When Campbell was found crammed inside a car in Whyalla with five other dogs and two ringworm-infested cats, he had experienced very little interaction with people and was hesitant and fearful. Thanks to help from RSPCA SA’s vets and the Dog Care team, Campbell was able to begin his journey towards healing and finding love.
The Dog Care team soon noticed that the 17-week-old Border Collie cross was quick to bark and easily startled. They made sure he was taken on plenty of walks and worked with him to overcome his nervous habits.
Thanks to the team’s consistent encouragement of positive behaviour, the pup learnt to control his fear and relax while walking with volunteers and enjoying long games of fetch.
The only thing the little dog was missing was a forever home.
After losing his thirteen-year-old Blue Heeler, Felix, to cancer in 2006, Donald was apprehensive about searching for a canine companion. Five years later, Donald had changed his mind – he knew that he wanted to give a home to a dog in need.
He booked an appointment with the RSPCA SA shelter in Lonsdale to see five different dogs. He met each pup, but one by one he knew none of them were quite the right fit. After interacting with the last of these potential companions, Donald asked an RSPCA volunteer if there were any other dogs he could meet. Luckily for him, there was one dog left to see.
The volunteer told Donald the pup was not yet available to adopt due to his anxiety, but Donald asked if he could meet him anyway. When the gate opened, Campbell (at the time known as Hunter) came bounding in.
Donald knew from the moment he saw the excited pup running towards him that he had found his new friend. Campbell was excited and energetic, his nerves forgotten as Donald said hello, and it was only a few moments before Donald let the volunteer know that he had made his choice. After discussing Campbell’s temperament and needs, the dog care team felt that Donald had the ability to manage the dog’s anxiety, with ongoing support from them if needed. They filled out the paperwork and in almost no time Donald had hit the road – with a tuckered-out Campbell resting his head on his new owner’s lap for the entire hour-long drive home.
It wasn’t long after Donald brought the pup home that Campbell started to show off his clever personality.
When they first arrived at Donald’s Goolwa Beach home, Campbell raced straight into the house to take a look around. Donald had a dog door leading out into the backyard and when he couldn’t find his new furry friend, he assumed that the pup had gone for a wander to explore the greenery. He stuck his head through the door and started calling the pup to no avail, only to turn around to see Campbell calmly sitting behind him, having found his way indoors through his own little door without Donald noticing. “He makes me laugh so much,” said Donald, as he remembered all the years they’ve spent together.
Donald was proud to report that in the six years he’s had Campbell, the pup has made huge progress. When he took Campbell on his first walk to the beach, he thought the dog would pull his arm off. When he was let off the leash, Campbell barked, jumped, and ran for hours without paying any attention to Donald’s attempts to call him.
Donald sought advice on how to improve the pup’s behaviour from RSPCA SA, and now when he lets Campbell run along the sand off-leash for hours, he only has to wave his arms for the energetic pup to come running back.
Donald has since adopted another rescue pup, a Kelpie named Tilly, who gets along with Campbell extremely well. Although Tilly has let Campbell know who’s in charge, Donald says Campbell holds his own. For example, when Donald’s calling them both and Tilly is ignoring the calls, too busy exploring the beach, Campbell will often herd her back to their owner.
“If I had two years to design the perfect dog, I couldn’t do better.”
The bond between Donald and Campbell is so strong that Donald said the two of them seem to intuitively understand each other, and it is clear that Campbell knows he has found a home for good.
On one occasion when Donald was headed to Murray Bridge during a storm, he received a call from a woman who had found Tilly out on the streets. During the storm the little dog had somehow managed to escape out through the gate. Donald called a neighbour to ask him if he could pick up Tilly and try to find Campbell (who he assumed had also run away), as he was too far from home to get back quickly.
The neighbour, happy to help, retrieved Tilly and went to Donald’s home with a plan to leave her there while he went looking for Campbell. When he arrived, however, the neighbour found that Campbell was happily relaxing inside with absolutely no interest in running away.
Now in his 80s, Donald says that as a child he lived a similar life to Campbell – with nowhere to really call home. It was this experience that compelled him to look for a dog in need of a home, and in Campbell, he found the perfect one.
