Courtesy Post.  See contact info at the end of bio.

Pepper is a 2.5-year-old Border Collie with a sweet, goofy demeanor. She  was abandoned after not making the cut as a working dog on a cattle farm  (apparently, she preferred playing with the herd). She was found very  underweight with several short-term health conditions, suggesting a  significant amount of time away from care. She now has a clean bill of  health. 

 Pepper is big for a female Border Collie, with sturdy arms, big paws,  and a hard head. She’s an inch taller and two inches longer than her  foster brothers, who are both 50-pound male Border Collies. When she was  found, she was a 3 on the body condition chart at 54 pounds. She’s now  very healthy at 65 pounds. Through the process of trying to find her  owner, her breeder was found and claims Pepper is an ABCA Border Collie  with an Irish working dog pedigree. Though she shows signs of that  herding speed and explosiveness, she seems to need less occupation than  her 10+ year-old foster brothers. 

Despite coming from a farm, Pepper is housebroken, kennel trained, and  good on a leash. In a short amount of time, she’s learned the routine  of her foster parents’ dogs, catching on to schedules and everyday  commands and fitting in well much of the time. With some initial  boundary setting, she’s respectful of what furniture is pet approved.  Pepper has improved greatly on appeasement behaviors, but will still  lick hands, whimper, or vocalize like a husky when she’s excited.  She’ll let out a groan of disapproval otherwise. Pepper is very  friendly with everyone she meets and is gentle with her foster  family’s toddler. While she likes to play outside, go on walks and car  rides, and run with her foster brothers in the backyard, she’s always  the first dog to chill out on her own and is very content hanging out  near the couch, on a dog bed, or on the patio. Pepper is still a puppy  and loves keeping herself busy with chew toys… she’ll find her own  if pet-friendly chew toys aren’t around. Pepper should not be off  leash. 

Unfortunately, she butts heads with her foster brothers pretty often.  Pepper is not aggressive or an instigator, but she is ignorant to her  foster brothers’ signals and space. Often absentmindedly getting  between them and their favorite toys, beds, bowls, etc., they’ll growl  or snip, which has caused outbursts. She’s also working on the “let  go” portion of fetch & play, triggering some territorial disputes over  toys. Other times she’ll be submissive and allow herself to be herded  by her brothers. Her foster parents are working on the situation but  haven’t had a lot of success (three hard heads). All that said, Pepper  does not like to be left out and is most comfortable being where her  brothers or the people are. During her first few days, she had signs of  separation anxiety like whining in her crate, looking to get around/over  a fence if her parents were on opposite side of it, and barking if she  wasn’t doing the same activity as her brothers. This improved greatly  after about 2-3 days of learning a new routine, so we suspect she has  some worries about abandonment. 

Pepper wants a family with a yard to play in and sidewalks to get  exercise on. We believe she’d do great with any age of people. As far  as pet companions, the right balance would need to be struck. Pepper  would do great around other cheerfully unconcerned dogs who aren’t  territorial. We believe she’d do better with a friend but could adjust  to the single-dog role after catching on to her new family’s routine. 

If interested in applying for Pepper please email Jon at   hill.jont@gmail.com

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