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Hi!
When he came to me he was actually afraid. Deep inside he wanted to come closer but if you wanted to take him by the collar or play with him or pet him (not to mention putting him on the leash!), he would nip you and bounce back in fright, that would be followed by nervous barking as if he was saying ‘What do you want? I don’t understand your world. I’m scared.’ He didn’t know how to interact with other dogs and was annoying them with his boisterous behaviour. He didn’t know how to settle and lie down and rest and was constantly on the go. He didn’t know how to walk on the leash and thought it was actually a really scary experience. He would lie down on the ground as if to say ‘Please don’t do it to me..’ He didn’t know how to play with toys and he would bark constantly seeing me playing with other dogs or other dogs playing with each other. He wasn’t interested in food at all..
Murph came to us shortly after neutering and from that moment on his life started changing for the better.
First of all, he got crate-trained and at the same time house-trained.. even more, he now sees his crate as his safe place, his den and goes in on command and also goes to ‘wee’ on command and he would never have a single accident in the house anymore. Slowly and gradually we started building his trust in people. Constantly rewarded and reinforced for his good behaviour, hardly ever corrected, he became more trusting and more calm. At this stage he barely nips. Only if the environment becomes too much for him or when he thinks you’re not pleased with him, or when he becomes frustrated and tries to get some attention he still does it but it’s harmless nipping, nothing like before, it’s more him signalling to me that he needs some space or time but this behaviour is rapidly changing.My dogs did a great job teaching him good manners and he now patiently waits his turn at feeding time, he would respect other dogs’ resting time and he would play nicely with them. He is very puppyish in a way but there is something mature about him, probably experience, that we know nothing about. My dogs taught him to play with toys so his favourite games are playing tug with other dogs and play-fighting but he would respect his playmate now and would not push the boundaries anymore. He can also live with cats as we have one and he’s ok with her.
Recently I have experienced a couple of breakthroughs with him.
First one, I finally got him out and he is now walking on a lead. As he realized walks are actually a very enjoyable experience, he now looks forward to them. I am working on his leash walking and after a couple of weeks of work, I finally see results of him not nipping or barking and he actually walks on a loose leash and doesn’t react to other dogs that he passes by.Second one, I started encouraging him to play with interactive toys in my presence. It took a couple of days but he slowly began to realize it’s actually ok to play in human presence. Once he got that knack, I started encouraging him to join in my play with other dogs. It took weeks, but he is now trying really hard to overcome this barrier and I had a couple of incidents of him actually tugging with me and interacting with other offered toys for a short time. So fingers crossed, everything seems to be going for the better.
Unfortunately, because of his lack of faith in humans, we still don’t have 100% recall, but we are working on it and he is responding very well to training.
To sum it up, we think Murph would make a really good family pet as he isn’t a typical high-strung collie. He can now relax and chill in his own company and even without his proper runs and only mental stimulation (training) that he receives at the moment, he is absolutely not destructive. He is a very loving and affectionate dog that responds very well to training as long as it’s not correction-based. He shuts down easily, which makes me think he would be ideally suited into a quiet home with people who can spend some quality time with him and continue with his progress. God knows what he’s been through. He loves playing with other young dogs and would benefit from company of another young dog for reassurance as he still trusts other dogs more than he trusts people. I would not recommend him for a family with children because he wouldn’t take any tugging or hugging or wrestling with humans, etc. He gets very nervous of any commotion and sudden noises, movements, etc, which makes me think an adult home or a home with older children would suit him best. He isn’t used to the street noises as yet as we live in a quiet village and he became very frantic when taken to town’s main street with cars and lots of people and noises once.
All in all, I think he would make a wonderful addition to a suitable family.
If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me and I will do my best to answer asap.P.S. As an incentive, my dog trainer (nationwide collie expert) has very generously offered a free home visit to the person who adopts Kendo if he goes to new home in Dublin. If outside Dublin, the lucky person would still get the free home visit but would have to cover diesel cost if interested.
All in all, Lucy is a super girl. Very clever, is the only foster dog I have had that mastered all tricks that I am able to teach so by now she knows : ‘sit’, ‘lie down’, ‘wait’, both ‘paws’, ‘stay’, ‘sit pretty’ and even ‘speak’! She loves the car and is an absolute treasure at home. She takes a bit of time to get to know you but once she realises you’re no threat, she will give you all her heart or even more!
Hi! Lucy is a gorgeous placid purebred Cocker Spaniel that got dumped in the pound by her ‘loving’ owner of 4 years.. so sad.. so she is a little shy and disorientated at the moment but is a gentle soul and not at all spoiled. She seems to be a clever girl and loves her treats. She likes to be as close to you as possible and the minute I sit down,she’s either on my lap or at my feet
She’s good with other dogs and tries to stay out of trouble at all times. She would make a wonderful companion dog Hi again! I’m looking for a pup to start the training nice and early. I have a large dog who does agility but am looking for small/medium dog. Is she quite active or does she spend most of the time sleeping and chilling out?
Hi all! Sorry for late reply. Little Cassie is a sweet little thing indeed. In need of lot of training. She is a very affectionate dog but will need to learn how to interact with dogs and humans too. She doesn’t have a clue how to play with toys yet. When we got her, the poor thing was walking as on ice on our wooden floors and was petrified of being in the house. She is house-trained now so that’s a big progress and is learning new things every day. E.g. she is getting very good on the lead as she is a very clever little girl
She is washed and groomed now, but so lively that it’s very difficult to take pictures of her I will update with more details on Cassie as soon as possible. By the way, we call her Sorcha here in the house as her she responds to it better so maybe her previous name was something similar? And also we found out that ‘Sorcha’ means a princess in Hebrew so we call her that and her recall is improving every day
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