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Did I keep too many pups?


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Hi! I'm new to this board-just found it today.

We were given a beautiful border collie after we lost our beloved blue heeler, Molly. Molly was like my husbands' right hand, with him all the time. After she died "Sadie" became a member of our family. We knew nothing about bc. I did some research on the internet & bought some books. I never expected to get so attached to her. She stuck by me like bees on honey. She loved to play fetch with anything (dirty socks, dog toys, sticks, rocks). She obsessed over it. Pulling weeds in the garden was a hard task because everything you threw out was brought back!

She was very scared of thunderstorms, she was ready to go to the basement when the sky started getting dark, even if it wasn't thundering yet. But if I needed her to help me get the goats in before a storm, she was right there. As soon as the job was done though, she made a beeline for the house.

This is the first time I have sat down & wrote anything about her since she died. I keep thinking I need to write things down so I don't forget. I never want to forget anything about her.

Anyway, to make a long story short . . . Sadie & my male bc "Max," (who we bought as a pup in Feb. '05) had ten pups on Christmas eve. They are 5 months old now. I kept 3 males & 1 female. I didn't know if I wanted to keep any, because I knew they could never replace their mother. They all have such different personalities. "Rebel" (the largest of the whole litter), was my shadow even as a little pup. He usually takes interest in what I'm doing over what his littermates are doing. "Zorro" is a very high strung work-a-holic, but he will give up & come to me if I holler loud enough. "Bear" is very playful, likes to hide the toys, and like Zorro, loves to work the cattle. Then there's "Sophie." Since I've never had a bc female as a puppy, I'm assuming she's "normal." She is Very hard headed, but seems to be quite smart. She's the leader of the pack when they are let out of the kennels. It's like "off to the races," as they go down the hill to the where the cattle are.

Our farm borders a river, so we take them usually every day. They love the water, but not too crazy about swimming yet. Their mom loved to go fetch out in the deep water. I hope they will too in time.

My reason for this post is some wanted opinions (I think). I still doubt myself if I should have kept that many pups. I certainly don't want anything to happen to any one them. I've grown quite fond of them. But I can't say my teenage kids all feel the same way. I don't feel like I give the pups enough one-on-one time. I want them all to meet their full potential. But will they do that with me?

I took Rebel to the vet today to be neutered. Poor little guy. I plan to have all of them fixed. I figured one a time was best.

Signing off for now . . .

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I am too sorry for your loss. It is so hard to lose someone/thing that you love so dearly.

I think that your question can only be answered by you. Sometimes problems arise when you keep littermates, like more dominence issues (course that was with ACD's (heelers). If you feel like it is to many then it may be, but if you can handle it then it may not be. Good luck with all of your pups.

 

Also, what did (if you dont mind me asking) happen to Sadie?

 

Tracy

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First than all, Welcome to the forum!!

 

I could be wrong, but in the moment that you are asking that question, seems than you have the answer, but being it a hard decision you need words of support to be even more sure. As Tracy said, that question can be answered only by you. meybe you are overwelmed because all of them are pups and there is not the same to have 4 dogs one by one than all at the same time.

 

What isn't a matter of doubt is that you love those pups and that you loved her mother, it just flow of yours words, so, whatever desicion you make, it WILL be the best for them.

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Welcome to the BC Boards

 

Reading your post I was curious as well as to the disposition of the bitch, "Sadie"?

Four 5 month old BC pups is a handful no doubt.

Like others have already stated only you know if its more then you can deal with or not,but it sounds like you have plenty of property and in my opinion that is a very big plus.

I look forward to hearing more about your pack.

I too am located in Missouri.

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Ok i'll chime in too! I lost my BC in Feb. 2 days later i bought a male pup. In may i adopted a female rescue! We are bonded all 3 of us. Is it the same bond i felt with Foo? No, But it is just as strong. Am i doing one dog a disservice because my time 1 on 1 is half as much as it could be? Who knows? But never the less they are apart of my heart, and i'd like to believe i am apart of theirs. If you don't feel that with one or more of them, maybe you should try to place them in another home. If you feel a mutual bond I say keep them all!

 

A wise person once asked to me...

Can one ever have to many Border Collies?

