Obedience Trialling Home Needed

[hortfurball]

Hi training people, some of you may have seen my thread in general...or not.

Unfortunately I find myself in the awful situation of having to rehome 15 month old kelpie x border collie Ebony due to irreconcilable differences between her and my other bitch, and I want only the very best home for her, where she can reach the potential she shows in obedience.

Ebony was a late starter to obedience as she came to me as a 14 week old rescue pup and was scared to go out on leash, so it took a while of gentle persuasion just to get her to walk out of the house.

Her first class was a bit of a mess as she kept stopping and not moving so the trainer told us we'd better work separately so as to get out of everyone's way. The second class the trainer could not believe it was the same dog. The fourth class was a bit large so we got chosen along with a couple of others to join the intermediate class for the night, the trainer even looked astounded as she picked us.

Unfortunately that's when I discovered her hip dysplasia, so I wound down activities and waited until she'd had her initial course of Cartrophen injections and Joint Guard before resuming obedience. Then winter and bad weather arrived so classes were intermittent, so she'd only done 8 or so classes when the graduation from foundation class came up. She placed second only because she'd never seen witches hats or worked alone before but was one of only a few dogs not to break the stay.

This was only recently and we've since only done a couple more classes, so after a grand total of 10 (ish) classes, she will work off leash, knows sit, drop, heel, stand, sit-stays, down-stays, and have just added stand-stays, heel at fast pace and heel at slow pace. Yesterday she was one of only 3 or 4 out of approx 20 dogs to maintain a down stay for the full 3 minutes with me approx 10 metres away, while the dogs either side of her broke and their owners went back to them (so high level of distraction). She automatically sits when you stop unless given an alternative command. We've been doing the correct return around the dog as well, after the stays.

Her placement at your side is great and she doesn't wriggle forward or sit side on. Her recalls are reliable but not exuberant, no matter how much of an idiot I made of myself I couldn't get her to be joyous about it, she's just steady.

I think she will go all the way in obedience trialling as she is super smart, learns quickly and is very willing to please, she even did proper left-about-turns off leash for the first time ever at our last class without anything but a bit of finger wiggling and tongue clicking. My trainers think she could do some of the less strenuous agility exercises but obviously her hips would stop her doing some of them. Her hips don't seem to bother her too much with the Cartrophen and Joint Guard, neither of which are horribly expensive.

I'd love it if a DOLer could take her on, so that I could follow her progress.

If anyone is interested, please let me know, she's a fantastic little girl and very cuddly too. Her piccies are on page 9 of my thread in General, also some information about why I have to give her up.

ETA: I forgot to list a couple of the things she knows. I don't think I've forgotten anything else.

Edited August 12, 2008 by hortfurball