Huey
labrador retriever Mix | male | 5 years Old | 95 Lbs
QUICK FACTS: ✔️ Good with other dogs and kids! ✔️ Crate trained! ✔️ Housebroken! ✔️ Good in car! ✔️ Walks well on leash!
✔️ Good for beginner dog owner!
Updates
Huey found his perfect family August 13, 2021!
Huey, a very good boy, is such an easy pup to take care of! We wake up when I want to wake up, and then it's breakfast and a trip to the backyard to potty, or we go straight for our morning walk. If I'm working from home, Huey just chills without bugging me, and if I'm working outside, he explores the yard and then naps on the deck. We usually go for a mid-day long walk or one when I get home from work, and he happily keeps up the entire ~3 miles. He gets some good wrestling time in with his foster brother and that helps tire him out, too. So, Huey can be up for exercise, but I also have a sneaking suspicion that if he didn't get any exercise, he'd still just sleep all day and be the perfect middle-aged gentleman pup he is. When it's time for bed, Huey has been sleeping out of the crate and hasn't had any problems -- no accidents, no tearing up the house, nothing!
Huey hasn't met a person he doesn't love. He may bark to warn me that someone is coming to the house, but he quiets down very, very quickly and then is great with visitors. On walks, he's so friendly that I usually have to keep him away from strangers until they say they want to be greeted by him (but he's not obnoxious about it, he just wants to say hi).
He has only met kids on walks, but he's so calm and polite with them. He's also so calm inside the house that I think he'll do great with kids of pretty much any age. And despite his size, I don't think Huey is capable of getting the momentum to accidentally knock anything, young kids included, over.
Huey is such a low-energy dog. But don't be fooled, he's not boring! He will gladly go on long walks and hikes, and he is unbelievably well-behaved on leash. The way he jumped into our kiddie pool, I think he may be a swimmer, too. He definitely enjoys wrestling with the resident pup who is much younger and much more energetic, though he usually wants to stop after 10-15 minutes. Huey may not need exercise to behave, but he does need exercise to lose weight -- poor guy was treated for heartworm and gained weight during treatment, but he lost two pounds in just the last ten days, so he's on his way!
Huey is amazing with other dogs. His Texas foster home had him in doggy daycare and said he was good. Here, he settled right in with our young and little-brother-esque resident pup in no time. There's no fighting over toys (even though Kirby steals whatever toy Huey has), his play style is incredibly appropriate, and he'll let Kirby know when he's had enough, but never in a way that will escalate into a fight. He's met other pups on walks and usually just ignores them or politely sniffs them. I don't know how Huey is with cats.
Huey is crated when we're gone, and he does fine. There are no signs of stress or trying to bust out of the crate or anything. I'm not sure how much he barks when we're away, but I do know that he barked a minimal amount at night when crated, so I stopped crating him at night and he stopped barking (and didn't destroy the house either!). I have to assume he barks some in his crate during the day, and it's possible that if he's not crated then his barking will reduce. To be sure, he's not barking all the time, but it was enough to wake me up and I was mildly irritated (this one mild behavior is truly the only negative thing I can think to say about him!). I'd say signs point to Huey being able to be left out of his crate, but I'm not quite ready to test that theory for a full day.
Huey was treated with a round of antibiotics for Anaplasma and does not show any clinical signs. He will need an adopter to help his weight loss journey. His ideal weight is 75 pounds. Huey will need a dental in the next 1-2 years due to tartar accumulation.
Huey is such a great pup and will make a wonderful forever dog for his family! He needs a family that doesn't expect him to be the life of the party but isn't looking for a personality-less bump on a log, either. He wants your affection and attention, but he won't be needy about it. He'll be a great walking buddy and he'll need you to walk him to get him down to his healthy weight. He may be middle-aged, but he's got lots of amazing years ahead of him! If we hadn't just adopted our pup a month ago, Huey would have definitely been a contender for staying with us permanently :) He is just so darn easy to have around.