Meet Charlie,
Charlie is a great little dog. And a beauty with those tan and black freckles.
She is young, most likely 1 to 1.5 yrs, per the prior Rescue.
Seems comfortable with new people and is very sweet. She allows all over handling, including touching feet and ears.
She has border collie smarts and capabilities of an all-around, any-activity type of dog. She is FUN!
Someone in the dog world or looking for an active, smart dog would love her versatility, high motivation for fun, and trainability for everything.
Maybe not lure course racing, as she won't win any prizes for being fast.
She demonstrates great body and movement confidence and athleticism. She'll teeter on top of a wire crate just fine and problem solve how to get that errant toy or get around a gate - she tried squeezing through two gates (she was on leash!).
In 48 hours, she's picked on a few easy requests. We started buckets, and she had fun.
She can be a bit jumpy when excited. She will sit when asked and also sits on her own, when she realizes she's not getting the attention she seeks by jumping on you. (this must be something the last family worked on with her). This will be easy to fix!
Puppy playfulness. My border collies (ages 14 and 6) are not fans of her play style - as she doesn't play like a border collie (the body bumping and playing tag / chasing). She plays physical and up in your space and face. When she wants to play, she just jumps up on the other dogs.
Toy motivated / frisbee. She loves the frisbee! During ball/toy/frisbee play - she looks at you for engagement, cooperation and play. She can get a bit overzealous and obsessive on the frisbee. I alternate walking a lap with some frisbee throws, and this keeps her under threshold.
Leash - needs work. She is just excited to be out. She pulled and zig-zagged to all the wonderful smells out there. On leash - she doesn't realize there is a person attached to her. I took her solo twice on walks, and the last walk, I would say we had a 25% improvement. This can be easily fixable --- she already shows the foundations needed through relationship and engagement during frisbee.
Recall - none? maybe a little. haha. It's called running away from her and she'll run to you. She's happy to have fun if you are fun! She's trainable! Or just bring the frisbee. She'll follow you anywhere. I wouldn't let her off leash in an unfenced area!
This girl is NOT A CAR CHASER!
Herding behaviors? No. As a herding mix, she's mild on the herding part. She isn't demonstrating the eye, stalk, chase, grab bite, etc in a way a herder does. She's mildly interested in checking on the chickens in the coop but mostly doesn't even bother going over there. When she sees or hears something, she'll focus on the thing or direction, but she is easily moved away or just moves away on her own when she figures it out. Same when the wind kicks up a dried weed or something. She's excited it moves and then she's done with it. Kind of puppy-ish behavior mostly. I am sure she'd be happy to chase a rabbit - I just don't know if it would be to play with it, or to catch it. I'm not seeing anything that would tell me to be concerned about herding or stalking inappropriately at this time.
Separation: She has some separation whining. It's not terrible, nor is it long lasting (1-2 minutes). It is also reducing. I think it's part of her communication of the instability of her life.
Crate - she will go in when asked at night. She whined the first night for about 2-3 minutes, twice. She whined maybe 30 seconds the second night once. She does settle and sleep through the night. She whined some in the car at the start.
She has pent-up tension/energy - which is understandable from the instability, unreliability, and lack of permanence she's experienced. I've been doing somatic work on her, which has helped (especially when she is doing a bunch of appeasement licking).
She has had a few moments of displacing her dysregulation / insecurities -
1) she stood over a toy I missed putting away. My older BC couldn't care less about the toy, but she read his proximity as an issue for her in the moment. I was able to detour her before any escalation.
2) She body blocked and nipped my older BC when he came up to greet me. I could see her tense up, and I tried to calmly get her to disengage, but her mind was made up in that moment, and I wasn't in a good position.
At other times, she tries to get both dogs to play with her outside, but she is over the top physical. I've been keeping them separated, as I don't want her to feel that her only choice is to make these decisions.
With training and love she can get to a secure place to live with other dogs. Her behaviors are not habits or ingrained. She's a baby dog trying to figure things out.
Submit an application at Hdrescueoregon.com. $400 adoption fee.
MITCHELL
Mixed Breed
🇺🇸
Bend, Oregon
male, medium, baby, not mixed
Mixed Breed
Bend, Oregon
