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We've been staying at my mother-in-law's for a week visiting them and enjoying a holiday. She adopted her border collie puppy, Pilot, from the same litter as my puppy, Dallas. I'm just laughing because they are so different! We get together at least once a week to take the dogs for a longer walk and let them play, but being with them for a week is really showing me how different they are!

 

Pilot is cuddly, pretty submissive, and fairly quiet. He rarely barks. He's also happy with minimal exercise. He's a happy-go-lucky type of dog.

 

Dallas does not like cuddling, is more independent, and is more of an alert dog than Pilot. He could go and go and go and go all. Day. Long. Walks that tire out Pilot barely put a dent in Dallas's energy levels! Dallas tends to take things more seriously than Pilot.

 

What are your border collies like? I'd love to hear about their personalities!

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My 14 month old Mancer is a sweetheart. She isn't necessarily "cuddly", but loves laying in my lap on the lounge chair, and loves giving kisses, which was the first thing I taught her as a very young puppy. She doesn't need a lot if exercise, but doesn't really tire out quickly either. She loves playing with other dogs at the bark park, enticing them to chase her. She is truly in her glory running at full speed and zig zagging while being chased. I try to get her there once a week, and on weeks when the weather doesn't cooperate she gets a little stir crazy. She's also quite the social butterfly. She loves people in general, has to say hi to any neighbors outside when walking through the neighborhood. She also looks very forward to Sundays during football season when my buddies come over every week to watch Eagles games. I was sincerely a little worried when she was 3-4 months old, as she was a very headstrong little firecracker. But I'm amazed at how much she's changed since then, and couldn't be happier with how she's turned out. She has a great personality and I love her very much.

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My four month old BC, Klondike, is high energy, runs at a speed i couldnt imagine, is getting pretty darn good at catching frisbees, is insulted when passerbys on one of our three daily walks dont acknowledge his handsomeness....a joy to have...but boy am I ever tired at the end of the day! Thankfully, when he crashes, he crashes hard and sleeps for quite a while and through most nights.

Will I ever be able to broom the house, or shovel the snow without a barking match, who knows...I cant seem to make him get over it, but have managed to train him on most basic commands in controlled and semi controlled environments.

Hes my first dog, my first BC, no regrets.....most days ;)

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Welcome!

 

Very briefly, impact activities like Frisbee can be harmful to the still-developing structure of a young dog. Avoid them until after the skeleton is grown and growth plates are closed at about 15-18 months of age. The same goes for extensive repetitive impact activity like hikes, bike rides, jogging, etc. Free activity, where the dog sets it's own pace and varies it's movements (like playing in a yard or on other suitable surfaces) is generally fine for the growing body.

 

Mental exercise (manners training, trick training, etc.) Is tiring, develops the mind (and manners), and doesn't stress the body - and is as important, or more so, as physical exercise.

 

A young dog also needs to learn to "chill" without exhaustion. Reward for calm, quiet behavior and choosing to lie down and relax. Too much stimulation just creates a dog that expects and requires even more!

 

If you can't do a job without him getting overly stimulated, then put him up in his crate or another room while you work. Also teach him to "leave it" or not react to the motion of the job you are doing. It seems like fun now but is bad manners and can become problematic and obsessive behavior.

 

Cute pup, even upside down!

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It beats me why the pic is upside down, but anyway...

I’ve read that about the frisbee playing, so I’m very careful at tossing it low, I’m also sitting on the ground when I play with him, such that the frisbee rarely goes over his head in height.

And we train....we train...and we train. We have the sit, down, stay (sort of, only in doors so far), come, off, leave it (very good at leave it), shake, working on the roll over. Indoors, all these go pretty well, so I’ve moved on to backyard and walking in the back woods training.

I work from home, so I have maybe too much time to spend with him, but he still gets crate time when I run errands or gets too crazy and training didn’t bring him down. And the crate is a wonderful tool, brings sanity to me and my husband at times. And since is still have work to do, he is still « forced » to chill or amuse himself.

But, thanks for the info, my plan is to eventually start running with him, but that too not before his first birthday.

I keep telling my husband I just need to get a few sheep for my knitting addiction and for the dog....he agreed to the dog...sheep, not so sure.

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It beats me why the pic is upside down, but anyway...

