About

My wife and I are retirees in our 60's. We adopted Tillie a year ago at the age of 8 weeks. She is a Miniature Aussie doodle: 3/4 Miniature Australian Shepherd and 1/4 poodle. Tillie weighs 16 pounds and has been spayed.She has no known health issues (examined by vet last week). She is high energy (loves to chase a ball) and protective of her yard and family.We hired a professional trainer to help us with basic obedience training, and worked with her for several months. Tillie is very intelligent and picked up the training quickly. She is learning to heel on a leash, sits, lays down,stays (most of the time), etc. She is protective of 'her' yard, barks at birds to make them fly away, barks at new things she sees or hears. She is house and crate trained. The reason we need to re-home her is she has shown aggressive behavior towards our two grandsons, ages 2 1/2 and five. She jumps on them and 'nips' at their faces, once knocking the glasses off the 5 year old. She has not bitten them (or anyone else) but we are afraid she could. She also has snarled at each of us when we have done something she didn't like (ie., taking a tight choke chain collar off of her; making her go to a down position when she didn't want to). All of her aggressive behavior has occurred in our home. She has gone to doggie day care and been boarded and done fine. I think it is safe to say she should not be in a home with young children or an inexperienced dog owner. Her owner should have experience and/or a comfort level dealing with dog aggression. She needs daily exercise and/or access to a yard to run in. We are very attached to Tillie and the decision to re-home her is difficult, but we feel the safety of our grandsons must come first. We will add a photo of her asap.

Maricopa County
Goodyear, Arizona