Hello everyone! I’m not sure if this is the right place to do this, but I just wanted to introduce myself (and my new pup) to the community because I just found this website and started an account last night.

I’m brand new to being a tripawd mommy and I’m a constant flurry of worry now thinking that I might not be protecting him well enough or allowing him too much activity, or maybe not enough, etc. That’s why I was very excited to find this website and the community of people and families dedicated to helping other tripawds live long, happy, healthy lives!

A little about Cooper – he came into my life 2 weeks ago (as of today actually!) when I adopted him from a woman who was fostering him after his amputation. He has only been down a limb for 5 weeks now, but no one told him because he doesn’t seem to have missed a beat at all.

All I know about his life before me is that the man he was living with died at home and wasn’t found for a while. He had other dogs in the home along with my Coop and Animal Control said that he was bit by one of the other dogs and since they weren’t found for a while, the wound got so infected the doctor wasn’t able to save it.  The records show that they did try some really heavy antibiotics and kept him almost fully sedated for about a week while they tried to see if it could heal, but I guess it was too far gone by then and they had to remove the leg.  It’s his back right leg (and from what I’ve seen, I guess that’s a small blessing?  It seems like back-leg amputations seem to be a little easier on the dog than front legs?).

My Cooper is a 2-year-old, 50-pound Black Lab (possibly a mix? He’s solid black and looks very much like a lab, but he’s a little smaller than most full-grown labs so who knows?).

And I can’t even begin to tell you how much joy he’s brought to me! He’s the sweetest, most snuggly dog I’ve ever had and has the best temperament as well.  He loves people and children and other dogs and seems completely unfazed by my other 2-year-old hound mix (Sir Duncan the Loud) who’s a bit of a pest and is always trying to goad him into playing by mouthing with him or shoving toys at him .

I’ve been incredibly (and pleasantly) surprised that I haven’t seen him display an ounce of aggression (at least not yet – I know that after only 2 weeks it’s hard to know for sure…). I really thought that after what he’s been through (living along and probably mostly foodless for a while, being badly bitten by a 'brother', getting a leg amputated, and being moved to/from 4 different “homes” in the last 4 weeks before coming to me) that he would understandably have some sort of aggressive tendencies, at least some fear or resource guarding aggression, but so far, I haven’t seen any evidence of that.  And he’s the only one of the dogs that I’ve adopted that doesn’t also have some heightened anxiety issues also.  He does display mild separation anxiety, but not too bad, and I’ve seen that lessening a little over the last 2 weeks already, so I think that once he realizes that he’s not going to be left again, that anxiety will fade away.

The only “behavior” complaint that I have (which is still very minor) is that he definitely has not had any sort of training or obedience work. He doesn’t know ‘sit’ or ‘down’ or ‘come’ at all.  I thought that maybe ‘sit’ was just an issue because of the newly lost leg, but he hasn’t given any indication of knowing any other command either – and when I give the commands holding a treat, he doesn’t offer behaviors or show that he knows that he’s being asked for something – he just stares at me with a blank, though happy, stare lol.  I’m going to try to start with ‘come’ for now while I teach him HOW to learn, since that’s really the only one that I feel like he NEEDS to know at this point.

Anyway, sorry for the long post – but hopefully you can tell how happy I am with my new friend by how much I like to talk about him! =)

I look forward to hearing from some of you/reading information with advice on how to help my buddy have the best life possible. Especially any information that anyone can share on how to manage high-activity play time with another dog in the house (Cooper and Duncan play HARD together – run around and wrestle in the back yard together for as long as I let them – they absolutely love to play together!).  And also any recommendations on supplements for bone/joint/soft tissue support and tips on massaging the remaining limbs to help with comfort.

 THANKS in advance and I look forward to continuing to read all of your stories! =)