I’ve read that about the frisbee playing, so I’m very careful at tossing it low, I’m also sitting on the ground when I play with him, such that the frisbee rarely goes over his head in height.

 

I am glad you are being careful, but an even better way is to just roll the frisbee. Having said that, I think that the frisbee is such a bad idea before 9-12 months, that frisbees are banned in my house.

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I agree about the frisbee, and wouldn't use one at all until the dog was older.

 

I would rather see something skidded along the floor like shuffleboard for the dog to chase.

 

But my favorite toy for a puppy to chase is a soft thing on the end of a line attached to a pole. This you pull along the floor and you don't raise it in the air at all. Once the puppy grabs it, it becomes a tug toy. You can buy these, or make your own.

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Welcome to the Boards. Yes, adorable upside-down puppy!

 

Everything Sue said.

 

Thirding reco not to play Frisbee unless it's simply rolled on the ground rather than tossed till the pup's at least a year old. Same for lobbing balls, too.

 

Letting the pup run and play at its own pace is the best thing for developing joints.

 

Use this time to play puppy-appropriate games and learn to have some self control with things like brooms, etc. As others have said, these can develop into obsessive/compulsive behaviors that if you don't nip in the bud now have the real potential to become nightmares for both you and the dog later. If you won't like it when the puppy's grown, the time to deal with it and extinguish it is now.

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Carmen went to her first puppy socialization class last night. It was fine, but I was a little annoyed that they rotate the 4-week series by theme weeks, and this week it was "unfamiliar things and sounds" so they intentionally tried to throw scary things at them, and it was three of the five puppies' first week there. Sort of trial by fire, kwim? A "meet and greet" situation would be much better, but I guess this "series" approach works better for their scheduling, and it was just our bad luck to get the week with:

 

vacuum

rolling skateboard

recording of fireworks

 

:blink:

 

But she actually did very well, considering. She had an initial period of hanging out under a chair and taking in the scene, and then got really curious about the other puppies (mostly designer doodles of various sorts, so really gentle and her size, even though they were older). There was one insane Boston Terrier puppy trying to jump on her (and everyone else) but Carmen looked more confused than frightened by that and stood her ground even though he was trying to grab her face. (The trainer didn't let that go on for more than a second before restraining the Boston pup). Carmen seemed to like the other puppies (well, their butts anyhow). But she was the youngest there, so she did spend some time under the chair, lying there calmly but attentively watching everything like a Sphinx, tuning the ear satellite dishes to various points around the room. She has a regal bearing that looked a bit, "judgy," and occasionally intense, like she was observing weaknesses for future murder plans. But she was not unreasonably nervous at all, which I was really relieved about. We treated the whole time and while she seemed glad to get home, she was not the worse for wear.

 

However, during the fireworks recording (they were trying to prepare the pups for upcoming Canada Day which can get really loud around here) she lost interest in eating her treats, which meant she was clearly stressed, but she didn't whine or try to escape or anything. So I'm counting that a win.

 

So...so far...I'd say her personality is confident, alert and adaptable. She's smart as a whip and adjusts really quickly to a changing environment after an initial period of caution. She figured out what was scary and what wasn't (she was game to investigate the expandable tunnel, for example). She's also extremely cuddly, but not velcro. She does her own thing around the house, is frenetic and energetic, she'd chew up the whole house if I let her (thanks, bitter lime spray!) but if I put her in my lap in front of the TV, she curls up and likes to burrow her head as far into me as possible and clearly loves it. Her favourite place in the evenings is right between my husband and me on the sofa. (Husband was adamant that dogs don't go on the sofa before this, but she has bewitched him utterly.)

 

Carmen was the biggest in her litter, so maybe that explains some of her confidence and adaptability? I'm no dog expert, and certainly not this kind. And of course, she's a baby, so things will change. But so far, that's her in a nutshell.

 

Edit: Also, she has a one-tipped-ear thing going on that is quite charming. (pic)

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...She has a regal bearing that looked a bit, "judgy," and occasionally intense...

 

:lol: We all know that look!

 

 

...However, during the fireworks recording (they were trying to prepare the pups for upcoming Canada Day which can get really loud around here) she lost interest in eating her treats, which meant she was clearly stressed...

