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Thanks Rebecca, please offer advice, I have been in contact with the unit I'd volunteer for, but recruitment is a long way off (they recruit at my company each spring), so I'll take any free advice I can get in the interim . I've gotten some basic advice on establishing a good trianing relationship with my dog (hence the herding training I've begun with her, as it's been suggested that a dog sport of some kind is good for establishing a working relationship). It's good to hear about 'hide and seek', because I started that with her and she loves it, and seems more enthusiastic about playing that game than other things I've tried. She even initiates hide & seek games with us, if you can believe it (while we're walking, she'll suddenly 'down' herself and allow us to get out of sight and wait until we call her and then she comes looking for us (at about 100mph) ). I've not begun SAR training, so intensity was more and assumption brought on by some reading about 'selection' for an appropriate dog that was sent to me by the group (e.g.): It takes a great deal of natural instinct, agility and most importantly temperament to be a search and rescue dog. Screening should be carried out at puppy selection (generally at 8 weeks) and then again before formal training is started. The primary concerns during candidate screening are the presence of appropriate drives (particularly prey and food drives), tractability, temperament, and tenacity ("work ethic"). Extreme defensiveness ("civility") is a disqualifying characteristic, although well-trained dogs of steady temperament with natural defensive drive, a common trait in working breeds such as the German Shepherds, may make excellent working dogs. I had imagined rather long trianing sessions, but presumably those are worked up to, as you mention. Emmie isn't showing a great deal of tenacity at this point (other than with the hide and seek, so maybe that's a clue...), but with my inexperience it's impossible for me to judge her potential for work. What she has shown me is that she's extremely focused on me and wants to work with me, but worries too much about making mistakes. The trainers I've started working with can hopefully assess her potential for SAR type training as we get closer to recruit time.

+1 on Cap or Jack. Short and simple.

Thanks, good to know, I thought her shutting down was indiciative of 'low drive' or something (I'm pretty new to dog trianing), and I have high hopes of volunteering for local canine SAR when they recruit this spring, so I'm trying to build her up a bit before then and get better at training myself, as the SAR training is pretty long term and intense. I'll make sure I end the sessions before she starts showing signs of stress to keep her optimistic. One thing, about 'backing up' - she's pretty good when I use a physical cue, such as pointing to the object. If I point to the right object, she'll get it every time. Perhaps I should use this cue in conjunction with the verbal (name) cue, and then work on removing the physical cue? BTW - this is inspired by John Pilley's dog chaser, who seemed to have a special talent for names. If anyone has any knowledge of insight on how this dog was trianed, I'd love to hear it!

cute pup! Congrats and welcome. Personally, I would wait on the nueter longer than 6 months, especially if the dog will be very active as it sounds like he will be, but I'll defer to the more experienced dog folks on the board. There've been some recent studies on the effect of early spay/neuterwith a different breed, granted, and not sure about the journal it's published in - and I have some issues with their method of data collection - but anyway it's fodder for the mill.

congrats, you sound like you're happy with her and she's really lucky you found her when you did, given her length of stay and lack of time remaining. You guys sound like you'll be really good owners, and welcome to the board.

Hi Folks, I'm teaching Emmie some basic tricks using treats and praise as positive reinforcement. I'm pretty new to training dogs. As most of you know, I adopted her a bit over a month ago. At this point, she seems really settled in with her new home and routine and has really bonded with my me and my wife. She came to me already trainied with basic obedience. I've taught her some basic games (rollover, hug, up (where I point to something and she jumpts up on it) and hide and seek, and of course normal, routine oriented things with living in hour house (where to go to the bathroom, where to sleep, what areas are off limits, etc). Right now, we're working on distinguishing between objects by name ( we're using a rope toy and a stuffed toy and I'm working on getting her to pick up one or the other by name). This game seems to be more challenging to her than the other stuff I've taught her. She's caught on quickly to pick up one of the 'named' object from a group of unnamed objects, but struggles when both 'named' objects are present. We've been at it for about 3 nights, and she starts to shut down after about 15 minutes. Even with only positvie reinforcement (treats, praise), I have to start really revving her up about 10 minutes in to keep her engaged, then after about 20, she's done. I saw this when she was introduced to sheep last week, too. She seems to be nervouse about making a wrong choice and her body language (mostly lowered head and whale eyes) indicate that she gets a little stressed when she's not making the right choice. I was correcting her ( a soft 'no' when she makes the wrong choice), but I think maybe even that might be too harsh for her, so I've stopped correcting her at all during the sessions and just give her her success cue ('yes!') when she does the right thing. Even with no correction, she seems bothered when she makes a wrong choice. Anyway, my questions are, 15-20 minutes seems like not a lot of training 'endurance' (for lack of a better word), especially given border collie's reputation as workaholics - will endurance to training build up? Once she starts sulking and seeming unsure of herself, I've been trying to rev her up by talking excited and trying to make things more fun, which usually prolongs the session for a few minutes, but perhaps I should end them earlier? Thanks!

