Coco

Another busy summer day at the shelter, potential adopters all over the place and quite a few volunteers running around but somehow Coco had not yet had a volunteer walk. She is "mostly Kelpie", around 30 pounds and at just nine months, still a puppy. She is the second Kelpie I've walked so I was prepared to be impressed and I was not disappointed. We started in the exercise yard, she is able to fetch and return the ball about 90% of the time. After I figured she had burned off some energy, we started our walk. I let her do some sniffing and path side exploring but generally she stayed by my side, no pulling; or walked in front of me looking back at me every few minutes, taking responsibility for our connection. This eye contact trait is what good Kelpie cattle dogs do.

About 20 minutes into our walk she spotted a bench in the shade, crawled up on to it and laid down. She is very affectionate, so when I sat down she of course crawled on to my lap. Being a hot day, I told her she had to be content with sitting beside me. We must have looked so funny because she had to sit as close as possible, leaning on me and every few minutes giving me a puppy kiss. After about ten minutes she was rested and ready to continue our walk. I decided to see if she could sit on command (for treats). On the first attempt I had to give her a prompt with a push on her rump, but that was all it took; she sat on command quickly after that. On the way back to the shelter, we had another stop in the exercise yard; we did a little more of fetch but she mostly wanted to lay on the cool grass beside me and get petted. She is an amazing puppy; smart, affectionate and eager to please. I know her DNA will make her a terrific herd dog but her heart will make her an even better pet to some lucky owner.