June 2025
Beautiful Indie turns 5 in August and is looking for an adult-only home. She’s a lovely girl who enjoys her walks, has great recall, and has lots of love and cuddles to offer, however she has some issues with dog reactivity and can be unpredictable around children - two behaviour issues which her current owners are finding difficult to manage with a young child and another baby due imminently. They are very sad to be making this decision to rehome her and have until now been committed to training to work through these issues, but with the growth of their family they’re concerned they aren’t able to give Indie the time she needs.
Indie is good with the family’s 3-year-old and fine with babies and children up to this age that she’s met, but currently isn’t comfortable around children older than this, and can find children’s behaviour stressful if they are shouting, running around or trying to touch her. There have been a few incidents where she's growled and barked at unknown children, especially older children that she’s not used to, so this has made it difficult to have friends and relatives with older children visit. She’s also lunged and growled at children when on lead - if they’ve run past too close to her and she feels uncomfortable.
Indie can be reactive towards some dogs, this is also unpredictable as it’s not all dogs and can be hard for her owners to know which dogs she will be happy around.
She has been going to a doggy day care once a week for the last 2 years where there have been no issues and is happy and calm with dogs that she knows (family dogs or dogs she walks with regularly), however she cannot tolerate any other dog trying to assert dominance over her or sniff her – she will growl and react, which can escalate to a fight if the other dog doesn’t leave her alone.
She is usually fine with other calm dogs who are happy to give her space, she often spends time with a calm, balanced family Labrador.
After a morning walk Indie is usually happy to sleep for most of the day, and is well-mannered and calm in the house, though she does react to the doorbell or people knocking on the door by barking or growling (in this sense she’s a good guard dog). Once she meets the person the other side of the door she’s likely to just jump up and be happy and excitable for a couple of minutes, then calms back down.
She loves human attention with her bonded people and likes to settle down after dinner around 6pm and will sleep and cuddle the rest of the evening. She also enjoys sniffing and brain training/search type games – as a typical working breed she likes to have a job to do. While she does enjoy retrieving a ball or toys, she’s not obsessed with this and will easily stop the game when told. She is quite vocal and loud when playing – almost as if she is talking to you!
Indie is able to be left for 4 hours after exercise and has been left longer on an odd occasion, when they returned she was relaxed and sleeping. When she was younger her owners used to leave a licki mat/Kong to keep her entertained but haven’t needed to do this for a couple of years. She’s given free run of the downstairs during the day, and at night she happily curls up on her bed downstairs. Sometimes they put the radio on during the day to help disguise any outside noises that might disturb her.
She has a strong prey drive and classifies cats as prey! If on lead and sees a cat she will pull hard and be very vocal. In the past she has barked and tried to get to livestock, but after lots of training her owners are able to recall her from chasing squirrels, deer etc. They completed training with a gundog specialist to work on this and also did some specific ‘sheep training’. Indie has a brilliant recall, even from long distances with her 212 whistle (though her owners always try to keep her in sight). She knows several commands and is whistle trained, middle (between your legs), settle (down), stop, touch, gentle, close, leave or off, lost (look for treats as her reward). She’s also sociable with other adults she meets on walks (usually ignoring them or going for a quick stroke) and never chases runners or cyclists going past. She’s a great traveler having made many car journeys with her owners and is always a lovely quiet girl who sleeps for the whole journey. She’s healthy, neutered and vaccinated.
If you feel you could offer this beautiful girl the company and exercise that she loves, as well as an ongoing commitment to training in relation to her dog reactivity, please contact us.
Indie is currently in the Aldershot area and will be rehomed with her 5 weeks free Agria Insurance and our Adoption Contract.
GSP Rescue UK Terms and Conditions apply 💟🐾🐾
