Indy is a Catalan Sheepdog mix. He is one of a litter of 6 puppies dumped in Spain and brought to the UK by Starfish Dog Rescue. Indy is black and white, medium haired, and about 15kg. He has a distinctive white patch on his nose.
Indy is a smart dog. He knows the following commands: sit, drop (finger down), roll over (rolling motion with hand), stand (waggle hand beside you), shake (hold out your right hand, he gives his right paw). He will do all of these behaviours beautifully when at home with no distractions. He will sometimes do them out and about, but I tend not to ask him to. When on the lead he knows 'wait' when you are at the curb, but he needs further work on this. I use 'cross cross' to walk across the road. He pulls hard on the lead no matter how long it is. He is used to a long extending lead. This is for everyone's sanity as short lead walking makes him utterly miserable. He likes to sniff and pee, and sees it as one of his jobs.
When off-lead he is a mixed bag. He knows 'Indy come', although obeys it irregularly. When he does we make a hell of a fuss, and he is getting better by increments. Some days he is an absolute dream off-lead. Most days he is variable. And sometimes he is an embarrassing asshole. When Indy misbehaves off-lead, he manages do so in a spectacular fashion. His weaknesses are other dogs, and cats. If Indy sees another dog when off-lead, he will want to go to that dog. If you are between him and the other dog, you may have a chance to stop him if you want, but you will need to be fast. If Indy is ahead of you and sees another dog, he will not come back to you. If the other dog is on-lead and grumpy, Indy will take a wide berth, although you cannot be guaranteed that he will ignore the dog entirely. If the other dog is off-lead and grumpy, Indy will take direction from that dog, and try to play with it accordingly. If the dog ignores him, he will will get bored and walk away. If the other dog is friendly, Indy will play with it.
Walking away from other dogs off-lead is a hard one for him, but he is getting better. Sometimes he will come with you almost immediately. Other times you will need nerves of steel as he will won't come away for a good 50-100 meters. I have found if you go back to try and catch him it makes things worse. Consistent calling and walking in the opposite direction has, to date, yielded the result of Indy eventually coming. When off-lead he likes to explore as far and as wide as possible. For this reason off-lead walks must be chosen with care, but are imperative to his emotional well-being (and ultimately yours). Indy is high energy, and has to be allowed to burn it off, otherwise he does not settle during the day or the evening. He has no road sense, and cannot be walked off-lead along a road under any circumstances.
When Indy sees a cat, he has to chase it. He loves cats and would never hurt one deliberately. His chase instinct with cats is not malice related, and he does not want to kill the cat he is chasing. He simply enjoys the chase and the excitement. And you know what? So do cats. 99% of them bloddy love it, they just don't want you to know that. Indy currently lives very successfully with 5 cats of varying temperaments. Last time I checked he had not killed any of them. He is incredibly respectful of angry cat, and gives her a wide berth. He adores brown cat Boo Boo, and the feeling is mutual. His chase instinct with cats is of course a problem off-lead, and if he sees a cat off-lead, you have lost him. This is the one time you will have to go after him, as he will not retreat from the chase. Sometimes he responds this way to tiny dogs as well, and he has to date seriously chased two small dogs, not realising they were dogs. Because the little dogs ran from him, the situations quickly deteriorated. It is only ever luck that these situations with cats and tiny dogs don't wind up with one or the other dead on a road. I pay a great deal of attention to everything that is happening around us and manage Indy accordingly. If I see a tiny dog even a long way off (Indy is watching and waiting too, trust me), even if that dog is on lead, I do not let Indy off the lead or I put Indy back on his lead, unless I know the little dog.
Indy knows 'this way' which is a directional command for him. He does not come to you on this command, just follows the direction you are going. 'Quick quick' is a similar command, and lets him know how far away he is. He may or may not care about this situation, but 'quick quick' does help close the distance between you if he responds. He also understands 'who's this?' when another dog is approaching. I have in the past used this sparingly to trick him into coming away from whatever it is he is doing, but I always use it every time we do see another dog, so he always errs on the side of caution and will appear to check if there is another dog. When Indy is really misbehaving on a walk, 'cross voice' may need to be used. Indy does not like 'cross voice'. In cross voice mode, shout 'INDY! NO! INDY! SIT!'. Repeat as required. Warning; it needs to be really cross and quite guttural for you to even have a chance of him listening to it. 99% of the time we use a really positive approach with him. Cross voice is reserved only for when that truly fails. Sometimes you won't use cross voice for weeks on end, then have to use it twice in as many days. Cross voice is a final measure only.
