Fig

Charming, gentle, sweet & good-natured Fig/Figgie is a 3-year-old, 42 lb border collie. Fig was surrendered by his owner after she realized he was more than his college student mom was able to manage.

He’s people and dog friendly. When visitors come to his fosters home, he greets them with his cute border collie smile and when they start to pet him, he rolls on his side asking for belly rubs. He rides well in the car, loves playing fetch with a tennis ball, having zoomies in the back yard and mental activities like; go find it & doggy puzzles. He’s fully house and crate trained and sleeps in his crate without a peep all night. He’s food motivated and takes treats politely when offered.

Fig has excellent recall unless he’s in his herding mode. Fig has compulsive instinctual herding drive consistent with the classic definition of a border collie. He runs circles around the resident dog and dogs at the dog park as they fetch tennis balls or frisbees. He’s very sensitive to loud noises and looks for a safe spot when he hears the occasional loud noises at his foster home. Even someone drops something in another room he’ll to go to a spot in a quiet corner of a room where he feels safe. His previous owner said that he paces during thunderstorms and reported that he’s OK with cats but he has not been tested since coming into rescue. His strong instinctual herding drive is a bit much for his foster’s 11-year-old, but he does respect her space when she corrects him. He also would prefer that he gets all the attention when he mind games and spends time working on his basic obedience training. Taking turns is not easy when food is involved.

Fig’s ideal home would be with an experienced herding dog owner that understands a dog with compulsive instinctual herding drive and ways to redirect that behavior with positive reinforcement. He is a soft sensitive friendly guy with strong herding instinct.