treated for the worms.
We suspect that he is even younger than 1 1/2 years old. When we met for the transport yesterday, Jeff showed us Sampson's teeth- he still has a few baby teeth. He acts very much like a puppy. So far he has been a great boy. He is showing some puppy behaviors- he's jumping and he chews/bites on us, but we are correcting these behaviors. We are also working on the barking in the crate. We have been putting him in the crate whenever we cannot supervise him. Gary suggested squirting him with a water bottle and telling him "no bark." We tried this last night, and it did help. We will be crating him during the day, while we are both at work. We crated him last night- he settled quickly and the crate was dry this morning.
We are really enjoying having him here. We feel that he is a very good fit with our activity level and with our dog. We will keep you updated on his progress, and we will add some new pictures once we get them uploaded to the computer.

11/9/06 - Hi everyone I am happy to report that Buddy is doing really well. He has settled in very nicely with our family and it has only been a few days. He is not nearly as hyper or jumpy. Don't get me wrong he is still very high energy just not as intense. Buddy is my little shadow he follows me and likes to be where I am. He loves to snuggle on the couch and is always full of kisses. He is doing much better in the crate no real whining anymore. a simple Shush and he settles right down. He has proven to do well with our cat as well. He sniffed and then actually paid her no mind after that. He really has a ton of potential and he is so beautiful. I can't wait to see pictures of him when he fills out into a nice healthy weight. Buddy will be leaving us this weekend but you can be sure I will watch the website daily for his progress.

11/6/06 - The newest arrival to the BAR family is a beauty of a Boxer Mix whom we are calling Buddy. He is going to another foster home next weekend so we wanted to let them name him. Buddy gets along well with the 2 resident boxers one female one male. He has a ton of energy but is a lover. He loves to lick their faces. He and Marco love to play tug but they are both very loud. Marco is louder then Buddy but Buddy has that low growl too. Buddy needs a bit of work on basic obedience and training he doesn't know much of anything but seems eager to learn. He did OK in the crate last night needed a bit of a push to go in and he did bark for about 5-10 minutes before calming down. Today when he was crated so I could bring the kids to school my husband who was upstairs trying to sleep said he whined for about 5 minutes but then stopped. As for kids we don't have any history on Buddy with them but he has been good with mine very loving however he knocked down my 41/2 year old last night as he was planting her with kisses. She took control really quick and by the end of the night he was just standing with her and doing as she said. He is jumpy but we will continue to work on it. I am saying not good with children under 5 right now because he does need to be taught. He is also very mouthy he likes to bite on things. This morning he grabbed on to my daughters blanket and was trying to play tug with it. He has a lot of very puppy behaviors. Buddy did keep his crate dry last night but did have a little pee accident in the house this morning. I don't think he knows how to ask to go out but he has been good about going out to do his business when you let him out. We will just continue to let him out constantly so he gets the hang of it. I won't say he is 100% trained but I am not saying he isn't just a learning game right now for everyone. To end this little note Buddy is just the cutest thing ever. He is tall and lanky like a young male boxer but he is jet black with white tips on his toes and a little dot of white on his chest. He has a fabulous disposition and I am sure he will turn into a great family dog. He is a little lover man who just wants to play and sit in your lap. Stay tuned.

11/5/06 - Black dog is here with us for a lay over. He is a tad bit hyper but is now enjoying a bone. I am not sure what his foster family is going to call him so we are just going with Buddy while he is here until they let us know what to go with instead. So everything went well and both dogs are safe and sound.

From one of Buster's Transporters - Nicole - Black dog was definitely hyper, puppy like hyper but a good boy and sweet. I had him in the back of the truck with the barrier, (while Boo slept up front) and had to pull over, stop and open up the kennel. He was so hyper in the back he was biting things, etc. Once I put him in the kennel he settled down and rested. Both of them were cute boys. It was a nice day for a drive.