At home Indy is a wonderful companion. He is not a lap dog, but he does need to be close to you. As I write this he is on the sofa with me, his head resting on my arm as a pillow. Do not offer to adopt Indy if you are not willing to share the sofa with him. Indy sleeps on our bed. You may not want this, and I believe he could easily be trained not to. But the sofa is non-negotiable, and if you think it is, you are a fool. Also, do not think you will train him to sleep in a crate, or try to crate him while you are out. Indy responded violently to all attempts to crate train him when he was a puppy. For his own safety we stopped and found a different way. He can hold his bladder for seemingly forever and will not go in house (the vets or the pet shop, different story. He will mark in these places if you are not careful). He does not like to poo or wee in his own yard. For this reason his morning walk is very important to him as it is his first toilet of the day. He likes to pop outside and 'check the perimeters'. He lets you know when he wants to do this by standing at the back door.
Indy is used to doing everything and going almost everywhere with us. He would not be happy if you worked 6-8 hours every day and tried to leave him at home alone. He can be left for 1-5 hours occasionally, but it requires forward planning. Indy chews things. He needs lots of things that he is allowed to chew up and destroy, and anything that you do not want destroyed must be put out of his reach, or he will let you down. Don't set him up for failure, because he WILL FAIL. When we go out we let him have the full run of the house, except the front room. I believe he would just bark and worry at the front door if he was allowed access to it. We put everything out of his reach, including things that are normally hanging on the back door. It must be assumed that he will destroy it if he can reach it. The television and the cats are safe, but soft toys, pet beds, cushions, oven gloves, phone chargers, television remote controls, newspaper, cardboard boxes, etc, are simply invitations to chew, tear and destroy. If you accidentally leave something within his reach and he destroys it, it is your fault, not his. We are never cross at him over these things. Cross with him, yes. Cross at him, no. Also, disappointed. But ultimately, our fault. If you put all the things out of his reach, and leave his toys out for him, he will entertain himself between napping. We gave up leaving Kongs, bones and treats for him when we go out. He doesn't care for them much and just leaves them untouched. He would much rather chew up a stick or a feather. Sometimes I leave these things for him if I don't mind coming home to a bit of a mess to clean up.
If you go to work every day and can't take him with you, he is not the dog for you. If you go out every night for more than an hour, he is not the dog for you. I honestly believe that if I had even tried to train him to accept being left for long periods every day, it would have failed. He is a high energy dog who is very intelligent. He is curious and bores easily. He requires a minimum of two good walks a day (45 minutes minimum). He will happily walk for many hours. He gets thirsty when out, and will drink from puddles, drains, ponds, lakes, canals. When he is very hot he will swim and paddle, even in the middle of winter. He gets very hot very quick when playing with other dogs and will seek out water. I have never stopped him as I know what it is like to overheat. If his body is telling him he needs to cool down, then there must be a reason for it. I don't see it as a negative behaviour at all. Does this mean he is smelly and dirty? A bit. Do I care? A bit. Invest in a really good vacuum cleaner and give him a bath when the smell gets really bad. He's a good dog to bath in the tub at home. He doesn't love it, but certainly puts up with it well.
Indy plays very roughly with other dogs, but will take direction from them if they tell him to stop or calm down. He can get carried away with more meek dogs, and will need to be removed from a play situation if he starts to get very rough and the other dog is not enjoying itself but can't stand up to him. In these situations he will keep pushing the other dog to the point of causing it pain. He's overly dominant in these situations and the only solution is to remove him from it. He is much better suited to playing with dogs who can stand up for themselves. When playing with a dog who is more dominant than him, he will be submissive. These sorts of dogs are very good for him to play with, and he plays very well with dogs who a very rough like him. Indy will pull on other dogs tails and bite their necks and ears (sometimes quite hard). Most dogs don't mind, or tell him off when they do. If the other dog can't cope at all, Indy has to be removed from the situation. He won't stop of his own accord and gets a bit crazed.
