Freddie is an incredibly sweet, loyal, gentle dog who lives to be near his humans. In a lap, on a couch, in a bad--anywhere he can happy watch people and feel part of what’s going. He’s very very affectionate and doesn’t hesitate to scoop his head under my hand to tell me he wants a pat. He’s pretty lazy and doesn’t jump up from his sleeping spots when it doesn’t seem worth his while. On a cold day, he can be reluctant to go out for a walk. But when he gets excited he really shows it, skipping jumping, tail going crazy. His excitement is most predictably triggered by a human or another dog or a bit of food, but sometimes it can be hard to tell what’s suddenly got him going, he’s just happy by himself.
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Up to date with all shots and vaccinations, including Bordetella, Canine Influenza, and Lyme disease, fleas and worms etc.
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General health over all is excellent.
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Dental health has been great, and his teeth over the past year have stayed healthy.
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Incredibly sweet natured, social, loves other dogs but prioritizes humans mostly
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Does very well at daycare and with any dog walkers or sitters he’s had, or any play time he goes to.
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He is roughly 8 years of age from what we know.
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He's housetrained to go only outside. The one exception is when he's around another dog who pees inside, in which case he tends to copy the other dog and mark.
He is very social and loves other dogs. He’s a superstar at daycare gets along great with all the other dogs and the handlers. He’s a particularly good traveler--the best traveling dog I’ve ever known. No crying or throwing up. He does well in a bed on the floor of a car, on the subway, Amtrak etc. We have special bags we use to travel with him that he now recognizes as “relax, lie down.”
Since he’s been with us we’ve had great success in training him, and he knows sit, down, go to bed, go to crate, and stay. There’s every reason to believe he could learn more.
He used to have a lot of separation anxiety, and that has actually improved a lot and he can spend periods of time alone happily napping in his crate. He will need to have someone who can continue to work with him so he feels comfortable staying alone when someone is not nearby.
If he gets riled up by people walking by the house, he seemed to respond well to the words “settle” or “settle down.”
When Freddie arrived with us, in April 2018, he had some red blood vessel patterning on his skin. During routine talks with his vet, we were told they looked like hemangioma, and we biopsied, and she was right. We took a hemangioma off in July, 2018. Hemangioma is a benign, noncancerous tumor made up of blood vessels, so completely harmless. It’s likely caused by his having sun exposure in the past, and his brother Albert had the same thing. We kept monitoring and biopsying the spots to be sure, and in October 2018 we got another red mark taken off. We got this one biopsied too, and it showed early signs of being Hemangiosarcoma--which is a cancer. Because we caught it, no cancer had spread, and Freddie is completely fine (yay!). We consulted a specialist oncologist to be certain, and Freddie was given the all clear. The oncologist, Dr. Britton at Blue Pearl Clinic in New York, treats this kind of stuff often and expects Freddie to live a long healthy life.
But, like all of this breed with any sun exposure, he will need to monitored and anything new should be looked at to be safe. Easiest way to keep track of his spots is by photographing them to be able to compare/send to the vet. There’s a chance he may need something else taken off in the future if anything pops up. If nothing else, just to be sure, and if there is ever another cancerous spot on his skin, it can be taken off early and leave him completely healthy. It’s pretty similar to human skin and sun exposure in that sense. Luckily he’s a little soldier and was very brave through any vet visits, and it’s a good opportunity to get his teeth cleaned at the same time. We were told by the oncologist that his condition is common and manageable, and we have heaps on information about it now. We feed him two preventative herbs she recommended us, just for good measure. We have a lot of information on preventative care, too, and beneficial vitamins. The big takeaway is: he should be monitored--like any other dog, but here there’s a specific thing to watch. He currently has no notable sun damage and all his skin markings have been given the all clear.
He doesn't have any spots any more, just a few freckles. The spots which were of concern were removed, and two of them actually faded on their own before we could remove and biopsy them. So the information about his spots is just for reference/medical history for any potential homes. He has been given the all clear by the specialist oncologist and his regular vet many times. I would hate for a good new home to be turned off by the idea that he's spotty or needs surgery--right now he doesn't, and he may never.
The two supplements the oncologist put him on are Yunnan Baiyao, which we buy very cheaply here in Chinatown, and I’m-Yunity: http://www.imyunity.com/ which is more expensive because there's only one manufacturer in the US that uses the correct manufacturing techniques for the polysaccharopeptide ingredient. Omegas like Nordic Naturals can also help.
As for the CBD products, the neurologist told us to get Canna-pet and Canna-companion, which can also be pricey but the products go a long way with small doses. We find the oil form of it to be the most potent, but we also use the pills.
