Three 9-week-old Labrador puppies tussled, squealed and scampered through Charley and Dana Engel’s foster home east of Bend. Recently bathed after a three-hour ride from John Day, the mostly-black siblings, whose bellies resembled small footballs, vied for a chew rope carried by Bandit, an adult blue heeler mix and former foster dog the Engels couldn’t part with.

Two splotchy border collie-McNab puppies, Ryder and Cheyenne, with paws too large for their frames, joined the wriggling dog pile.

These five puppies will spend as little as a few days and as many as four months with the retired Engels on their 5-acre ranch, which includes a few cats and some horses, as they await their forever homes. The Engels, who named the youngest arrivals Jip, Jet and Jack, count them as the 193rd, 194th and 195th dogs they have fostered in four years.

These “ittle bittles,” as Charley calls them, will be among 19 dogs, mostly herding mixes — border collies, blue heelers and Australian Shepherds — of varying ages that are available for adoption Saturday and Sunday in Bend. Flora Steffan, who founded the dog rescue in 2004, said herding dogs have been bred to cover 20 to 40 miles over the course of a day spent herding cattle or sheep. For some owners, they’re “more dog” than anticipated, and they surrender them. Other dogs come from ranches in Central and Eastern Oregon — and much farther — where they either didn’t naturally take to herding or multiplied too quickly because owners didn’t spay or neuter their dogs. Many in the dog foster world call these offspring “oops litters.”

Steffan, who placed 330 dogs in homes last year, delivered the three black Labs — which a volunteer transported from John Day — to the Engels.

Charley said he and his wife enjoy fostering because it allows them the gratification of showering dogs with love and makes them “feel like Santa Claus, making people’s dreams come true,” when they see the pups off to new owners.

“In my late 50s, I looked at my own mortality. How many more puppies will we have again? We might have two dogs that live until they’re 15, and I’ll be in my 80s,” said Charley, 64, of his motives for fostering. “That’s not enough puppies in my life.”

With the exception of the three Labs, Steffan tailors her rescue service to herding breeds because she feels a particular kinship with the rugged, task-oriented canines.

“I like their intelligence, their willingness to work. Like my husband says, ‘(talking to them is) like talking to people,”’ Steffan said. “They’re one of the smartest dogs in the world. They’re very, very dedicated to their people.”

When working dogs wind up in animal shelters, the environment stresses them out. In late 2016, a border collie, which had been missing for 9 months and was brought to the Humane Society of Central Oregon, escaped the shelter by vaulting a 5-foot kennel wall and pushing through two closed doors — hours before being reunited with its owner.

“These herding dogs don’t do well in shelters. They are very sensitive to all of the barking, and a new environment can cause them to hide or shut down,” said Steffan, who estimates she has found homes for about 1,000 herding dogs over the course of 30 years of dog fostering. So far this year, the nonprofit, which is foster-based and has homes spread throughout seven states including Oregon, Washington and Idaho, has paired 42 dogs with loving humans. Her organization also finds homes for senior dogs — “hospice cases” — so they don’t have to die in shelters.

“My husband says, ‘You can’t save them all,’” Steffan said with a sigh, mentioning the circumstances of some dogs: including abuse, neglect or the death of a loving owner. Steffan read from one of the two to five daily emails she receives. This one, which arrived during this reporter’s phone interview, was sent from someone in Louisiana whose cousin recently died. It’s not feasible that the email writer keep the late-cousin’s border collie, she explained, but she’s willing to drive the dog all the way to Oregon if the nonprofit will take the dog. She wrote: “She’s a great dog, and I’m hoping you guys will have a place for her to go that would treat her like family.”

Steffan said, “These are the kinds of emails I get every day. It’s really pretty heartbreaking.”

The dog rescue’s match-making adoption process is similar to Brightside Animal Center’s in Redmond. Steffan declines adoptions by people who live in apartments, condos, have yards without fences or lead sedentary lifestyles. This saves the dogs — and their would-be owners — much grief. People need to do their homework while considering adopting a herding dog, she added.

“They think they’re cute and smart, so they want one, whether it’s a blue heeler or a border collie, but these dogs really need a job because they can really go the wrong way. They will find a job, and it will not be what you want it to be,” she said with a chuckle. “They can become destructive, and they can become neurotic. Some people get upset … but it’s important you research the breed and know what you’re getting into.”

