Spaz is my first foster dog for Border Collie Friends Rescue (BCFR) (www.bordercollie.ca). I picked him up in Calgary on Saturday (17th February) from Cherie, another foster home. He was surrended to the Humane Society at 1 year old because he was hyperactive and food possessive. A border collie-lab cross hyperactive at 1 year - shocking!!! He has been in foster care with BCFR for 2 years and was well looked after by Cindy. He has had plenty of other dog interaction but needed exposure to new situations. Cherie had him for the 4 months previous and has worked with his food possessive issues as he demonstrated possessiveness around large rawhide sticks. He was moved to my house to see if the gains that they had accomplished translated to a new environment. More about that later.

Spaz settled in right away with my two dogs (Ceili - humane society rescue b.c. mix, Bracken - local rescue (www.nasap.ca) b.c.). Spaz is very loving - likes nothing more than snuggling on the couch next to you or lying at my feet as I work in the office). He is crate trained and goes to it on command - these last few mornings he has been racing to it as soon as he sees the stuffed Kong coming out of the freezer! Spaz is very good with his name recognition and come. He will sit, shake a paw and wait at the door/gate to go out. Since Saturday we have been working on down, hand touches and improved waits to be let of the crate, car, door, gates and to be released to his food bowl.

Hurry up - let's go for a walk!

I have tested him for resource guarding around his food bowl and have no reaction when I add food to his bowl, take away the food bowl or even put my hand in the food bowl. I did this on his own and with my two dogs present. No reaction at all. I have not yet tested the rawhides.

Spaz LOVES to go for walks and will run to sit at a door as soon as he thinks a walk might be forthcoming. He likes to pull a little so I implemented the - we are not moving forward unless there is a loose leash- routine and he caught on quite quickly but this will be a work in progress for a while yet!

I am fortunate to have a good friend who owns a doggy daycare and training centre (www.seespot-run.com). Spaz will be going to daycare on Friday to see how he is around a larger group of dogs. We have had him in the centre on an evening, running around with 5 new dogs and he has been very good. In the past he has shown signs of overstimulation around large groups of dogs so we are working through this so that he will be able to compete in the future in agility, flyball or RallyO. Last night he stayed very quietly in a crate in a room with 8 other crated dogs while we practiced agility. I then took him out into a corner while another class practiced. He was excited to see them but sat next to me with his tail wagging and his body quivering. I clicked and treated him every time he took his focus off the other dogs and onto me - the goal is to train him to focus on me even in extremely stimulating environments.