Another foster fail!

Meet “Sir Fur”…the shelter’s name :face_with_raised_eyebrow:. Bebe pronounces it Surfer. Surfer it is.


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Looks more poodle than anything else. Be mindful, poodles are scary smart.

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He is a Labradoodle. That smartness is why so many seem to be in rescue/shelters. That and possibly the recurring costs of grooming. Obviously, the breeders aren’t doing an adequate job of potential client education.

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His bio on the shelter site was “overly active and an escape artist”. I suspect he’s just being a regular dog and this is the excuse for surrendering him and keeping him in a crate all day long!!

Seems pretty mellow to me

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Congrats on your failure. :slightly_smiling_face:

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And he sits nicely for pictures

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Aw, c’mon. We have a Border Collie/ German shepherd mix who might be called “scary smart.” What it means is that he understands language, can communicate with us by a variety of vocalizations and body language and can do what he’s asked when asked in complete sentences.

Needs daily exercise and lots of attention. Not a dog to leave alone like a robot, much less in a crate.

Wendy

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@VeeEnn what a nice looking dog! Was he a foster? Why would someone give up a valuable “Doodle”?
Wendy

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There are way too many people out there who don’t understand how much time it takes to properly care for any dog, let along a smarter breed such as a collie or poodle. It’s one reason I won’t have a dog. I simply don’t have the time to take care of one the right way.

I do have cats, which are considerably more self-sufficient - as long as you feed them. And if you forget, they won’t beg - they simply use their superior speed and stealth to take food off of your plate!

–Peter

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This guy was allegedly an owner surrender at our local shelter. According to his shelter notes, he was in his most recent home for just 4 months (he’s just over 2). He’s a lovely dog…has rudimentary training and very biddable. Very loving and person oriented…but not pushy or clingy. So far, everything in the right amounts. So “why”, you ask.

These are not cheap to purchase dogs, so you’d think there’d be some sort of commitment or, at least, forethought, right? Like you mentioned, smart dogs need attention and maybe folk underestimated that. Or the expenseofregulargrooming?.

This guy shows all the signs of being crated a lot … not scrunched up like Max who looked like he had orthopedic issues when Geri first got him (then once he got used to room to stand “miraculously” grew a few inches!) However, he’s very undermuscled and bony. You can see along his spine in the first picture. That’ll be fixed promptly, I’m sure and he shows all the signs of another good running dog.

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Border collies are the one breed that generally tops poodles for intelligence.

Example of my aunt’s poodle+? You didn’t wear shoes in her house. So, I would start taking my shoes off as soon as I came in the door. The poodle would look down the hallway from the living room, see me, and run full blast down the hall to say “hi”, which amounted to excited jumping all over me, as I was trying to untie my shoes. With no prior training or prompting, one day, I said to him “go tell her who’s here.” He ran back down the hall to the living room, where my aunt was sitting, barked four distinct barks, then ran back to me. I had only gotten one shoe untied, by the time he was jumping on me again, so I said “I don’t think she heard, tell her again”. He ran back to the living room, barked the same four distinct barks, then ran back to me again. Scary smart dog.

Steve

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Nah, down the list to number six…really number six is the smartest? Yep because the Rottweiler will ask you what is in it for me? A poodle is “biddable”. A rott needs to talk it over. He or she has several other angles to work out with you.

Dogs have one major job as their specialty such as herding, pointing, retrieving etc…there is generally just one major behavior as a job in the larger breeds. Rotties specialize in all of the jobs. Except when the police used to send out a bloodhound with their nose to find someone a rott was sent along to pin the man down. And possibly bring back the bloodhound.

Heard that years ago from a dog whisperer. She cut my teeth on rotts.

She also used to say the only larger breed without a job was the dalmatian. Just riding in a truck is not actually a job. Dalmatians can be aggressive but they really are not guard dogs.

One thing yer dog whisperer got wrong was the traditional role of Dalmatians…a coach dog. In Days of Yore, coach travelers were at the mercy of highwaymen. Dalmatians had the endurance and agility to run alongside/under coaches and, should a coach be held up, dart out and worry the horse’s legs.

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That is actually interesting and true but not really one of the traditional bred jobs a dog has.

Just like a pit bull is not actually a fighting dog by breeding. A pit bull only fights when man gets to messing around with him.

