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We are looking for a home for Sparky, a dog who was placed with us by the Champaign County Humane Society. Sparky was surrendered to Champaign Animal Control by a friend of her original owner. Apparently the original owner was going to dump her in the country but the friend thought that dumping the puppy in the country when the wind chills were in the -30 to -40 range was too cruel...
Anyway, Sparky is described by the shelter as a 4 to 5 month old
border collie mix. Dave started working with her in early December
so that she could be made more adoptable, since the adoption rate
of small black and white dogs is fairly low. Sparky quickly learned
sit and down (REALLY FAST sit and down), LOVES toys, and has a
quick, enthusiastic retrieve. On Thursday the shelter staff requested
that we take her and place her ourselves since they had been unsuccessful
in doing so. She had become a frantic barker in her cage and was
overly excitable, grabbing everyone and everything when potential
adopters looked at her. As she got bigger and more frantic, the
number of people looking at her dropped significantly.
We brought her home on Friday, January 28th and have been very
pleased with how she's doing over the two days we've had her.
Having an abundance of toys around has mellowed her significantly.
Like many dogs of herdingish background, the shelter situation
with its large number of dogs being moved back and forth in front
of her brought out that something-is-moving-and-I'm-behind-a-fence-so-I-have-to-bark-at-it
response. She loves going outside with the other dogs and loves
playing in the snow. She gets along well with other dogs, playing
with Fly, nuzzling but not pushing our seven year old shorthair,
and is typically on her best behavior with our thirteen year old
border terrier. She is doing well with the three cats. Mozart,
the parrot, thinks that her stare at him is just too creepy. Sparky
and our ten year old son also get along well. Both he and the
puppy really want to play together more intensely than we're allowing,
but he understands the need for us to work on calm behavior with
kids since he helped me work with her at the shelter.
Housebreaking has been a delight. Sparky will gladly go outside
with you whenever you take her out outside, and pees every time.
On Friday, she waited to come in and find a piece of newspaper
to poop (I "corrected" her by putting on my coat and
taking her outside, where she peed immediately, and I praised
her when she did so), but since then she has been using the great
outdoors for that as well. She prefers going outside with someone
else, though she is mastering the six second run-out-the-door,-pee,-and-run-back-in.
Don't want to miss anything!
Sparky picks up on the cues of our shorthair, running off a short
distance when the shorthair alarm barks if someone comes to the
door. She's all happy and licky once the person is acknowledged
by the shorthair. When she's not running around, she lays down
at Dave's feet, surrounded by her nest of toys. She's been loose
in the house with everybody all day Saturday and Sunday except
for a brief period in the kennel run when we were running errands.
She sleeps quietly in the crate and doesn't wake us up, though,
like Fly who was at the shelter a long time, she won't go in on
her own. The whole thing is made much happier if you have a treat
hidden inside once you place her there.
We're not sure that her age is represented accurately, and based
on her teeth she may be a bit older than is represented. Might
be as old as seven months, which is nice because it indicates
that she won't get very big. She certainly is awfully well coordinated
for a four month old... She is 17" at the shoulder and weighs
24 pounds (just like Fly!). She was spayed three weeks ago.
Please feel free to contact us if you know of a suitable home.
Our phone number is (217) 643-7622. Dave's e-mail is dstone@uni.uiuc.edu.
Marian's e-mail address is mastone@uiuc.edu.
Thanks for helping spread the word!