Rueben has been here 10 days already. 10 interesting days I may add. Some of his insecurities and much of his personality started showing itself.
Meeting and getting to know the cats is one of Rueben's favorite activities. He especially loves our white and black cat Dahli. Please click on the images to see a larger version.
He still is and always will be that happy go lucky boy that loves nothing more in his little life than you. He has bonded with me and with W. quickly which shows me he can bond with men as well. He has started to test his boundaries of his new surroundings a bit as a good teenager should do, you have to know where your boundaries are otherwise you can't feel secure can you?
So that's what he is doing at the moment, he's testing Fynn to see how far he can go and what he can get away with, I can see his little brain working; can I steal a treat that lies 10" in front of Fynn? What about the one 5"? and can I steal it from under his paws? From his mouth? What if I'm real fresh and do a 'make-believe-snap' close to Fynn's muzzle will he than give up his treat? No???? Fynn is not impressed by this all? Darned.... what to think of next? Maybe direct his attention to the cat than I can steal the treat.. no... shoot didn’t work either, now what? *ponder*
He is showing a bit lacking in the confidence department. It can be his new home and foster brother but nevertheless it's something we need to work on. And we are working on it, using positive reinforcement, treats and clickers. Rueben LOVES his treats! That's a good thing, we had a BC who thought food was something that was needed to stay alive and eating was a chore but wasn't interested in treats or food at all. Treats makes training so much easier ;-) At the moment we are working on not barking our little head off when we see a stranger, not all strangers want to attack your mom. Some even have yummy treats and want to rub your belly, meeting strangers can be a good thing. To meet some strangers we took him to a place were all dog lovers meet, the doggy park!
Below are some video's I shot, as you can see he did really well in meeting new dogs and new people. In the beginning he is still somewhat uncertain and keeps running back and forth to us to check if it's okay to walk a bit further away and see if he still is considered a 'good boy' ;-) In the end he is running with Fynn and other dogs, playing, he definitely is showing some herding maneuvers and keeping an eye on the the others.
All in all, considered this was the very first time in his little life that he was in a Dog Park with a lot of strange dogs and strange people, he did excellent and we were really proud of him.
The first video below is when we had just entered the park and to our surprise it was BLACK and WHITE dog day. Spot the differences between the dogs ;-) A hint, Fynn has a red harness and Rueben a blue bandana.
Below is the first part of a video I shot. It shows Rueben walking back and forth to us wanting to play but still a bit uncertain. Finally he joins in in the fun.
This second part does not show spectacular action and I realize that for the 'general' viewer it might be a bit boring but for the potential adopter it is good to be able to see prior to his adoption as much of his behavior as possible.
We had some very nice enquiries about Rueben, some with small children and unfortunately Rueben hasn't met many small children yet and that's why we are reluctant to place him in a family with small children. Today he has met some children that he seemed comfortable with, but of course living with a young child is totally different than a casual meeting.
For those of you who do not know about what can happen when placing a BC with young children please read this FAQ; Unique Border Collie Behavior Explained
If you are interested in Rueben, have some questions, want to get involved in fostering or rescue, want to chat, give me a call. Look to the right side of this page where the wonderful button is that says 'Call Me', click it and Google will connect you to me for free.
Thank you Google for providing me with Google's Voice!
Would you like to see the photo's album with full size photo's? Click here!
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