Oasis Companion Canines

My best girl, the other half of my soul, my right hand woman. Mellow is a dog that I would hand off to a first time dog owner and be confident they will both have a good time. Every time she goes out or to the vet, she gets compliments on her behavior. None of my collies have needed sedation for hip/elbow X-rays (Mellow, Dorian, Pixie, Nuance have had it done), and radiologists praised them each time for being really easy to work with. Mellow loves all people and animals, is very social and friendly. She will probably jump on you if you come visit, something we haven’t worked on very much lol. She will go say hi to everyone waiting outside a busy restaurant as we walk by. Naboo is pretty much retired from his position as introduction/socialization dog, demo/greeter dog since he is turning 10, and that position has been taken over by Mellow who is excellent with other dogs, at reading social cues and communicating. She is the dog that I introduce new client dogs to first, and usually befriends them. She doesn’t resource guard and can be pushed from her food by a rude puppy. It’s rare that she snarks at another dog but if she does then it was usually warranted because she is quite tolerant and forgiving, and when she does correct another dog it’s quick and fair succinct communication. If I don’t have a leash with me (and am going to areas where that’s fine), I can bring Mellow. If I need a dog on perfect behavior, I would bring Mellow. She’s extremely intuitive and I haven’t needed to teach her many formal cues, she seems to so often just know what I am asking. She’s very emotionally in tune with me without taking on my emotions. When I am angry or sad and have outbursts, she comes to check on me. She will wag her tail and shove her long nose in my face to give me calming gentle licks. She dotes on me like she gave birth to me. She’s very maternal and loves mothering baby animals, cleaning their butts even if they don’t belong to her. She’s playful and silly, gentle and loving, calm and friendly, affectionate and cuddly. She’s very food motivated but will also work for praise and nothing. She does alert bark, but other than that she doesn’t bark that often when playing. She doesn’t demand bark at all. If she wants something she will wait patiently, catch your eye, sit intentionally in front of you, put her face in your way, and then give up. The alert barking is appreciated on our rural mini farm where she alerts me to strangers, suspicious activities, chases away coyotes and hawks and ravens from the chicken pen and goat pens. She will join in on rat hunting or field mice, wild rabbits etc, but she kind of just helps and doesn’t do the killing. During hard times Mellow has lived with me and Sam and Naboo in a car, in a single room, in an apartment, boarded for over a month when I went to Taiwan, and thrived. She’s very eager to please, very biddable, low energy and velcro but not in an annoying way - she can fully amuse and occupy herself for days at a time if needed. She doesn’t have separation anxiety and can be left home alone all day. When I have bad days she sleeps in bed with me for the whole day. She is always willing to go nap with me for hours. She waits for me to wake up; if I get up and go back to sleep then she goes back to sleep. She can turn on as needed, but her default is turned off. I think of her as having an on switch rather than an off switch. She’s always ready to go with me and do whatever is asked, but she is extremely low maintenance as a pet. The most high maintenance part about her is her coat, which is quite moderate compared to her littermate who had a full show coat. For improvements I would work on herdy traits like alert barking and environmental sensitivity/confidence as well as less coat and sizing down for longevity. There’s totally more about her I’m forgetting right now but I just love this girl so much. She’s the best. She’s also the one that started me on my breeding journey because we need more dogs like her. Oh and she has OFA Excellent hips and clear elbows. She does have both copies of CEA with mild coloboma in one eye, and is a DM carrier, so paired with Dorian who was all clear she produced puppies who are CEA carriers (with one copy of the gene). Two of the pups were also DM carriers. The next gen we are aiming to get to all clear ideally. Her vision does not affect her as she’s had mild CEA in one eye since birth, and CEA is common in collies. Also reasons to outcross. http://embk.me/mellow15 https://ofa.org/advanced-search/?appnum=2294333

Sweet and sassy girl, super smart and cuddly

Super smart, very cuddly, has herding drive