 

Oh yeah Show me! (pics please )

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Thanks for all your posts. I really appreciated the words of encouragement.

I'll try to answer all your questions. First though I have some. Can you send pics through this board or do I have to email them individually? I don't know how to do all this fancy stuff yet. I'd also like to put a pic of Sadie in the left hand corner like some of you have. Is that the avator?

Anyway . . . about Sadie. She came to us from a man that had 2 other bc. He had rescued her from a woman with a small child. Apparently she "rounded up" the kid like bc will, and it scared him. Sadie was put in a pen all by herself, just fed & watered was all the contact she had with anyone. Atleast that's what the guy told us. He had not had her long, just didn't like seeing her penned up, so the lady gave her to him. She was suppose to be a high $ bc, registered and all, but we never got her papers. She was real friendly towards us from the beginning. You could really tell she enjoyed being with us. She had a problem with men wearing hats though. Most times when someone came in the driveway, she would bark non-stop and get right in front of me like she was protecting me. If it was a man with gruff voice & hat, she really went nuts. I got where I had them take off the hat, that sometimes helped. We discovered the more upset & loud we would get at her for barking & growling, the worse she got. If we got real quite & down by her, she would calm down. But I never really trusted leaving her out when we were not home for fear of her biting someone. She had 2 litters of pups, and after the first litter, she did calm down quite a bit. Storms & loud noises were her worst enemies. On 4th of July last year she broke my bedroom window trying to get in. That's when I realized it wasn't a little problem that would just go away.

She was always great with my kids, always wanted to play fetch, which drove the oldest two nuts. They both hope the pups don't take interest in it. Too late I'm hoping for a fly-ball team!!

I started noticing Sadie not having much energy when the pups were about 5-6 weeks old. We had them moistened Purina puppy chow since 3 weeks of age, & they didn't seem to be nursing a whole lot. She would sleep in the barn with them at night. Most mornings she & Max would be up on the hay bales away from the pups, so I know they were not nursing constantly. She would come in the house & play with me. She would walk & all the sudden kinda melt to the floor like when they sneek up on a sheep, but she would go down all the way. She was eating puppy chow all through her pregnancy, & she also ate biscuits & gravy, table scraps too. I took her to the vet, they said she was dehydrated, ran all kinds of tests. Told me her kidneys were not functioning properly. She stayed overnight & was allowed to go home the next day. This was a Saturday. She stayed in the house all weekend. (Very cold outside) Monday morning, I took her back to the vet, almost dehydrated again. They gave her more IV fluids, but said they couldn't keep doing that. She just didn't want to eat & drink very well. We tried all the expensive vet can food. Tuesday night she wouldn't get up hardly at all. I would lay on the floor by her bed, she would reach over & touch me with her paw & wag her tail like she was trying to tell me something. I had a very sinking feeling. She died Wednesday morning. I have beat myself up wishing I would have taken her to a big city vet instead of my local one. Maybe I would still have her. She had all her shots. I just wish I knew what caused it. I don't know how old she was. We were told by the guy we got her from she was 2-3 years.

Time to go for now - I need some fresh air.

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I am sorry for your loss. Please ensure that all pups are spayed and neutered to prevent more dogs from coming into the world. Sadie sounds like a lovely dog, but breeding her was no guarantee you would get one like her. I am not impuning your loss in any way just trying to prevent more animals making more animals.

 

If you look at the first post in this topic,

something like "Read this first, about this board" or search breeding at this board you will see that people believe dogs should be bred only for improving the breed's ability to work stock, with some pretty strict standards about that. Serious farm/ranch work, high level trialing etc. Perhaps you did that , I can't tell from your post.

 

I am truly sorry for your loss.

Caroline

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My intention was not merely to have another dog like Sadie, although now that she's is gone I hope to atleast have the same kind of connection with atleast one of the pups as I had with her.

As I wrote in my first post, I am having them all fixed, one at a time, as per advice of my vet, rather than all at once. Rebel was neutered last Friday & is doing well, he just can't go swimming for a couple weeks.

As for betterment of the bc working ability, I do believe they will be even better with livestock than their mother was, and I do have plenty of cattle & goats to work them on!! They are not even 5 months old yet & have already helped us with spring weaning of the calves.

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