Steffan looks for people who can offer an active home, teach them agility and regularly take them on runs, hikes or equestrian trail rides. Long hours alone at home aren’t acceptable. Steffan regrets that she has to turn away 50 dogs each month from shelters or owner-surrenders. A $300 adoption fee covers the dogs’ spay/neutering, micro-chipping, vaccinations, deworming and so on.

“If the dogs have any bite history, we don’t take them,” she added. “It’s heartbreaking. We just don’t have the resources.”

‘Impassioned people’

Colleen Robertson, a veterinarian and the owner of the John Day River Veterinary Center, said a lack of resources — and animal shelters — explains Eastern Oregon’s herding dog surplus. With around 7,200 people in Grant County, there are fewer welcoming homes than there are unwanted working dogs, Robertson said. Hope for Paws, a nonprofit that acts as a go-between for dogs and foster homes, has led area efforts to meet this need, Robertson said. Together with Hope for Paws, the John Day River Veterinary Center is lowering the use of shelters outside Grant County. Robertson’s vet center accommodates one or two homeless dogs per month, “and we’re glad to help. Hope for Paws is prompt in finding a foster home or forever home within a couple weeks,” she said. “It definitely takes these impassioned people.”

Shawn Duncan, 61, of John Day, is a Hope for Paws board member and one of its most active volunteers in Grant County. She estimates she transports about 50 dogs to Herd U Need a Home each year.

“I didn’t know there was such a need. I have lived here 38 years. We really need a shelter,” said Duncan. As the owner of a John Day restaurant, Duncan also hosts a “spayghetti” event, which drums up cash for $50 vouchers for owners to get their dogs fixed. She also fosters canines, three of which she described as “foster failures” because she and her husband grew too attached to the pups to let them go. They have also taken in elderly horses on their 22-acre plot.

“My husband likes to think he’s a hard sell,” Duncan said with a chuckle. “You don’t have to have them euthanized. We can find a home for them.”

Have home, will roam

Herd U Needed a Home’s new adopters come from far and wide.

Rebecca Hellman, 46, of Olympia, Washington, adopted two border-collie mixes from Herd U Need a Home in 2014 and 2015. Like many rescue dogs who find forever homes, Hellman’s border collie mixes’ happy endings began with sad beginnings. Bailey, a black-and-white short-hair female that Hellman adopted when she was 8 months old, was a “two-time drop-out” at a Southern Oregon shelter, Hellman said. She was just “too much dog.”

The story behind Shadow, a short-hair male, is bleaker. As an 8-week-old puppy, Shadow was discovered in a chicken coop with his mother and puppy siblings during a cold spell in late 2015, she said. Shawn Duncan transported Shadow to Steffan in Bend, who found a local foster home for the dog while Hellman was planning her trip to Central Oregon to visit the dog. Hellman, who’s married and the mother of a teenager, grew up with herding dogs on an Oklahoma cattle farm, so she knew what she was getting them into, she said. In Olympia, the Hellman’s ample, fenced-in backyard satisfied Steffan, and the family’s hiking and running routines keep Shadow and Bailey happy and lean. A trainer has also taught the dogs to roam off-leash. This spring, the Hellmans will build an obedience course in their backyard, and Bailey will help out at a nearby sheep farm — a weekly and mutually beneficial arrangement for dog and farmer. Shadow, having shown little interest in herding, is content to play fetch.

The Hellmans are grateful for Steffan’s dedication to these dogs.

“She’s awesome because she really does put thought into finding the right home,” Hellman said. “She really doesn’t want to re-home them.”

She also encourages potential adopters to consider these working dogs.

“They really need to research the breed,” Hellman said. “If they are a good match, they won’t find a more loyal and sweet dog.”

(Editor’s note: This article has been corrected. The original version had an incorrect date for dog adoptions. The Bulletin regrets the error.)

— Reporter: 541-617-7816, pmadsen@bendbulletin.com

If you go

What: Herd U Needed a Home adoption event

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: (Saturday) Bend Pet Express Westside, 133 SW Century Drive; (Sunday) Bend Pet Express, 420 Northeast Windy Knolls Drive.

Cost: Free to attend; $300 adoption fee, pending approval

For more information call 541-508-8271. To view the dogs, visit http://bit.ly/2mqBTKi