rlwzgd, just a tip, you can click on a persons profile and see posts they've made in the past. It's a little stalker-ish, but at least you can get a sense for where the person is coming from. I actually see how you came to those suspicions based on just this post and if I were the OP, I'd probaly want to clarify those requirements to allay any suspicions, but as others have said, OP seems legit based on previous stuff they've written. Heck, they've made the effort to seek out and attend a trial, that says something. To add to the chorus, my 20 month working bred girl gets 3-5 miles of walking and/trail running most days with some training sessions, and the rest of the time she just follows me from room to room and sleeps by my feet. She goes to bed when I do and wakes up just a wee bit earlier than I'd like She's not lazy, but she's no more demanding than the (sport bred) Golden Retriever I had in the past. That's just one data point, though - I have met a couple nutso BC's that I wouldnt' want to have. ETA: our posts cross, didn't see you were on mobile and couldn't see posts

Thanks Folks! Hi Dianne! thanks for chiming in, your place is great. We had a nice time out there and the dogs were awesome. I hope we can get out there regularly, though my wife sometimes tends to push back on my hobbies, so we'll see (the trick will be to make it her hobby, too ). I wish I didn't live in the suburbs or I'd be getting me a pack of BC's, Emmie seemed so happy there. I did order the book, so hopefully I'll be getting it before the next time out so at least I can understand a little better about what I'm doing. BTW - it could be my wife that ends up handling her, too, or both of us, as she's even more strongly bonded to her than to me (my wife has spent more time with her as she has flexible hours and works from home a lot). She actually would have been in the pen instead of me with, except she was wearing sandals that day. Do you have to choose one person? Or, can a dog have two handlers? And yeah, I should have asked permission to post that response, sorry about that. The intent was to clarify what happened in terms that would be meaningful to the board members (I don't have the context or vocabulary to describe what I saw, while I thought that mail summed it up well, and she has excellent communication skills). I thought if I removed personal references it would be ok, but on second thought, you're right, I should have just asked. One thing that jumped out at me from Janet's email, that Emmie was stressed out out there. To me, it looked like she was having a good time, but I guess just because she's driven by instincts to react a certain way, that doesn't necessarily equate to enjoyment. Hopefully she'll learn to enjoy it, but that will be another factor in determining whether we do it long term, it has to be something she enjoys. Anyway, hopefully we'll be out again asap. It's good to know you think Emmie has some potential, I guess the trick will be to figure out how to guide her instincts without hurting our relationship with her as she's so sensitive, and, of course, to get to the point that she's enjoying it out there.

Thanks Folks! I think she did well, too. My only regret is that my wife didn't bring her camera to get some action shots, we'll be sure to do that next time. I feel like it will be a balancing act, as others have alluded to, between building her confidence and getting her on course with correction. The trainer sent me an email (rather a reply to one of mine). I hope she doesn't mind me posting it here, but it sums up what happened in terms that will probably make sense to you folks. I'm going to get the book she recommends so I can be an active participant in this dog's rehabilitation on stock. From the trainer: Emmie did just fine today in my opinion. It was pretty obvious she had gotten in big trouble when gouging in to grip - whether it was a cow kicking at her or someone using a heavy hand or a shock collar, I could tell that when she got a certain distance to the sheep, she would back out like she was threatened and "turn off" / go back to you. What I wanted to see today was her using her eye (indicates she actually cares about sheep and wants to control them) and being cognizant of the sheep escaping and "working" to keep them together. She was stressed but I think once she's understands that sheep and stock sticks do not mean pain for her, she will be more trusting. That said, she will get more rambunctious. Your dog is soft (sensitive) but she isn't weak. She is a bit confused and doesn't want to screw up. <name withheld> should be out on Saturday next week, as will I so we can get her thoughts on Emmie at that time if you're coming out. All in all, i feel Emmie has instinct to work and I think you can eventually get her working well, it will just take some time to build up her trust. We need to make sure we don't put her in situations where she will lose confidence, so no tricky sheep (no rams for sure) and definitely no cows or goats. If she gets too grippy (bitey) we just have her wear a basket muzzle for awhile - that keeps you from stressing out and yelling "no" all the time and the sheep are happier too! Her biting is a stress thing plus she doesn't know any other way to move the sheep. Training helps to show her the "right" way. Next session, bring a baseball cap. We will use that instead of a crook/stick. And, you will be doing more of the handling as well since she trusts you more than me. If you have time, get the book Herding Dogs: Progressive Training (on amazon) by Vergil Holland. It has all the fundamentals in there and will help illustrate what pressure, balance and flanking is and will show you where you as handler should try to be.

