Quote:
Originally Posted by AOII_LB93
It goes for a lot of herding dogs, not that they're not great for families they can be, but it's their instinct. My friend had a border collie and while his cousins were having a party for their 5 year old the dog was trying to herd the kids.  Must have been funny to watch. |
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My mom adopted a "BorderJack" a few months ago. Half border collie, half Jack Russel Terrier. Imagine if you will, a short, 21 lbs fuzzy faced dog with border collie body markings with brown face markings. The herding instinct is extremely strong in her, on her walks she zig zags back and forth, if you let her she will circle you (we've almost trained that out of her), she likes to have you always in her sight line. She has the digging instinct of a Jack Russel, she loves to be picked up and handled, loves to sleep under the covers, some of the Terrier barkiness the combined vertical leap of both of them (seriously, she can leap from floor to my shoulder, and I'm 5'10). But the herding behaviors are pretty funny to watch..at a recent candle party at my mom's house, there was a 2 yr old running circles around the house filled with 14 women...all Shadow did was follow the little girl around at about 3 paces back. She didn't mind the little girl pulling her wiskers, her tail, trying to pick her up, throwing a tea towel on her (wish we could have put the kid on a leash!).
I think that all the things that I find quirky about her are what make me think she would be a good therapy dog. She's ridiculously smart and trained really easy (from being a mad woman to doing all commands with clicker and no food reward in less than 3 weeks). She's also small and very very cuddly. I'd love to be able to take her to rehabs or residences...gotta get that Canine Good Citizen distinction first though! (yeah shelter dog
)
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