Levi is now ready for adoption. Here is his foster family’s write-up…

“Levi came into rescue, through no fault of his own, after his owner died. He was clearly a well loved dog and would make somebody a lovely pet with a bit of extra training and enough exercise and stimulation.

Essentially he’s still a puppy and he can be a little boisterous when playing, so if rehomed with other dogs they would need to be okay with this play style, or be able to tell him when they’ve had enough. Equally, we think he would be fine as an only dog as his original owner only had him and he was with them for all of his life (he’s 2yrs 8months).

He loves to be around you so will be your shadow the majority of the time if you let him!
He loves playing fetch and will bring you a ball or toy and drop it at your feet (or on your lap if you are sitting down and he’s decided it’s play time), so a garden that can accommodate a game of fetch would be great for him.

He will happily settle on the sofa/dog bed/floor in the same room as you if you work from home (as I do).

When we have visitors, he wants to go up to them and say hello straight away, but because he loves meeting people, he can occasionally jump up initially due to excitement.

Energy Requirements:
Currently has about 1hr30 exercise a day split into 2 walks. He loves being out and could definitely go for longer walks.

Previous and Current Training:
He is always eager to go for a walk but needs training on loose lead walking as he is quite strong on the lead, but manageable, and he is better on the way back.
Fully housed trained and will wait at the back door to be let out (doesn’t bark to let you know).
Knows sit, paw, lie down, and sometimes “speak”.
Not really any recall, but off lead in an enclosed field he did run back to “Levi, what’s this” so with some training this should improve.

Dog/Cat Test:
Loves other dogs in the home and outside.
He can get excitable and pull to other dogs to say hello.
We have been on walks with friends and their dogs and also off lead in an enclosed field with other known dogs and most of the time he went off on his own to sniff and run around. Any interaction with the other dogs was appropriate and friendly.

No history living with cats but kept barking at a cat over the wall in our garden.

Home Alone:
We were told he had separation anxiety but he has been fine when being left downstairs (separate from our dog but free to roam kitchen, living room) when he has heard people leave the house.

Children:
Not tested in foster, however reported to be okay with them in previous home.

Vet Visits:
Absolutely fine, loved the Vet and wanted to give constant kisses.

Levi is vaccinated and neutered.

Medical Issues:
None known

Travelling:
Travels well in car, some panting but no other signs of distress or barking – probably hasn’t been in cars much so he should settle once he gets used to travelling.

Handling/Grooming:
Fine with this, he will happily sit on sofa for a fuss and rest his head on you. Happy to be brushed.

Food:
Not as food obsessed as we expected (for a lab!!). He came with some basic tinned and dry food, but we raw feed our dog and so we switched Levi to the same diet. He wasn’t sure at first, so we had to spoon feed him, but he soon got used to it.

When adopted, you will be able to try him with other foods – it seems he prefers the food which isn’t as wet (the chicken option of raw food seems to be drier than the others which I think is why he preferred it), and out of the food he came with, he preferred the dry food and left the tinned wet food. Previous home said he didn’t like meat in jelly but was fine in gravy.

Sleeping:
In foster, he sleeps on a dog bed in my son’s room (our dog is in our room). We do think that he would be fine sleeping downstairs as he does settle by himself in the day (we just felt mean making him sleep downstairs when our dog got to go upstairs!!)

Behaviour:
He was understandably quite anxious when he arrived, and this manifested as lots of humping and licking of our dog. However this has now settled down after a week, and he only wants to give our dog kisses now. He has not tried to hump any other dog, so it could just be our dog (lots of dogs seem to try humping ours for some reason!)
He likes stealing the occasional shoe, but this is easily traded for a treat!

Home Needs:
Although we do not think he has separation anxiety, I think he would prefer if someone was around for most of the day, so that he is not left alone for more than a couple of hours, especially when he is first settling into his forever home.

Party tricks:
Levi is very clever – he can help with the gardening by digging holes (if left unsupervised) and can open some doors by himself!