Now this bit is REALLY IMPORTANT. Please don't question it or think you can 'see how it goes'. Indy is terrified of little children. For absolutely no reason whatsoever. He just was not exposed to them early enough, and as a result he hates them. He CANNOT be re-homed with little kids under 8 years, or where little kids will visit regularly, like your grandchildren, nieces or nephews, or friends children. He finds them incredibly stressful, and will cross the street to get away from them. I cannot stress enough that this would be an awful, awful mistake and could lead to the child being bitten by him. It would not be his fault, it would be yours, but you would still put him to sleep for it, wouldn't you? So please just don't bother putting him in this situation. No, no, no.
He is distrusting of older children, and if he sees teenagers just standing around, he will bark at them and circle them. I have found most people react to this poorly for some reason. Now whenever we see young people or kids on our walks, I put him on a short lead as soon as possible. Around small children he MUST be on a short lead as he can approach them from behind and bark at them. Do not let a child approach him, especially if he has nowhere to escape to. If he feels trapped, his reaction is unpredictable. Would he bite a little kid? Probably, if he felt he had to. He certainly makes a hell of a racket and shows his teeth when they have gotten too close to him. For this reason I do not leave him unattended outside a shop unless I can see him and get to him immediately (corner shop, okay. ASDA, bad).
With strangers in general out and about, he is shy unless they have a dog with them. If they have a dog with them, then he is immediately trusting. If they have a dog AND a kid with them, he is almost okay with that. He still does not want the child near him, but the joy of being with another dog is enough to distract him. Indy will chase little kids who dare run in his vicinity, and he will nip at their fingers given half a chance. Tougher older (8+) kids who understand what he is doing and can handle rough play with a dog could be considered as an adoptive family. He has a part-time 9 year old girl person who he adores, but he is rough with her, and she can handle it.
Other quirks? Like there aren't enough already? He does not like people standing still when he is on an off-lead walk. So fishermen, old ladies birdwatching, teenage kids smoking; he distrusts them all and he gets quite worked up about it. He doesn't like old people generally as they walk too slow, move about funny, and often have trolleys with them. He does, however, like sticking his nose into their shopping bags, and will do that as you walk past if you are not careful.
He used to get car sick when he was a pup. He seems to have outgrown it. He doesn't love car travel, but tolerates it. He feels incredibly safe in the car, though, and this is an option if you need to go out for a whole day. He will quite calmly wait in the car for hours, but will need a stretch and a break if it's going to be all day.
Indy is not a big eater. He currently eats a raw chicken wing in the morning after his walk. In the evening he has about 1 cup of Hills Science Diet Adult Chicken dry food, with about a fist size amount of raw beef mince (pet food grade) on top of his dry food. He will leave his dry food and graze on it during the night and the next morning. This does mean he is not treat orientated, and we have had to adapt to this by using Webbox 'Cats Delight' tasty sticks cat treats broken into little bits as his training treats.
In summation, Indy needs an experienced home. He is a high energy dog who requires a lot of exercise and mental stimulation. He would not make a good first dog. He requires a lot of time, patience, and consistency. He will misbehave and test all boundaries, all the time, and this is where you need to be patient with him. If you have a short temper, then he is not the dog for you and you will both just be miserable all the time. Likewise, if you are a pushover (and I confess, I am a bit) he will walk all over you. Indy could easily be homed with another dog or cats, although cats would need gradual and well-managed introductions as he will chase, even his own cats. His cats are just used to it.
Please take good care of my muppin head. He might be an idiot, but he's my idiot. He brings me much joy. I have not worked out quite how he does this yet. I suppose it is by magic.
P.S. Under absolutely no circumstances is Indy to be re-homed with my step-daughter's mother. No matter how much my step-daughter might want this, it will never be a suitable home for a dog like Indy.
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