Meet Piper!
Piper is a sweet, sensitive and gentle 5 yr Border Collie in need of a foster, adopter or foster-to-adopt. Piper MUST go to a home in a quiet neighborhood w/ access to a big yard.
ABOUT: You will fall in love with this little lady. She is SO sweet but unfortunately is very anxious in an apartment setting and prefers to be outside; we believe a transition to a quiet home w/ yard or even bigger property will help her anxieties greatly. She will love continued training, especially nosework. She needs you to be dedicated to mental enrichment and physical exercise, and, of course, SO much love and affection.
She loves getting attention, especially if you kneel in front of her and let her put her paws on your shoulders and then give her lots of pets. She loves belly rubs, a lot!
Piper enjoys adventure outdoors and loves to just sunbathe and lay in the grass (she’ll even take the concrete for sunbathing). She loves people & has previously been kenneled w/ other dogs.
A home w/ lots of people to love on might be most ideal; she should be with adopters dedicated to exercise, mental enrichment, training, working with the behaviorist if needed, lots of love, etc. She is probably better as the only dog in the home, but might do okay with an older calmer dog as She can be timid and submissive with other dogs.
Dogs: Overexcited dogs and very small dogs are much more likely to make her nervous, which will mean tail tucked and basically trying to jump into my arms if she's really nervous. With positive reinforcement, now on walks if she gets barked at by dogs or if a dog is way too overenthusiastic, she will typically just turn to you for treats or pets.
Re: cats: She’s interested in cats but doesn’t seem over interested (doesn’t go after them like squirrels). But she has never gotten close and it’s always been outdoors, so it’s still an unknown.
Re: other animals: She's very interested in chasing squirrels, but it’s gotten better with positive reinforcement. It’s not a big concern.
PEOPLE: She loves meeting people. On walks, if they don’t stop to say hi, she will stare longingly as they walk away. Groups of loud men make her a little nervous, but not too bad. If we are walking and there is a group cheering at a football game or something, she will now mostly look to you for treats or pets instead of panicking.
Crate: She loves her crate and it is her safe space. She loves to sleep in there. We have done training on sealing it up totally and having her stay in the crate, but it’s slow progress and hasn’t been a priority of mine. I cover most of the crate as well, so it is a comfortable dark place for her. I think she could definitely be crate trained eventually and because her anxiety keeps her from sleeping, crate training might help her with napping.
Housetrained: Yes
Piper’s Known Training words
-Sit
-Down
-Touch (this is targeting)
-Wait (this is “stay”)
-Come
-Settle - place (using gray mat, which I will also give to you)
-Potty time - she generally knows this means “let’s try to potty instead of a 45 minute walk” or “we’re getting close to home after a long walk, let’s try to potty”
-“Careful, foxtails” or “watchout/lookout for the foxtails” has kind of accidentally worked as “leave it” or "stay close to me"
-Working on “off” but not so effective yet
Nosework class (will give you the notes) with the Right Steps, but there are others. If you do a class, be sure to bring things like thundershirt, happy hoody, licky mat, for her to be okay being in the car alone.
Re: the car: She generally likes the car, especially when she knows we are going to one of our hikes. If she thinks I’m going to leave her, she drools. Before she got as comfortable in the car, she twice threw up, so you want to not feed her right before a drive until she’s comfortable. It took her about a week before she was happy to jump right into the car. She LOVES to check on the car on walks (I park on the street), she just sniffs and makes sure all is good.
Favorite Things/Likes: Most favorite is tearing up cardboard. She likes squeaky toys, but you have to be careful she doesn’t get into the stuffing. She has this funny hamburger and hot dog she loves (I'll give these to you), but I only give them to her for fetch otherwise she’ll tear them up. Tennis balls, especially squeaky ones. Sometimes nylabones, especially the one with real wood. Busy buddy and wobbler type toys. She loves burrowing with the blanket and other items in her crate Walks, especially out in nature. Sunbathing in the grass. Cuddling up with her human. Training. Nosework, just doing it at home is great. Karen Overall’s Relaxation Protocol. Fetch (especially with squeaky toys). Running.
Routine! Eating, she loves to eat for sure. She loves getting attention, especially if you kneel in front of her and let her put her paws on your shoulders and then give her lots of pets. Walks, especially out in nature. Fetch, she needs to run every day. Sunbathing in the grass. Cuddling up with her human. Training. Karen Overall’s Relaxation Protocol. Licky mats, kongs, etc. Belly rubs. Brushing her fur (with treats). Brushing her teeth. She could sniff and sniff all day. Her thundershirt (give treats before and after putting it on). She often likes her happy hoody. If you hold it out, she’ll stick her snout into it. On occasion, she’s not into it and will try to shake it off, but mostly she likes it!
What does the dog dislike?: water / baths
Triggers: skateboards, loud squeaky cars, loud trucks, barking/yappy dogs, unknown noises, like a cart wheeling by, motorcycles, very loud voices, loud knocks on the door, sometimes those electric scooters, leaf blowers, loud mufflers, baths (water being sprayed or dumped). Too much activity (walking on busy streets with restaurants, active parts of land park, big groups of people)