 

For future reference, this is why it's a good idea to have some really high value treats in reserve for those moments when she's either losing interest or stressed enough that she's not taking treats, which is actually already slightly over threshold. If you've got some extra yummy treats that you can entice her with during those stressful interludes, you've got a better chance of changing her emotional response to lessen the impact. Now that you know Carmen might be a little nervous on Canada Day, being prepared with some extra high value treats would be a good thing.

 

If she's losing interest, pull out the big guns to end on happy note and end the session. No sense overdoing it to the point that she loses interest in training or that all treats lose their value.

 

Sounds like a pretty good first outing overall.

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For future reference, this is why it's a good idea to have some really high value treats in reserve for those moments when she's either losing interest or stressed enough that she's not taking treats, which is actually already slightly over threshold. If you've got some extra yummy treats that you can entice her with during those stressful interludes, you've got a better chance of changing her emotional response to lessen the impact. Now that you know Carmen might be a little nervous on Canada Day, being prepared with some extra high value treats would be a good thing.

 

If she's losing interest, pull out the big guns to end on happy note and end the session. No sense overdoing it to the point that she loses interest in training or that all treats lose their value.

 

Sounds like a pretty good first outing overall.

 

Will do! We'll figure out between now and then what she likes best and keep that thing especially aside. Thanks for that excellent idea. So far, she's not exactly a connoisseur. She kinda likes everything. We've done chicken hot dog, boiled chicken, cheese, wellness lamb treats, liver treats, and she seems to really like them all. Also husband sneaks her bits of chicken and beef when he makes dinner (the man has become a seriously hopeless pushover for this one).

 

However, she had some runny poo two days ago, and I figured between switching her food (the breeder's food was not readily available here, and she gave us an alternative: Origen puppy) and the variety of treats, maybe it was too much on her tum. We cut out the hot dogs and cheese for a couple of days, and it seems to have resolved itself. Maybe a coincidence and she was just adjusting to the food. Do they generally have bigger problems with hot dogs or dairy?

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Do they generally have bigger problems with hot dogs or dairy?

 

Not necessarily. Depends on the individual. I'm not a fan of hot dogs because of all the salt and chemicals, so that's one thing I reserve for very high value use.

 

Another thing you can do, especially in these early days when there'll be a lot of training going on and as a result a lot of treats, is to set aside a portion of her daily ration of kibble to use as training treats. Then the other stuff tends to be higher value because, well, it's gotta be tastier than kibble.

 

Of course, my dogs are fed raw and they think kibble is manna from heaven (just about anything is manna for them; they're both incredible food hounds), so when I'm training I use it regularly as a cheaper alternative to more expensive foods packaged as treats. B)

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Tess and Kolt are half siblings. Kolt is serious, intense, thoughtful and connected. Tess is competitive, sassy, a bit reckless and gung ho.

 

I never really worried that Kolt was going to break himself.

 

Tess? Ive been working on channeling her slightly reckless energy since I brought her home. And she still broke herself.

 

They are very similar in their desire to be with, work with and please me. And they look a lot alike!

 

Re: thrown flying toys - I wont use them unless the dogs growth plates are closed and the dog understands how to use its body. Tess broke her leg jumping for one (freak accident, she only got maybe a few throws a week at 10 m/o and even then it was supposed to be on/close to the ground)

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Lilly is a submissive one, will do anything to please me.

​But not a people dog, and don't like being around a lot of people she dosent know.

​Mellow in the house. But ready to go if I ask at anytime.

​Loves to go backpacking in the woods. She packs her own food.

​And now has a disliking for other dogs, mostly the small ones.

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High value, last-a-while-in-the-baggie, relatively healthy treats: boil hot dogs for a couple minutes. Drain, rinse, repeat.

 

Cool after 2nd boil/rinse. Chop into whatever size tidbit you want. Spread on baking sheet, use parchment paper for easy release. I don't like to use cooking spray, just not sure what's in that stuff.

 

Bake at 250 for an hour or so, stirring occasionally. Let cool. Voila! You have crunchy treats, easy to handle, last a loooooong time in fridge or your back pack. And dogs Love Them.

 

It's a bit of work to go through, but for a fearful dog, or when training a difficult behavior, or going into high-stress situations. these are perfect.

 

Ruth & Gibbs

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