Thanks! Kassidy, thanks for the encouragement. I knew she had been on stock before, but not sure if she's ever been on sheep. It was really cool to see her turn on like that, and honestly I didn't expect it. I think there are only a couple of these training days/month, so it'll be a while before I can get out there again, but definitely plan to go. Hopefully she won't quite on us next time! that was a little embarrassing, because she was all gung-ho while we were there alone, but she decided to shut down just when the next students were arriving Chantal, thanks for the kind words. I feel like we hit the jackpot rescuing this dog, she's wonderful.

Thanks for the replies, folks! I did take her out for her instinct test/lesson this morning. Confidence was definitely an issue, but I think she did ok given her background and temperament. I wrote a really long post in the general forum if you're curious about the details, but it went pretty much as expected. She definitely has instinct and interest in controlling the sheep, but lacks the confidence to really take control of them, and sometimes is a little hard on them when they don't do what she wants them to. We're going to continue for a few more lessons to see if she starts relaxing and gaining confidence. One thing, she had FUN and it was really cool to see her interact with the stock and the other border collies!

Hi Folks, This is really long. I won't hold it against you if you don't read it all! As some of you know, I adopted a failed cattle herding Border Collie from a shepherd/rancher about a month ago. She's about 19-20 months old now, and a very sweet girl. She had failed to work cattle in a manner that suited them, lacked "confidence", and, in fact, preferred not to herd, thus she needed to be rehomed. Today, I took her out to a local trial trainer for an 'instinct test'/lesson. I was skeptical, because Emmie has not shown any interest in herding anything in the time she's been with us (except my cat once or twice and a rabbit, but that was more like chasing), and she's very shy around other dogs and people - very timid. Here's how it went. We got there at 9am and met the assistant/partner trainer at the pen. There were a few other BC's out and about, and some other livestock - some chickens, a few horses. That was my first surprise, Emmie showed no shyness around the border collies and went right up to them to introduce herself. She was more reserved around the trainer, and I expected that. She wanted to keep a safe distance from her and hid behind me and my wife at times. That was ok, the trainer knew about her temperament and was very soft spoken and kind to her. After the meet and greet, we took Emmie, on lead, and another BC female, the one she had just met (a cute, tiny smooth coated girl who was very keen and eager to go). We were told to stand outside the pen while the other dog herded the sheep to see if Emmie showed any interest. The other dog was really stunning to watch, to me at least (I haven't seen many working dogs). It was all crouching and stalking and perfect gathering of the sheep by running around them and keeping them together. She really looked the part and knew what she was doing, it was really cool to see. Emmie was definitely expressing interest, she was sitting, gazing intently at the other dog and really seemed excited, seemed to want to give it a go. So, we let her in the pen, kept her on lead at first. She moved towards the sheep and was pulling a bit to get at them, so we took the other dog out of the pen and let Emmie work them for a bit. Since this was my first exposure to dogs working livestock I have no way to assess what Emmie was showing, but here's what it looked like to me. She did *not* have the elegant run around the outside gathering style as the other dog and not nearly the style. She did give 'eye', but did not crouch as low, or stalk as stylishly. She *did* appear to want to keep the sheep together, though, she just was going about it wrong; Instead of running completely around the outside of the flock, she tended to run 'almost' to the outside, basically keep 3 sheep inside the curve and