Also the pit does not have the worst jaw strength of all dogs not by a long shot. Just like a dalmatian is not the best guard dog by a long shot. When I say a specific job for a dog the breed inherently has the capacity and excels at it.

DH brought Tyree* to his mother’s nursing home when they were just getting her settled there. Mom was quite sick at the time so DH left Tyree with her while arranging matters in the office. At one point, Mom wanted DH and told Tyree, “Go get DH.” So Tyree found DH and signaled him to come.

A separate incident: I drove to a working dairy farm and parked in the parking lot. The farm’s border collie met me as I got out of my car. I said, “Where is Bob?” The dog turned and trotted away. I followed…right to Bob sitting in his office in the barn.

The specific job the border collie was bred for was finding and herding sheep that were scattered in the borderland hills and bringing them home. If you need someone found and brought back, the border collie is your dog. Their favorite game is “hide and seek” in the house. It makes them crazy to “lose” a pack member. (The border collie doesn’t have a great sense of smell so they can’t track like a bloodhound does. But Tyree did find me on our local hiking trail using his nose since he was very old and both partially blind and deaf.)

Wendy

  • We adopted Tyree from the local animal shelter. He was picked up as a stray but he was obviously pre-owned as he was already neutered. He was skin and bones – only 17 pounds at 7 months old. He became a Velcro dog, having learned that being separated from his owner was a bad thing. We adopted Cliff, our current border collie, when Tyree was 12 years old. Tyree died at age 15.
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Your new dog seems to be in very good shape. It won’t be long before he is well-muscled and running with you.

When we got Tyree you could see every rib. He weighed only 17 pounds (dramatically underweight for a 7 month old border collie). When we got Cliff he was all coat and no dog. You could see his hip bones and his coat was falling out. He weighed 37 pounds – in the range of the 35 - 40 pound dog I wanted. Little did I know that he would grow to 70 pounds once he was adequately fed. His coat looks like a border collie but his puppy adoption paper said “German shepherd” so I’m 99% sure that his mom was a GSD and his dad was a roving BC.

You really got a fine dog with your rescue.

Wendy

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Yep. Their loss, our gain. I was on grandma duty/puppy sitting yesterday afternoon. Daughter’s hospital was inundated with emergencies so she ended up working on a planned day off. Was excellent in the car and so good when we took him a walk. Non-reactive with other dogs and very mannerly when we were talking with folk on the route. Plus we had a very wild thunderstorm pass over. Totally “meh” except for a really loud thunderclap almost overhead which startled me also.

I’m not looking for problems … but it’s hard not to think there’s got to be something. He’s too perfect for words!

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A former member of this board was “Russ of the frogfarm”. His wife posted on the board one day what had happened. They had been out Christmas shopping on black Friday. When they got home, Russ said he was going to see what was on the Fool. She was working on something in another room, when their dog came in the room, very agitated. She followed the dog, and he lead her to the room where Russ was. Russ had had a stroke. Unfortunately, Russ never recovered. He died a few days later.

Apparently, my aunt’s poodle decided I gave better walk than she did. I was sitting in an open armed chair in the living room, while my aunt was putzing around in the kitchen, only a few feet away. The dog reared up on his hind legs and gave me a shove with his front feet, then did the “come on” head wave that people do. Message “YOU, come on”. After he did the shove/head wave sequence about three times, I finally got the leash and took him out.

Steve…slave to dogs and cats

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Yes, me too. Besides being “careful shoppers” this board has lots of animal aficionados.

I now have one perfectly normal big affectionate 7 year old golden retriever, “Gandhi”, who husband and I adopted when his owner, a friend, became unable to walk, and Gandhi definitely needs lots of walking. He is a calm peaceable and peacedmaking dog, and so we also let him do walkabouts alone. One day he brought back a dog I had seen on the streets, a mix of German Shepherd, Mexican street dog (almost a breed unto itself) and I am convinced Beagle. He is a brilliant dog who had extremely bad and dangerous habits, but after 15 months of intensive work he is a key part of the household. His sense of smell (the Beagle), sight and hearing (the German Shepherd) and survivalist doggedness (the street dog) make him a perfect guard dog out where we live in the countryside.

I am stunned at how many people seem to confuse caring for and managing dogs with manipulating video games.

david fb

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Yep. Here are our furry companions from 1976 - present.

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