Pebbles is a 16-month old Australian Cattle Dog mix (approximately 30% ACD, 20% Poodle, and 10% Australian Shepherd), born on 11/15/2024). She is sweet, intelligent, and deeply loyal. She currently lives in a home with three children (elementary through high school aged), another dog, and a cat.

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She struggles with anxiety, but proper medication and limited interactions with strangers should help her significantly. She is good with (non-reactive) dogs, older children, and cats.

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Full disclosure: she is a typical Australian Cattle Dog and has a nip history. In all instances, she "acted" in defense of her family, whom she adores dearly. To address these concerns, she's on medication, was sent to a 7-week board-and-train, and is muzzle trained.

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A little background on how we got here, looking to rehome our lovely girl. Our family adopted Pebbles at 8 weeks old. Her early development was typical of pups: fun, caused playful mischief, and she immediately adored her adoptive siblings, human, canine, and feline. She attended regular vet visits. At 4-1/2 months old, she displayed reactivity towards one of the vet techs. Without warning (no hackles raised, no advance growling) she attempted to nip at the vet tech. She did not make contact. From that point forward, we started on a LONG journey, with our vet, behavior specialists, and trainers. Because she started showing this behavior so young, getting her into the activities we wanted to her to be in became almost immediately impossible. We started her on medications by the time she was 5-1/2 months old and she already had a 2nd nip incident, this time successfully breaking skin on my father. At that time, she had been on her medication for about two weeks, and slow introductions were made in accordance with guidance we received from experts.

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In the months that followed, we continued tweaking medications and had consultations with specialists and our vet. Her nip attempts continued, and escalated in intensity. She had 2 more nip incidents (only 1 of which made contact, bruise no breaking skin). We sent her to In-Residence training so she could at least be taken outside for walks and excursions without hurting herself on a leash. We've noticed that when she is away from the house itself, she's better.

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All that said, Pebbles loves her family. She is our ride-or-die, as we like to say. We have three children, all of whom adore her and she adores back. We know it's her protective instincts kicking in and not aggression because she lets our kids mess with her paws, her face, and give her hugs.

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We also notice that even when fully medicated, she is still somewhat dog-reactive and absolutely people-reactive. This is even for individuals she was met before. We live in a busy neighborhood, full of people and dogs. We have school buses (which she hates because the busses eat her kids every morning) and cars honking at each other, all loud noises we can easily hear being a corner house near a very busy street and intersection. We don't have a wide field to run her that is clear of people/dogs nearby, which we think would be of great benefit to her.​

 

She would do well in a home with experienced, patient dog owners familiar with excitable herding breeds. A large yard in a quiet area (away from streams of passersby, buses, cars, etc.) will be excellent for her to run out her energy without being triggered or overstimulated. It would be optimal for her to be in an environment where owners can keep her completely separated from visitors and entryways (a trigger point for her), or rarely have strangers over, because she will protect her family with every fiber of her lovely black & blue/tan merle being. Her current family loves her deeply and is heartbroken they have to rehome her, but they know she would thrive in a quieter environment with fewer triggers, and rare/no interactions with strangers.

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Email bvboe@pobox.com