His name is Riley, he is half Golden Lab and half Golden Retriever. He is barely 16 inches from floor to the top of his back when standing. And barely 2 feet from nose to tip of tail. He is going on 3 years old.
The reason Riley is so small is at his checkup when we first got him, the Vet discovered that he has a heart (birth) defect. The main valve/artery into the heart is WIDE open. This is a problem for pumping the blood through correctly or normally. When he is "resting" his little body actually 'shivers'-like from the extremely rapid beat of his heart. You put your hand over his heart and oh my goodness! The swoosh swoosh of the it all is awful. The vet told us at that visit that he would not make it to 1 year old. As I wrote up above, Riley is nearly 3.
The cold air affects him we have to keep him from breathing too much. But he is hyper and scampers all over the place. He does not like to be left along. He has to be around either me or dh CONTINUOUSLY! Yes Yes!!! He is very spoiled! He 'talks' to us. He is very picky about food. Has to have hashbrowns and eggs-just like us! We told vet and he laughed. Said there would be no harm done to his eatting people food at this point. He said to let him be happy! well......there is happy and then there is spoiled!
He is a lovey dog. A lap dog....so it's a good thing he didn't get so big! Here is a pic of him taken a couple weeks ago. You will notice he has a pink nose and not black. I never knew that the pink nose indicates a health problem!!! I was in awe at the vet telling us how that is an indicator. Then I phoned another vet clear across town, and he concurred. Spoke to our friend who emailed her vet son in CA and sure enuf...same story. So....anyway, here is our baby, Riley!