MEET PO AKA PRINCE GREENING GRANDMALION, FURBALL, FLUFFYBUTT, THE PRINCE OF OUR GROUP
Author: Elmiri Fox
Bought as an Assistance Dog prospect, Prince Greening Grandmalion, or Po for short, is a male Rough Collie. His dam is UK working line, his sire a Spanish import which is where he gets his markings from.
Born on the 23rd September 2018 he is still very much a baby and learning about the world. A high energy dog he steps outside of his breed standards by being extremely friendly, sociable and confident.
In the UK our Rough Collies don’t get particularly big, especially show lines. 25kg tops is rather normal for a UK line. Po at 1 year old is 28kg, tall, skinny, long, lanky and still plenty of time to grow. He stands the same size as my friends 50kg Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. He is super large and super fluffy. He’s also super awesome.
Po was named after a character from my favourite book series ‘Graceling by Kristin Cashore’ feel free to look it up! His further nicknames are Chewie, Chewbacca, cone head, idiot due to his noises and behaviour.
He has two dogs he plays with regularly. My mum’s rough collie Sandy, and a friend’s Labrador retriever called Summer. Po is the only dog Eli will play with, but it is always on his terms and Po’s size can be a issue for this at times.
He has barriers in training as every dog will do and it is important to recognise and acknowledge them.
Po has always been a talker, it’s part of his breed standard. When he was tiny I use to wake up in the middle of the night due to his sleep talking/groaning. Well and truly mother instincts there.
He is also not keen on being groomed, although he is now considerably better as he has gotten older.
He has always struggled with stairs, specifically going up them. He can do it, he just has to go at his pace. Over the last year we have been up and down lots of stairs, unfortunately his issues have only gotten worse with him flat out refusing to go up some staircases. So we now do specific training to help him with his pacing, foot awareness and confidence around stairs. I no longer take him up stairs when doing any public access training as he is not ready for that situation. I was never aware of the issue as he runs up and down the stairs constantly at home.
At over 1 year old Po knows several tasks. My most relied on task being his ‘block’ personal space is particularly important to me. He also knows an anxiety response, panic attack response, DPT and desensitisation.
As my physical health takes a decline, Po will potentially be used for mobility tasks like ‘forward momentum’ and ‘counter balance’.
