Ember
Australian Cattle Dog Mix | Female | 1 year Old | 29 Lbs
QUICK FACTS: ✔️ Good with kids! ✔️ Crate trained! ✔️ Housebroken! ✔️ Good in car! ✔️ Good running buddy!
✔️ Walks well on leash! ❌ Needs experienced owner!
Updates
Ember marks December 25, 2020 as her adoption day!
PUPDATE 2
Ember is settling in so well lately and is starting to settle down much more. She still loves her multiple daily walks, especially if they are to new places with new smells to explore, and exercise along with her mental games and puzzles but she was able to handle the disruption to her routine from this snowstorm with pleasantly surprising calm. And then yesterday we learned that she LOVES to play in the snow, until her little toes get too cold. It is so fun to watch her spring high into the air to catch snowballs and to watch her prance around the yard running after our dog. She is so entertaining to watch! Her antics and mannerisms make us laugh often. She's becoming very good at listening to commands in the house and even in the backyard, places where she can focus more easily. She will always respond better if she knows you're holding a treat. We're working on getting her to listen better in more distracting areas and when food isn't imminent, and we're still working on her urge to chase cars. I still can't figure out what she thinks she's going to do if she catches one. We've also learned that she is a fabulous snuggler at the end of her long, active day and will happily curl up right next to you on a couch or chair and will contentedly snore the night away. This super smart little powerhouse is going to be a fabulous companion for an adventurous person who is looking for an outgoing, highly intelligent, loving dog. If you've been looking for a way to get more exercise and you need a way to break up your day to day routine and want to add more laughter and excitement to your life, Ember can help you do all of those things while giving back love and loyalty that will last a lifetime.
PUPDATE 1
Ember's typical day with us, her foster family, isn't quite what her ideal day should look like. As a very typical Heeler/Cattle Dog, Ember benefits from 2-3 hours of physical and mental activities a day to prevent her from getting bored and destructive. It's just a basic need for her breed. Her current day with us is that after her breakfast and a morning walk, she spends time hanging out waiting for my daughter or me to have time to take her for more walks between school, work, and other things on our schedules. She chews on Nylabones or plays some with her toys, whipping them around and flinging them into the air. She takes the occasional nap. We try to make sure she gets at least 4 20+ minute walks a day and we give her puzzles (her meals are even fed in puzzle dishes) or other mental games to play in addition to lots of time working on her basic commands but we know she still has extra energy at the end of the day. She is usually up by 8am and asleep for the night by 10pm. She sleeps in her crate at night. Her ideal day would involve long runs instead of walks and/or dog agility or tricks classes, and if you have any cattle to herd, she'd be in heaven. If there was such a thing as doggie parkour, she would be in! She sees everything as an obstacle course to overcome, and with her boundless energy and insane ability to jump so high for such a little dog, she could do it!
She has been doing very well with meeting new people. Ember is not timid or aggressive. When she first arrived, she would constantly jump up. Thankfully she is small, so no one gets knocked over. She is learning to not jump up and is getting better at sitting and waiting for attention, but if she gets too excited, she can forget that lesson. She is very friendly and will attempt to climb or jump into laps for a few pets and a snuggle before venturing off to conquer more obstacles or vanquish more toys.
Ember has only met very young children once, very briefly, and was cautious but friendly when meeting them. She has met a couple more teenagers and has matched the manner that they use to approach her. Calm = calm and overly excited = overly excited. When she first arrived, we noticed she has a tendency to nip and be "mouthy" when she becomes enthusiastic in her play (and because she's so young, most play is enthusiastic) but that's because her breed was created to do that. If she does that with my older kids and us adults while playing, one can expect that she will continue with younger kids, as well. But she is also SUPER smart and can, with dedicated training, perhaps learn to curb her enthusiasm and mouthiness.
Heelers/Cattle Dogs are very, very high energy dogs. She requires hours of exercise and mental activities to keep her from getting bored and destructive. You will both have so much fun putting that time and effort into her training and activities, though, because she's a good buddy and is always excited to do something with you. Because of her innate sense of adventure and invincibility, we do not yet trust her off leash, even in our fenced in area because she could jump our 4 foot chain link fence with not much difficulty when motivated to chase a squirrel or, more likely, a car. She desperately wants to chase cars. It will take some time and training to get her to ignore them, but we see glimmers of hope of that happening. She is very food motivated so switching her focus from the approaching vehicles to receiving a treat for a sit or down or other command has helped. You'll want to avoid high traffic roads for walks for a while. She also, because she is so enthusiastic and adventurous, pulls when walking but a harness that attaches to her chest vs her back helps that considerably as does walking familiar roads. Her urge to explore new areas makes it harder for her to heel.
Ember is very friendly with other dogs and will try to initiate play right away, perhaps a little too enthusiastically for some dogs. Heelers/Cattle Dogs are known to have dominant personalities and Ember fits that description. She would benefit from being the alpha dog in the house. Our resident dog (a Border Collie) is unwilling to give up that position and becomes annoyed at Ember's very strong attempts at play. They are currently co-existing. But I could easily see Ember fitting in with other dogs who are perhaps not as protective or possessive of their owners as my dog is of me. No exposure to cats with us.
When we leave, Ember is put in her crate. She does just fine in there for a few hours at a time but being such a high energy dog and being so young, she would not do well in a crate for long periods each day. Her breed was created to move many hours a day.
Ember is a super sweet, smart, demanding, talented little powerhouse of a dog with so much potential to bring the right family years of joy and loyal companionship. She is a typical Heeler/Cattle Dog through and through. You will want to research exactly what that means. If you know what you are getting when you adopt her, you will all be much happier. You are getting a herding dog that needs 2-3 hours of exercise and mental stimulation daily so she will not get destructive but you are also getting one of the quickest, most intelligent dogs out there who will be fiercely loyal to you and give you love and devotion for her entire lifetime. Though she can be a big ball of energy, she also can be one of the sweetest snugglers, curling up tight next to you when you settle down at the end of a busy day.