Dixie is a relatively petite but muscled 38 lb, athletic and intelligent 3-year old female Border Collie mix who needs an experienced leader with a calm disposition and a strong body. She came from a negligent and scary environment, but she has spent a long time in foster with a dog trainer in the Tulsa area and is ready to find a human or two of her own. That human MUST spend a day or two in Oklahoma with the dog trainer (or an approved nonlocal alternative) to learn how best to handle Dixie.
In her comfort zone, Dixie is crafty, humorful, and extremely loving to her humans. That comfort zone is in the hands of a confident, cautious handler who will use her pretty good skills in obedience to allow Dixie to know what to do with novelty. In the absence of instruction, Dixie defaults to the defensive and gives herself the job of human guardian.
Dixie would do excellently alone or with a male who needs a no nonsense lady boss, and with no other female dogs. She passively ignores calm confident cats. Dixie is extremely careful and sweet with her foster trainer's very calm two year old, so steady dog savvy older children might be able to live with her. She is muscular enough to do well in weight pull and bikejoring, and would make a phenomenal tracking (particularly something like blood trailing) partner.
Dixie is loud when separated from you and within ear range, and she will always love food and will take your absence of a "leave it" as permission to share, as she did have to fend for herself as a young dog. These tendencies are all mellowing with age and she no longer gives her foster family any troubles at all.
Contact Helen@doubledogmusic.com if you meet this qualifications and are interested in Dixie.