forcing the outside sheep to split off. She did seem to want that sheep to go with the others, because when that sheep broke off, she would chase along side it, mostly biting at its side and rump. She wasn't biting hard, but did get a mouthful of wool a few times. To my untrained eye, it looked like she was wanted to drag the other sheep back towards the others rather than getting on the other side and guiding it back. Not sure what she was thinking, but that's what it looked like to me. A few times, she got pretty rough with the sheep, and I think the sheep were getting pretty PO'd at her. A few times she did manage to gather them up and the trainer was pleased when she did and let her know. Unfortunately, Emmie was *very* aware of the trainer and seemed to be anxious of her presence, especially when she was holding the crook. She seemed (and the trainer observed) to be afraid of doing the wrong thing, so she resorted to biting. This is in line with what the rancher I adopted her from told me. More often then not, she would get 3 of the four sheep going in the right direction and then spend most of her attention on the 4th, who seemed to being forced out of the huddle by her own tendency of not completely circling them. Anyway, one thing that seemed clear to me is that Emmie was enjoying herself. She seemed very happy to be in there and was not a bit afraid of the sheep, which was a surprise (she slinks away from tiny little dogs, cats, small children, etc in our neighborhood). She also clearly was "trying" to work, her tail was tucked, and while she did not crouch low, she did lower her head and stalk towards them before accelerating and her gaze was pretty focused on them (with the exception of when the proximity of the handler and her crook distracted her). We took a break after about 10 minutes or so and the trainer let all the BCs that were penned in the barn out to run around. Emmie was really pleased with this! For the first time, I saw her really wanting to participate and socialize with other dogs. She ran with them for a bit and seemed very happy to be in their midst. Given her shyness and/or dismissiveness of the neighborhood dogs, I was really surprised at how enthusiastic she seemed around others of her kind. After the break, we went back to the pen and it was more the same. Emmie was trying to control them, not always knowing what to do, doing a lot of nipping and slamming, occasionally gathering them up, but more often letting one sheep out of the cluster and then focusing on it. Occasionally, she seemed to want to just charge in and blow up the huddle, like a billiard break. She didn't last too long in the 2nd go around. She ended up quitting on the handler and came to my feet and laid down, lol. We ended the session there, as the thought was not to force things with her. It was kind of funny, when she was done, it was obvious she was done. I don't know if it was fatigue or if she got overheated or got hurt or if it was just too much stimulation, but it was clear she switched off and wanted to opt out at that point. The plan is to take her out several more times to see if she starts gaining confidence before deciding whether or not we want to continue. She seemed to enjoy herself, so I'm on board with that and will be taking her out next time there's a slot open. She's going to have to let up on the stock, though. If she cant' figure out how to control them without getting so rough, we'll have to find something else to do, as the poor sheep were really worn out at the end (they were just huddled in the middle of the pen, heads lowered, staring at my dog and not moving a single fiber of muscle until we were well out of sight). Oh, sheep are tougher than I thought, too. I got slammed by one standing at the side of the pend and it almost knocked me down and I'm near 200 pounds, strong beasts. It also made me want to get a 2nd BC. I know, I should wait a bit, but it was really sweet to see her amongst her 'own kind' and how happy it made her to be around the other dogs. Plus, I do eventually want a second, but I digress. Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading.

