About Olive:

Olive is a large, female Bearded Collie X, aged 4 years old.

Description:

You’ll never be lonely with Olive at your side. She’s loyal and loving, eager to please and snuggle, intelligent and sweet.

When we first collected Olive, she leaned her head forward in the car and gently rested her chin on my shoulder, trusting and content as we made our way home a newly expanded family. This is the essence of Olive. She’s happiest wherever she’s with you.

Beyond cuddles and nuzzling, Olive’s hobbies include hanging out with her eight-year-old German shepherd brother. Their favourite game is chasey. They are great pals. Olive also loves running after a ball flung from a Chuck-It, and chewing said ball.

She’s a loving member of our whanau and has been gentle, patient, tolerant and accommodating as our family has grown to include three young children.

Olive is currently an outside pet who sleeps indoors on her bed at night, but she dreams of being a full-time inside dog.

A pleasure on the leash, Olive has been so easy to walk. She also loves to jog alongside you as you go about your exercise. Olive’s long legs also thrive at a quicker pace. Agile and light-footed, she loves the open country and can go like lightning across fields or down the beaches. In water pursuits, she’s more of a dipper than a swimmer and revels in frolicking in still water but is not so keen on waves. Our girl just loves to be at your side as you get amongst the great outdoors.

When you do have to part for work and other life’s goings on, she welcomes you back home with big barks of excitement, and a celebratory sprint of the property perimeter before you open the car door to her affectionate nose bopping your hand and a delighted tail wag.

Olive is an effervescent beardie collie x, five years old. She’s fun and enthusiastic, generally placid and submissive. She responds well to women in particular. She is in great health, spayed, has all her current immunisations for kennels, is toilet trained, has all her basic commands including good recall, and she is a solid traveller (family road trip via Interislander to South Island, no troubles).

She has previously lived harmoniously with cats and is used to stock (but I don’t think she’d do well with chickens as she likes to hunt rabbits). If Olive doesn’t want to be confined, she’s pretty good at finding an escape route by going under or over a fence or nibbling through whatever is tying her up. We have a sheltered kennel with an attached run and she’s relaxed in there if we are out.

We wish we didn’t have to write this ad. But Olive reacted to a situation she wasn’t comfortable in and has to be rehomed.

Olive is anxious and sometimes fearful. Along with being scared of loud noises like fireworks and thunder, we now know from our dog trainer that Olive can only handle a few canine friends. Olive is ‘dog selective’ – she has a small social circle and can exhibit reactivity towards other dogs.

While on a walk off-leash in March this year, Olive attacked and injured another dog. The dog is our immediate next-door neighbour’s, so due to proximity, we are unable to keep her here.

Since the incident, we have commenced professional rehabilitation training while we wait for the right family to find Olive. The focus of her training is helping her learn an alternative behaviour. We are doing this by getting Olive to look briefly at other dogs, then check in with us (marking the positive behaviour and giving treat rewards) and then moving away from the other dogs.

The trainer (Augusta Grayson) is confident that Olive can be rehabilitated. It will be important that she is placed in a home where she can lead a happy life with management measures in place. A muzzle will be essential outdoors due to her classification (menacing) and for everyone’s peace of mind, plus avoiding busy dog areas and restricting off-leash to quiet areas with no dogs.

Olive is going well with a muzzle and remains very easy to take places on a lead. Her recall is also super.

As she is ok with some dogs, it means Olive could potentially go to a home with another dog but a full understanding of her past and ensuring they get along is important.

We have also been investing in some ‘brain exercise’ at home (feeding through toys and hide and seek rather than bowls, plus games). Olive loves this stimulation!

Our hearts are heavy but hopeful that a suitable new home for Olive is out there. Please get in touch if you think that might be with you.

Is Olive used to children? Yes.
Is Olive used to cats? Don’t know.
Is Olive toilet-trained? Yes.
Is Olive used to stock? Don’t know.
Is Olive used to chickens? No.
How well does Olive get on with other dogs? OK.
Olive lives in Havelock North, North Island.
A bit about Olive’s personality:

Agile, full of energy but loves a cuddle, generally placid and submissive. Loves company and to be an inside dog.

About me:

My name: Dana Solomon.
My e-mail address: danamariesolomon@gmail.com.
My phone number: 0211907790

RWD ADVERT DISCLAIMER:

All Retired Working Dogs adverts are posted in good faith. We generally do not know the advertisers and/or their dogs and have not fact-checked their advert. We are therefore also unable to answer questions about the dog advertised, so please contact the advertiser directly. If you feel that an advert is incorrect then please get in touch with us.