If you met Jasper in person, you would realize what we at the Gilmer County Animal Shelter already know. He is one of nature’s masterpieces. He is perfection. He is EXACTLY what he was created to be. He is an Australian Cattle Dog. He is a beautiful, strong, clever creature that is a hardworking herding dog. Unfortunately Jasper has endured many hardships in his short three years of life. The people that were meant to be his protectors, his leaders, his stewards, have let him down. He’s been abandoned at the shelter sick with heartworms. He’s undergone treatment, but instead of recovering in a soft bed in a quiet home, he’s at the shelter on a cold hard bed, among chaos and fear. He doesn’t feel good. A dog that once greeted me at the front of his kennel with friendliness and confidence, now buries his head in the wall. The worst part about all of this is that we know more about Jasper than most of the dogs that come through our shelter. He not only has been temperament tested by a professional trainer, he lived in a foster home for a few weeks with other dogs, cats and a kid. We have found that Jasper gets along with most dogs, but he did have a problem with one particular female dog in the foster’s home that the foster described as her “grumpy English bulldog”. He played wonderfully with her female Australian Cattle dog foster and got along with her other dogs. He lived with a cat and a child under 12. He loved her husband and loved being outside and playing fetch. He was not fond of the leash when he first came to her home, but they worked with him and got him past it. He was affectionate, attention seeking and followed her around the home. This past week he was temperament tested by a professional trainer at the shelter. Keep in mind that temperament tests are not full proof. It is a snapshot of a dog’s behavior at a particular time in a particular setting. Shelter environments are very stressful to dogs and can affect their behavior. Here is a summation of her findings: He knows sit, down, focus, comes when called and will follow. He does great on all of the touch tests allowing you to touch his ears, paws, body, mouth, muzzle, etc. He is very playful. Has lot’s of energy. He likes to chase the ball and will retrieve and return with it. He is very intelligent, will put his chin on the ball to hide it or paw on the ball to hold it but allowed the trainer to get the ball again and throw it. After about 15 minutes of playing with him, he became very calm. He can be restrained, but doesn’t care for it. He showed no signs or resource aggression with the trainer. However, the foster noticed some resource aggression in response to her female EBD that Jasper quarreled with. This is something that is very fixable with a little training. When startled, Jasper looked and investigated, but recovered quickly. His adoptability at present is excellent and he is a good candidate for rescue. The trainer’s general impressions of Jasper are as follows: ” I found Jasper to be a wonderful dog. He is heart worm positive and just finished his treatments. After being kenneled and kept quiet due to treatments he has become stir crazy. Once I had him out and let him chase and play with the ball he was so relaxed and calm. He rolled on his back and wanted his belly rubbed. Jasper has great focus and wants to please. I highly recommend he be placed on a farm or with someone who can give him lots of exercise and attention.” So there it is guys, Jasper in a nutshell. He’s neutered, fully vetted, has undergone treatment for his heartworms. He’s been thoroughly temperament tested by all of us here at the shelter and by a professional. He’s lived in a foster home with other dogs, cats, and kids. He’s a gorgeous purebred Australian Cattle Dog. This is what I call a NO BRAINER folks. If this dog doesn’t leave this shelter this week then I may as well give up. This is a good dog. He just needs exercise, affection and someone to give him a chance.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 23:00:00 +0000
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