Hi BC Folks, I plan on applying for our local volunteer canine SAR team next spring. I acquired a BC from working lines (Emmie) who I hope will train with me (she was acquired as a companion animal, but I’ve wanted to do SAR for years, and that desire influenced my decision to get a working bred BC). She’s about 20 months old and a sweet, sweet dog, very affectionate and focused on us . She has a reputation of lacking ‘confidence’, however, and that’s what my question is about – I guess I don’t really understand how a lack of confidence manifests in dogs. What is ‘confidence’ in relation to dog training and what can I do to improve it in my dog before spring rolls round? A little background, I adopted Emmie from someone who used dogs to move cattle. I wouldn’t say she’s a rancher, they seemed more like shepherds if there is still such a thing, hired to move around someone elses cattle. She was bred by a cattle rancher from working parents and some of her ancestors were apparently good herding dogs. ‘On Paper’, she should have been really good at her job, but according to the lady I adopted her from, she was not. She described Emmie as "lacking confidence" and this caused her to fail to work the cattle as they needed. From her description, Emmie would charge in and bite the stock (out of fear). I find this hard to envision because she’s so sweet, but that’s what she said . My plan to build her confidence is to find a dog activity to participate with her. I’m taking her to a local herding trainer this weekend to start her on sheep (I don’t know if she worked sheep before or if it was just cattle). I’m not sure this is the best idea, as the previous owner said that herding was stressful for her and that she’d prefer not to herd, but I want to give it a try nonetheless. The trainer assured me that no matter what Emmie does in the pen, she will have a positive experience. The trainer is a member of this board and seems to be held in high regard, so I’m hopeful it will go well. If it does, this will be her activity until SAR training comes around next year. If not, plan B is agility. The other thing we’re doing is getting her out and into a lot of new situations – meeting lots of people and animals and such. I’m not sure this is the best approach as she is cautious and seems skittish around new people. She does warm to strangers fairly quickly, it took us probably 15-20 minutes to earn her trust, but she was even wary of us when we first met. Is this the right approach to help a dog that lacks confidence? Are there other things to try? I’m hoping that if she has some success at herding (or something else), she’ll be in better shape when I go out for SAR in the spring. Then again, I’m not really sure I understand exactly what ‘confidence’ is in relation to herding. I have owned dogs before, but do not have much experience with formal dog trianing, so pretty ignorant in that regard. Anyway, any comments to help me understand and overcome confidence issues in relation to dog training would be appreciated! Thanks ETA: One other thing, I’m also a little suspicious that her senses might be a little off as she seems to have a little trouble locating the source of sounds and she’s surprisingly bad at hide and seek, sometimes walking right by us while we’re hiding in the open, so a vision or hearing problem is also a possibility, I think, and someone has pointed out that dogs with sensory issues are sometimes labeled as lacking confidence.

congrats - doesn't sound too bad! I'm taking my girl down to the trainer for the first time this weekend. Since I only own her because the rancher that had her before couldn't get her to herd (cattle) properly, I'm setting my expectations nice and low Did you get a video or pictures?

Thanks! Good to know. I suspected it might be typical canine behavior, but I've always lived in the suburbs and the dogs I'm around tend to be pretty clueless, so this appropriate behavior was something I hadn't seen before. Emmie had lived on a farm in a pack before I adopted her a few weeks ago. I had assumed it might be a BC trait,but apparently it's just a non-clueless dog trait I have seen dogs that were so submissive that they pretty much just took anything that another dog wanted to do with them and I've seen dogs where they'd just instantly fly into a snarling, growling fit if they got their dander up, but this kind of calm, quiet, deliberate but pretty obvious communication was something new to me. The other dog seemed to think it was 'play' (he did back off, but got even more bouncy and excited), so it's probably good that the owner called him off.

ETA - subject should read - "was it ok to leave this behavior uncorrected". So we were in the off leash area and a big goofy lab came running up to Emmie. They greeted fine, did the little sniff ritual and both dogs had their tails up and wagging and it was fine Emmie isn't much into playing, but they did seem to hit it off. They played a little, but then the other dog got a little excited and tried to mount her, and her hackles went up and she did this interesting maneuver. She didn't bark, didn't growl, but instead turned quickly and lunged in his direction, snapping the air just in front of his face 3 times, with a really loud clacking sound. She was clearly "pulling her punch", not trying to land a bite, but rather backing him off each snap of her jaws. It seemed perfectly appropriate and he did backpedal quickly out of her space (though he wanted to continue playing, but his owner called him off). Anyway, is this 'normal' dog communication and appropriate? I liked that she moved him off without resorting to biting him or making those loud, aggressive noises that dogs usually make when they get in a scrap, so I didn't chastise her for it. My thinking is that she's probably pretty good at dog to dog communication, given that she lived with 12 other dogs at her previous home, so she had lots of practice. But what do I know... Second, is this a border collie thing? I've seen dogs have altercations before, and it's usually loud and growly - this was silent, other than the snapping of her teeth together which was surprisingly loud, lol.

Hi Sharon, Sorry I don't have an answer to your direct question. Interesting backstory on Suki, I rescued one of those 'failed to be a cattle dog' dogs as well and I'm also in WA. What rescue did you get her from, just curious? PM me if you don't want to put it out on the forum. My girls is very sweet and awesome, but like yours, shy with strangers. Oh, I've been told is that my dog was really young for working cattle (and she was a lot older than yours when she washed out - yours was what, 10 months old when the made that decision?). Hope that's not stating the obvious, but that seems awful young to give up on a dog, at least from what little I know I wonder if it has something to do with her shyness/confidence? This is probably also stating the obvious, but is she getting a lot of mental stimulation, e.g. tricks/obedience training, games, some kind of dog sport training, interaction - to take the place of the work she had been doing?

