Danny Boy is a gorgeous, nice-tempered, 3-year-old male English Cream Golden who was surrendered by the owner due to his medical needs being too demanding. Connie and Nick fostered this special needs dog who was brought into Rescue on November 15 – AGR member-transporters drove to California to pick him up from a breeder from whom we have gotten dogs before. Danny Boy has the bad habit of eating rocks (a condition called pica) – this is compulsion not a habit that can usually be trained out of a dog. We advertised Danny Boy on our Facebook page and some Internet sites like Petfinder and Adopt-a-Pet, specifically stating that for his own safety – and success as an adoptee – Danny Boy had to be placed in a home whose yard has nothing but concrete, grouted pavers, and/or artificial turf – no real grass, no garden areas where any size rocks could exist (no mulched plants either) and no gravel or rocks of any kind. If he is taken outside the yard, he needs to wear a box muzzle or the OutFox Field Guard mesh headpiece that Connie purchased for him. We got applications from all over the country for this boy, from Washington State to New Jersey, as well as many from Arizona. Most applicants had not paid attention to the environmental restrictions nor the fact that we don’t adopt out of state, or they felt they could train the habit out of the dog. After reviewing over 100 applications and personally speaking with most of the applicants, Connie and Nick decided the best place for Danny Boy was with them. Connie said:

After interviewing many applicants and realizing that we weren’t comfortable with any of them, and seeing how much Danny and our dogs bonded, we caved and decided he needed to stay with us. We have our procedures in place to keep him safe in our grass yard. When he is anywhere rocks are present, we are sure he is muzzled or “OutFoxed.” We didn’t really want that fourth dog, but it is such a joy to see him playing with the other three, that we just couldn’t split them up. It used to be that Riley and Bowie would gang up on poor Jackson, but now they split up into pairs when playing and everyone has a great time.

AGR thanks you for taking such diligent care of Danny Boy.