Adopted June 25, 2008
Rescue Date: 5/26/2008
From: Merced Animal Control
as Stray (5/15/2008)
Breed: Border Collie
Size: 70 lbs
Color: Black - With White
Sex: Male
Age: young
Oreo is:
good with most dogs
good with children
up to date with shots
William is a approximately 2 - 3y/o Gorgeous 70lb Border Collie with an extremely friendly, gentle, calm and all around even temperament. William's number one priority in life is his handler. His number two priority are all the strangers he gets to meet. His normal greeting for everybody is a cheek or a chin resting against the leg or in the lap for an ear scratch. He never jumps, climbs or licks even when invited to do so. William does well with men, women, children and seniors and hasn't shown any interest, herding or chase drive with bicycles, skateboards, people or small animals. I've looked but I haven't gotten to see his interactions with cats. Overall, William is incredibly smart and wants to learn fast, he seems to constantly try to figure out what I want/need him to do.
William is perfect with his canine house-mates and is reserved and has done well with the majority of the dogs he has met (better than 9 out of 10). He loves puppies and small dogs and is very outgoing with them (9lbs to 30lbs) and is indifferent to medium sized dogs and would rather just do his own thing around them. He seems to have a security issue with large dogs (60+ lbs) who appear hyper, unstable, off leash and come into his personal bubble (like at a dog park), with confidence building and strong on/off leash work this issue should go away.
I do not believe William has had any previous formal training. William walks perfectly on leash and while supervised, I trust him with the leash laying on the ground in public. Normally he stays beside me or slightly behind me and never pulls, when I stop to talk to somebody or pay for something at the cash register he drops into the down position. William picked up when I tell him "stay close" he walks with his shoulder to my leg ignoring people and other dogs. He responds to my personal click, whistle and hiss commands. In class and public, William has a strong recall but never really needs it because he never leaves my side. When he is at a distance from me normally he is very attentive to where I am unless he falls asleep which seems to happen a lot towards the end of a long day of being out and about. He heals perfectly except when there is an out of control dog in the area, he wants to run away at that point. He does not know the verbal sit or down commands yet but has picked up the sit and down for a treat fairly fast. When in a down or sit position he seems to understand the stay command at the end of a 6 foot lead. Overall he did perfectly in his first obedience class plus had great eye contact, he made the other dogs who had been coming to class for a while look bad.
William is housebroken and does not chew or dig. He also does not jump on the furniture, he will not jump on the couch but will sometimes hop in bed if I invite him but normally will move back down to a carpeted area during the night. I've only seen William really play twice with one other dog who I adopted out recently and I was able to riled once before where he got excited but typically he doesn't initiate play, he is happy just sitting next to you waiting for the slightest acknowledgment that he can get an ear scratch.
