Looking at the dog board in the Volunteer Room, only Danica had not yet been out with a volunteer. Looking a little closer...............she is described as VERY energetic, loves being in your face and likely deaf. I get to her kennel and see one of the oddest but cutest puppies (10 months) ever. Danica is mostly Kelpie, Australian Cattle Dog, all ears and a happy face.
One Kelpie trait is high intelligence. Though she has been at the shelter just a short time, as soon as I got inside of her kennel and she saw the harness, all the squirming stopped; she popped her head through the harness then flipped to her back so it was easy for me to clip it.
At our first exercise yard stop I was convinced she has some Greyhound DNA, she is incredibly fast. I tried to get a video of her racing around but it was impossible. After about ten minutes of dashing around playing with balls and getting belly rubs at every opportunity, we started our walk. Danica is not great on the leash but she is small so it is not really an issue. As we were walking by the county utility buildings on the next lot, a generator noise came on and startled her - she must be able to hear some sounds. We continued along and I realized that while she was going where I wanted to go without pulling when she could see me, she could not hear me when I talked to her and she was facing forward.
On our return we had another stop in the exercise yard. Since dogs are so good at reading our visual cues, maybe Danica would be able to carry out commands whether or not she could hear them. At one point during this exercise yard stop, I heard a shrill bark from a dog inside of a car in the parking lot. I was surprised to see Danica run to the fence and begin barking back at it. At least she can hear some frequencies. I was happily surprised to see that Danica's hearing issue is not a problem when it comes to obedience. For a young dog in a stressful environment, she did very well with come, fetch and sit. Let's hope she finds her new and active family soon.
