Stella is approximately 5 yo with a B/W shiny rough coat. She is a social butterfly having attended a couple of dog shows lately hanging out at the rescue's fundraising booth. There she greeted and was friendly with adults, children and other dogs that visited the booth. There was no fear of strollers, wheelchairs, or crying children shown.
I got Stella from another foster home two weeks ago and she has integrated well into the household. I have two male border collies and Stella gets along great with them. My two males sometimes wrestle with each other and have tried to get Stella to join in but she doesn't seem to know what to do...just stands there with her ears perked up and watches intently.
Since Stella has been here, she has been such a quiet girl, especially in the house, that you hardly know she's around. Sometimes she decides to follow you from room to room to keep an eye on you. Although she does this, she is fine being left alone when I have to leave the house. She doesn't even need to be crated although she is crate trained.
Stella has a gentle and sweet demeanor who loves attention but is not demanding about receiving it.
When Stella is outside with my dogs, she is more lively. She barks at the neighbor's two dogs who come up to the fence to bark and visit. This is the time she will play with various toys (she won't play with or chew on any toys in the house except a nylabone). She's gotten where she will pick up a toy outside and bring it to me to have it thrown. When I first got Stella, she ignored the outside toys. Now she likes you to kick a soccer ball and will bring it back to you in her mouth. Of course, now the ball's losing air and its covering is pretty bad. She likes vinyl toys thrown for her and she's pretty good about bringing the toys most of the way back to you. Yesterday I threw a cloth frisbee for her and she actually caught one of the throws. Today we played with a tennis ball and she really enjoyed that too. When Stella first got here, she was content to just sniff around the back yard and check things out. Now she has discovered the joy of toys!
The commands Stella knows are: sit, come, lie down, kennel, wait, leave it, and stay. A couple of tricks she can do is "bang" (point your finger at her and she'll lay on her side and sometimes put her paw over her eye) and "shake" (can shake with either paw).
In Stella's previous foster home there were two cats and foster mom said Stella never bothered them but they knew to stay still when a border collie was in the room. I'm not sure if Stella would chase a running kitty or not. The other day she chased a squirrel through the back yard and kept an eye on it as it went up a tree, walked the telephone wire and finally left the neighbor's yard. All her attention was focused on that squirrel.
Stella doesn't show any herding instinct with me or my dogs. We haven't had a chance to be around bicycles, skateboards, etc. On our walks cars have driven by (we have to walk in the street due to no sidewalks) and she is fine with the cars going by.
This foster dog came into rescue in Jan., 2012 and weighed 60 lbs. which is several pounds over weight. She is 23" at the shoulder so she is not a smaller BC. This past month or so she has lost 6 pounds. She had to be treated for having crystals in her urine but did not have a urinary tract infection. The crystals cleared up and she has been put on Proin RX two times a day. This is due to a slight incontinence problem she was having. The medication has corrected this. The only time she may leak urine slightly is if you are late giving her the medication. It remains to be seen but Stella may need to be on the medication the rest of her life.
Once she has lost more weight, that may also help. BTW, the RX is rather inexpensive depending on where purchased. Stella does not need to be let outside to potty any more often than my other dogs.
One of my dogs is a therapy dog certified through Delta Society Pet Partners and makes therapy visits at the hospital. In my opinion, Stella has the qualifications for doing this also given her temperament and personality.
In the next few days we will be working on leash walking. At times Stella tends to pull hard on the leash but other times she's pretty good. Also on the agenda is continuing her lower calorie doggy diet and exercise to get more weight off her. She could probably stand to lose another 5-7 pounds.
Stella would make wonderful companion for a lucky family or single person.
