Tia is a 4-year old smooth collie mix (maybe with a bit of German Shepherd and a bit of Husky?).   She is spayed, strong and healthy. 

Tia is considered a “special needs” dog and after a long stint in foster care, she is now looking for her permanent home.  She is still a work in progress in behavioural training and is not a “quick fix” dog. We know little of Tia’s history except that she was moved from shelter to shelter for almost a year before coming into our care.  We can only guess that those were not happy times for Tia and that she probably missed a lot of socializing moments as a youngster.  Busy, urban environment holds a lot of scary sights and sounds for Tia.  She doesn’t react to these by hiding, instead she barks and lunges (at people, dogs, or moving vehicles).    Despite her worries and concerns, there is a normal side to Tia.  Home is Tia's happy place.  She is sweet, affectionate and loves attention/cuddles from her safe, familiar people.  She loves to play nice collie-games with her foster family’s collie.  She carves a spot for herself in your heart. At OCR we believe Tia deserves to find a happy, permanent home with a family who will love her, be patient and kind with her and who will try to see the world through her eyes to help her feel safe.

Tia’s foster family has been working with a trainer specializes in reactive dogs to help Tia learn that the world is not as bad as she thinks, that there are many interesting things out there but they are not threatening her, that relaxing is good.  She is making progress.

Tia needs a quiet home in a quiet area, without lots of traffic and without lots of people. She is fine with another dog in her family but she is anxious when she sees other dogs outside and on walks, so no dog parks for Tia. Tia should not be in a home with children because of her reactivity. What she really needs are people who will continue to patiently work through her anxiety with her, who will slowly introduce her when she needs to meet a new person or another dog,  and who will not put her in a situation she isn’t yet ready to handle.  As Tia is still young and energetic, she needs a good level of daily exercise so a good-sized (securely fenced) yard where she can run and play games with her people would be ideal, especially if most of her exercise needs could be met in the yard. Tia needs to be kept safely on leash when she isn’t in her home or yard.   In addition, to provide for her mental stimulation, Tia would benefit from ongoing positive training, perhaps in some of the calmer yet intellectually challenging dog sports such as scent detection, tracking, freestyle or rally.