Callie was picked up as a stray near Youngsville, North Carolina by a Paws for Life NC rescue volunteer, who brought Callie to the rescue when no owner claimed her. There, her rescuer—who also happened to be a canine agility trainer—and shelter staff noticed Callie’s passion for tennis balls and any toy on a string. They posted her bio on social media, hoping to find her a job, and an SDF recruiter noticed the post and immediately reached out. The rescue conducted some preliminary assessment tests, and our trainers gave Callie two paws up to travel to the NTC!
Here, Callie was given additional assessment tests, and while we found that she had good extrinsic motivation, hunt, and prey drive, her evaluation indicated that she may have some tactile sensitivities that could affect her ability to traverse rubble piles comfortably. Our trainers worked with her to build her confidence on the rubble, but her heart wasn’t in it. With a disaster search career off the table, our team determined Callie would be happiest in an active home where her sweet, energetic personality could shine!
Callie had previously been placed with a foster family, and when they heard that she was no longer a search dog candidate, they welcomed her back into their home with open arms—this time for good! Callie was officially adopted and headed home to North Carolina to begin her new life.
Disaster search may not have been the outlet she was looking for, but Callie still had a ton of energy in desperate need of a healthy release. Thankfully, Callie’s dog mom had just the ticket—dock diving! Callie arrived home in January with no experience in the sport, and by summertime, she was competing in dock diving competitions and even snagged an invite to the North America Diving Dogs Regionals!
Since then, life has been a whirlwind of fun for Callie, who has continued to improve her dock diving skills and was recently ranked 10th in the country in her category! To date, she’s earned both her Dock Elite Advanced and Dock Elite Excellent titles and her Rally Novice title. She’s even expanded her athletic skillset, debuting in Rally Obedience and UKI Agility. As if that isn’t enough, she joined her mom for a 5K Turkey Trot over Thanksgiving!
It’s been incredible watching Callie learn to channel her impressive energy and stellar toy drive into activities she loves and excels at to become the fantastic athlete she was meant to be! We’re beyond happy to see her living a joyful, active life with her forever human by her side, and we can’t wait to follow along as she continues making a name for herself in the exciting world of competitive dog sports!
Click here to learn more about our Canine Placement Program!