Riley

Rudy is a young male sable Collie who is neutered and up to date on shots. He was surrendered by his owners, who had horses that Rudy thought he should herd. The owners were concerned that he could be harmed by the horses and decided that he should live in a place without horses to herd.

Rudy is nearly a year old and still displays puppy tendencies, which means that he is energetic and playful and needs supervision around the house. He is tall, lean, and lanky, with a soft, smooth coat and a full, gorgeous tail. He has lots of white around his frill and a white spot on his back. He has a very sweet personality and loves to be hugged and petted. He does not care much for being brushed--partly because being brushed means standing still. He likes to play with stuffed toys, and he is a snoop, as puppies always are. He thinks Christmas decorations are most interesting and are surely toys for him to play with, especially soft decorations like stuffed snow persons.

At this point, Rudy still needs to be crated if he is left alone in the house. He has been known to chew on shoes or to counter surf when he is not supervised. He will grow out of these activities as he matures and as he is supervised by his people. Rudy gets along well with cats, and he loves kids. He has had three kids as playmates in the past and immediately wants to go to children who come near him. Since he is big and energetic, he probably should not be around very small children, certainly not without close supervision.

Rudy is food aggressive with other dogs. He seems to feel threatened by having any other dog present when food is around. For that reason he would do best as an only dog. At the moment he lives with two other dogs and eats his food in his crate, where he does not feel threatened by the others. Except for the food aggression, he is a sweet Collie boy who will mature into a calm adult. He would benefit from going to obedience training with his new people when he finds a permanent home. He wears a Gentle Leader when he walks on a retractable leash, but he will also heel when walked on a short leash.

January Update for Rudy

Rudy has been in his new foster home for about seven weeks now, and during that time he turned one year old. He has settled in and gotten used to the fact that he is not the dominant dog in the house. He tried his best to be the dominant dog at first, but his youngest foster sister was having none of that. He gets along just fine with both of his foster sisters now, and he and the 4-year old Golden Retriever have a fine time playing together. Given this experience, it is apparent that Rudy can live with a dominant female once the opening testing of each other is out of the way.

Rudy has become very affectionate with us and wants to be a lap dog--which requires a big lap! He wants to climb up into the recliner and sit on my husband's lap, or he comes over and sits on the sofa with his head and front legs in my lap. He licks our ears to show his affection, and he also likes to lick hand lotion off our hands. He still doesn't much like being brushed--we're working on that--and he worries about having his feet touched to clean off his paws when it's muddy outside. He is no longer food aggressive when we hand out treats to him and the other two dogs, but we still have him eat his food in his crate since eating his food around other dogs worries him.

Rudy will be a great companion for children. He continues to love kids, although he doesn't encounter many around our house. He likes to play with stuffed toys, and he does the usual puppy stuff around the house--will counter surf, get into the garbage, grab things and run off with them, etc. He will need to be crated for a while longer when his people are not at home, until he matures a bit more. He's becoming more mature all the time and is a sweet boy.

Physically, Rudy is beautiful, long and lean with that gorgeous full tail. He is tall enough that he can stand on his back legs and eat out of the bird feeder in the back yard, which the birds find very strange indeed. He seems to prefer being outdoors to being indoors, unless it's too cold, and he enjoys trying to catch birds and squirrels--a lost cause for sure! Rudy will make a great only dog for a family, but he does adjust to living with a dominant female after a few skirmishes to establish the pecking order. Rudy is going to become a calm and obedient boy as he matures.