Rokko

Rokko is a beautiful, fluffy and very affectionate Border Collie. He is 2.5 years old and weighs 25kg. Rokko loves squeaky balls and cuddles more than anything. He is in many ways not your typical Border Collie and is surprisingly chill for his breed. He is a real couch potato and spends the majority of his day relaxing and doesn’t require hours of exercise every day.
Favourite things
Rokko’s favourite activities are with no doubt playing with balls, relaxing with his family at home and going on car rides. Rokko is very affectionate and loves cuddles. He is very emotionally intelligent and knows if someone in his family is sad. He then runs up to them and tries to comfort them, it’s very sweet. He has recently started to enjoy spending some time at the dog park and is getting more and more comfortable around other dogs.
Interaction with humans
Rokko loves all people of all ages and gets very excited whenever we have someone over. He can struggle to contain himself around new people and can get a bit jumpy and pushy, so around younger children or elderly people we have had him on a lead for the first 20 minutes or so until he settles down, once he has settled, he is very well behaved. Rokko is very friendly and patient with people but can get a little bit uncomfortable is someone is too much “in his face” and can then give away a small growl, but never shows teeth or any aggression. It’s simply him asking for a little bit of space. Due to this and his being a bit jumpy we don’t think he would be suitable for a family with small children,

Rokko has made huge improvements in his obedience training and loves his training sessions these days. He has gone from not knowing his name and being impossible to get eye contact with to learning: sit, lay down, shake, go to bed, spin, bang, come here. He loves obedience training and gets super excited as soon as we get his ball out as he knows that means it’s time for training. His attention span is getting better and better but approximately five minutes at the time is usually his limit at this stage. We tend to do several short training sessions every day rather than one longer session, and that works perfectly for him.

When out walking Rokko gets very excited and pulls a lot, so his future family must be willing to work on this, potentially with a dog trainer. Rokko is a very strong boy so his future family must be fit enough to be able to walk him. Rokko is an expert at slipping out of harnesses and collars, so he must be walked on a correction collar as he doesn’t have a great recall and can get cheeky if he realises his collar or harness has come off.

Rokko’s biggest improvement over the last three months in foster care must be his animal social skills. Rokko used to be extremely insecure around other dogs and was very reactive. He sadly snapped at two dogs during the first week in foster care, but he has since made significant improvement and recently had his first trip to the dog park! He behaved perfectly and was super respectful of the other two dogs. Rokko loves balls more than anything but as soon as another dog approached him, he would drop his ball and take a few steps back. It was clear that he didn’t want any confrontation and showed zero signs of resource guarding. Rokko has made such significant improvement in the last three months that we know he has amazing potential, he just requires someone who is willing to continue working with his at a pace that suits him. Taking things slowly has been the key to him developing more confidence around other dogs.You can also find training videos and a video from the dog park posted a couple days ago on the Facebook page.
Rokko hasn’t showed any signs of being reactive the last month or so, but we are still being cautious and only introducing him to well socialised dogs as we don’t want to ruin his beautiful progress. Rokko also seems more comfortable around smaller dogs.

Poor Rokko unfortunately struggles with separation anxiety, but he tolerates it in smaller portions. He doesn’t bark, cry, or dig when alone, but he will bang and scratch on the door or pace back and forth when he gets anxious. We are home quite a lot so he doesn’t spend much time alone, but on the odd occasion it happens that he must spend up to eight hours alone. If it happens once in a while, it is okay, but he will not be adopted to a home where this will happen several times per week. Rokko has been prescribed Trazadone and Clonidine on an ‘as need’ basis, to help him get through days where he needs to be alone for a long time. This is working really well but the vet has informed us that it is not a long-term solution, and that his future family will need to discuss this with a vet if it continues to be an issue. We are seeking a home where someone is home a lot as we recommend, he is not left alone for longer than 2-3 hours at a time. As Rokko loves being in the car and has no problem being left alone in the car, I sometimes bring him with me when I need to do shopping etc. and let him sit in the car. This is obviously not possible during the warmer months but during the winter it works really well.
We just started practicing leaving Rokko alone inside the house to see if that helps, as he loves to be inside. It is a bit too early to evaluate this yet.
Rokko is fully toilet trained and has not had any accidents inside.

Rokko sleeps in our bedroom on his own bed. He is not allowed in our bed and respects this rule. He has never jumped up on our bed. He is quiet during the night and he won’t wake you up in the morning, but he will start walking around in the room around 7-8am if you are not awake yet. He is a real couch potato though so if he was allowed into bed, I reckon he would be happy to sleep for a few more hours.
Rokko cannot sleep outside due to his separation anxiety. He also gets very anxious if locked in a room or a small space,bedroom.. Due to Rokko not liking confined spaces, we don’t think he would sleep well in a crate.

Rokko is currently walked around 30-60 minutes per day. Most days we go and throw ball with him to let him run off some steam (must be a fenced are with no other dogs). As he has recently been introduced to the dog park, we will continue taking him there during the quiet hours of the day to continue building his confidence around other dogs. He gets very excited and worked up during walks and pulls and he can be difficult to engage with at times. He has however made improvements since we first got him. We believe a few sessions with a dog trainer would solve this problem.
Inside the home
Rokko is an absolute angel inside the home. He is not destructive at all (the only thing he has ever chewed on a couple of time is his dog bed). He knows he is only allowed upstairs when it’s bedtime, so during the day he never walks up there, even if we run up and down all the time. We allow Rokko on the sofa most times, but he always respects a no if we say so. He sleeps 90% of the time at home. Even on rainy days where he doesn’t get much exercise (he hates the rain) he doesn’t seem to get restless. He is happy to just sleep and cuddle as long as he has company. He loves to chew on bones, so we usually let him chew on a bone a few times per week. This works wonders if he seems a bit restless.
Medical issues
Please refer to the separation anxiety issues as listed above.
Ideal home
The ideal home for Rokko would be:
A family that lives on a large, fenced property where he can run around freely. At a minimum a large backyard is a must as he can’t be walked off lead but loves to run around and stretch his legs.
A family that spends a lot of time at home. Ideally someone who works part time or works from home at least a few days per week.
A family that is willing to keep working on his lead skills and is willing to seek professional help from a dog trainer if needed. This is a must.
A family t