Have fun, I'd like to read how it goes. I'm taking my dog, Emmie, out sometime in July to see if trial training is something worth pursuing with her. she was adopted off of a ranch where she had failed to do well enough with the cattle there, but we have a very well regarded trial trainer just 10 miles from my home, so I'm hoping to get in there for an assessment before giving up on her as a sheep dog. She should be good at it - on paper anyways! Have you done sheep herding training before? It wasn't clear to me if this is new to all of you or just Flint!

that's funny, I just tought my dog 'bang!' as well, and like yours, she pretty much does it now whenever she's not sure what I want her to do I've only had her for a few weeks, but my favorite trick is 'stay', it's the only way I can get more than 10 feet away from her, haha. Other things she's learned - she's learned that if the hatchback of my car opens, we're probably going somewhere fun so she jumps right in. She generalized that a bit too much - they other day, I was jump starting my nieces car, and when I opened the hood, she jumped up on to the engine! Luckily, the car was off, but it really drove home that these dogs are more observant than you think and always thinking.... Oh, and today, she was in the kitchen and my wife and daughter were having an animated conversation about something while the dog was out there with them, and my wife made (I guess) the same hand motion she makes when she wants the dog to jump up on something, and the dog jumped, all fours, onto our counter, lol. Anyway, no interesting tricks, but these dogs sure are fun to have around...

yep, that was what I was told. Lack of confidence. Interesting, hope that isn't it, but if so, we'll live with it.

Thanks Liz, it's not a flat field, it's rolling, so maybe that's something to do with it. Also, I'm also not white and fluffy She does notice dogs from quite a distance now that I think about it. She'll watch them from the ridge over looking our off leash area, so several hundred meters away. The partial deafness thing is interesting. She does seem to have trouble figuring out, for example, when my wife is shuffling around upstairs, that she's upstairs and not in the front room or something. Something to ask the vet when I bring her in, if they can test for that kind of thing, not that it really matters in her new life, but now I'm wondering if it has something to do with why she didn't work out as a working dog.

Hi, For you folks who allow your dogs to work a good distance from you ( say a hundred meters or more), does your dog sometimes have a hard time seeing you from a distance? I've noticed that my dog sometimes gets confused if she's pretty far away and I call her - she'll look around as if she doesn't see me and sometimes she'll take off in a slightly wrong trajectory and I have to call her a 2nd time to let her re-home in on the sound of my voice, and then she'll see me and come right to me. She doesn't have any obvious vision problems under normal circumstances. I've read that dogs can't see stationary objects at a distance as well as humans, so perhaps this is normal. Is this normal, or could my dog have some kind of long distance vision issue? Thanks PS- she only gets this far from me at a large, fenced field near my house and her recall is excellent

I took Emmie for swimming for the first time yesterday. I wouldn't say she loved it. She acted nervous and worried, first she wouldn't go out far enough so she couldn't touch ground, but finally she figured out how to 'dog paddle', sort of (it was more like flailing), but it worked, barely. It looked very funny, though, the whole beach was laughing at her . Once she got to me, she would put her forepaws on my torso and hindlegs on the lake bottom and just kind of stand there. She's over 1.5 years old and I get the feeling this is the first time she's been in water. The ranch where she used to live is a very dry area (east of the cascades), where I'm west of them, so lots of water here. So, no, Emmie doesn't appear to enjoy swimming. She's willing to do it just to come and be near me when I'm in the water, but she never seemed to really relax with it. I'll try again, because I love to swim.

congrats on your puppy! I thought this link was really interesting for names: http://www.gis.net/~shepdog/BC_Museum/Permanent/BCNames/BC_Names.html

Hey there, welcome! I'm new here too, and for similar reasons. I just adopted a farm dog too, a little older than yours, and she's my first border collie as well, so we have something in common. I used to live in NC as well (Raleigh) area. Sounds like we're having similar experiences regarding aligning the breed's reputation with what we're seeing in our homes. My dog is very calm in the house as well (excpet when I first get home, then she goes bonkers for a few minutes), stays quietly in her crate when neccessary, and takes a lot of naps. She's never barked. It's not exactly what I expected, but she has been given a lot of attention and exercise, so maybe that's it. I'm running with mine as well. Anyway, great looking pup!