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| Name: |
Rio
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Age: |
Eleven months old
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| Gender: |
Male |
Breed: |
Rough Collie
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| Home: |
Chilhowie, Virginia, USA |
Rio
is eleven months old and is an AKC Rough Collie like Lassie. Collies come
in two coat lengths. A rough collie means Rio has longggg hair and plenty of
it. The AKC Smooth Collie has very short hair but has very much the same body
as a rough collie. Rio enjoys life in the mountains of Virginia.
As one of the most gentle and loyal of the herding breeds, Rio has been one
of the most easily trainable dogs we have owned. He just finished his first
AKC obedience class and will be attempting his Canine Good Citizen test very
soon. We plan on his career as a Certified Therapy Dog so he can visit
nursing homes and hospitals to provide love to people who need it. When
training to visit nursing homes and hospitals, the key is to teach him not to
do certain things as much as is to do tricks. Rio does all the standard
tricks, such as shake, touch a mark, speak on command, retrieve, sit, down,
and stay. It is much harder to teach him not to jump or lick or sniff and
smell. He cannot nip or bite when taking a treat from a hand and he must be
comfortable around strangers and strange surroundings. Wheelchairs, hospital
beds that move, intercoms, buzzers, beeps and all the noises that the
hospital environment can provide cannot provoke him to be skittish or nervous.
Rio has a super-sweet temperament and loves people, cats and other dogs. For
such a big dog (he weighs about 65 pounds), he is very loving and wants to
snuggle and cuddle. He is a true southern gentleman in that he waits until
his housemates have eaten before he will eat.
His favorite toy is his stuffed squeaky rabbit and his jolly ball on a rope.
He will run in the yard swinging the jolly ball with that fluffy tall
flagging in the air. We have a decorative wooden well that holds flowers in
the yard and for fun, we named one of his toys Timmy. We are working on
getting him to retrieve "Timmy" from the well.
Most collies are very intelligent, loyal, obedient dogs that love children.
Rio is going to put his collie traits to good use. His loving sweet
temperament will bring joy to many people. As you can tell from the photos,
he loves children. My grandchildren who are three and four love "Ri-Ro" dearly and
he loves them. His obedience while the children lead him around is amazing.
Of course, he would rather play with the grandchildren than any toy on earth.
When they visit, he is their shadow. His herding background comes in handy
for babysitting. He has the stamina to keep up with a four-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy.
Beauty and brains with a super-sweet temperament; we are so lucky to have a
collie dog like Rio.
See more images of Rio!
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