Spaniel / Collie?

Toka, 2 yrs old, 55 lb female, liver and white. Got her as an aussie/spaniel mix. I don't see much aussie. I'm leaning toward springer spaniel, pointer or brittany with maybe border collie? Med-short fur length, very soft coat, a little bit of ticking on her feet. Fairly clingy dog, she follows me from room to room,a nd pays a lot of attention to what I'm doing at any given time.

Very energetic bouncy style of running, retrieves pretty well, mediumish prey drive, some circle running, though no ankle nipping. Very smart, fairly eager to please, learns new behaviors in only a few repetitions. Mild to moderate obsessive compulsive light / shadow chasing. She's fairly skinny with a deep chest, no noticeable bell or howl in her bark, kind of middle of the road noise level, not very barky overall though.

Most of the pics are from one of her shadow chasing sessions, but at rest her tail is low, curves a bit near her ankles.









Any one got other ideas as to breed?

--Mia

Her face looks border collie to me. Very pretty dog - I looove the last pic.

I can see Brittany in her for sure...her trunk resembles an Aussie's more than a Brit's..the ears are Aussie.

Her face looks very Aussie. Old Dog has a liver colored Austrailian and the head and face looks very much the same.

Looks like a working sheepdog to me. WSDs are really common, typically look like BC or Aussie mixes and do exhibit the same behavior that most herding breeds do.

I don't see a ton of spaniel in her, to be honest, but if she absolutely is mixed with spaniel, my guess would be Brittany.

She's a gorgeous dog!

I love her. She's gorgeous. Seriously. I cant get over her looks. Anyway, her face looks border collie-ish. My bc looks like that. The face i mean. What ever she is, she's beautiful

Thanks. The first pic I saw of her made her look like a dark brown dog with no white and yellow eyes, you can imagine my surprise when I met her.

I spent 8 months on petfinder trying to find a BC or Aussie mix that hadn't been taken in by a breed specific rescue. It wasn't easy. The breed rescues struck me as too pushy about who gets a dog. I had an unfenced yard of only a 1/4 acre, lived on a very busy street, and hadn't technically owned a dog before. I didn't have 3 character references, nor could I afford 300-400 dollars for a rescue dog. I made enough money to feed a dog, and do basic medical, but $400 even for a fully vetted dog was too much at one time.

That fee kind of annoyed me since during my dog search I drove 1 1/2 hours each way to find out the dog I wanted to see had been taken by breed rescue the day before (no one answered the phone). She was up on their website in a few days, and her adoption fee went from $60 at the humane society to $350 with the rescue. The dog had already been spayed by the shelter and gone through her shots. She had been up on the shelters site for less than 2 days. I was pissed since I could have adopted her from the humane society, but the rescue was too exacting about homes.

I found Toka in a all-breed rescue about 2 hours from my house. She had been returned twice already for jumping and nipping people. Wow, a herding dog mix at nine months old was nipping people and jumping, I would never have guessed... There were two families in line behind me waiting to see how my meeting went with her. I had decided that my mother's dog got to pick since she was going to have to share the yard with my new dog. Thankfully she approved this time. I'll tell you a two hour car trip home with a dog you've never met is fun. She spent it alternately trying to play with my mothers dog, or get in the front seat.

It's been more than a year and I haven't looked back. Though I will admit that the 2 hour drive there and back had something to do with it in the first few weeks.

I've been lightly looking around at rescue aussies now, as Toka needs a high energy playmate to help exercise her, and I think a purebred border collie might be a bit much. Though I'm keeping my eyes out.

--Mia

Where do you live? I've seen quite a few border collie mixes here, I'm sure you will be able to find one

I live in Mass, there aren't too many here unless they've been imported by out of state rescues. Many of the out of state ones are puppies, and they all admit they aren't sure what mixes they are. I really don't want a hound mix, so am kind of stuck, and not really interested in a pup under 6 months. Others I've seen up for adoption are often puppy mill dogs with interesting temperment quirks. However there are a lot of dogs getting labeled BC mix because they have a lot of black on them and are high energy.

Now that I have a dog, a fenced yard and vet references for the dog a rescue probably won't be as hard to deal with. With my better job I can now almost afford the adoption fee all at once.

I'll probably try for an aussie through ARPH, as soon as I figure out whether I can afford it or have enough space, and whether my landlord will let me have another...I rent half a duplex from my parents. Dad thinks the one dog I have is a handful

I also have to decide on male vs female. With the first it was easy. My family always has females, any males we tried didn't work out. Toka doesn't seem to care what she plays with, as long as it is over 20 lbs. I don't know whether I want to try a male or not.

Anyone have specific info on males vs females in aussies or BC's? Breeder websites I found try to say males make better pets, but is that just because breeders don't like keeping them around due to marking or pushier male behavior? It always seems like there are way more males up for adoption than females. I haven't found the male vs female thing on rescue sites.

We had a female purebred aussie when I was younger, but we suspect she was a double blue merle since she was at least partially deaf, and had a completely white head with merled ears. She was very odd. Anyone know the incidence of deafness/blindness in non-merled non-white dogs?

--Mia