Olivia

It's the green kind that coats the walls and looks bubbly floating on the surface.

I have 10 katadhin sheep, 2 anatolian guardian dogs and 3 border collies. I have several water troughs around the fields for drinking and dunking. I'm having a terrible time with the black plastic troughs growing copious algae. I can scrub them and they are back to green the next day. The metal troughs don't do it. Any suggestions? I really want the animals to have clean, fresh water, it's so blasted hot! Thanks!

I have 10 katadhin sheep, 2 anatolian guardian dogs and 3 border collies. I have several water troughs around the fields for drinking and dunking. I'm having a terrible time with the black plastic troughs growing copious algae. I can scrub them and they are back to green the next day. The metal troughs don't do it. Any suggestions? I really want the animals to have clean, fresh water, it's so blasted hot! Thanks!

Here is the starving beast!

Oh yeah! Definitely raw! The Chi chews the tips very carefully. Looks like the crested will be up to whole wings. Can I whack them a couple of times with a hammer? He's still learning this chewing bones thing (clearly) and gets frustrated easily when he is hungry. Thanks y'all! Olivia

This isn't about my border collies but y'all are some of the most knowledgeable dog people I know so I just thought I'd ask. I have a 3.5 month old Chinese Crested boy who swallowed a chicken wing tip whole last night. When I make bbq wings I keep the tips and usually give them to my chihuahua. Last night I figured the other little dog in the house could have one too. He just straight up swallowed it. How worried should I be? He's acting fine so far, has not pooped yet though (not unusual, he doesn't poop after dinner, waits to first thing in the am). Thanks! Olivia

My b/w older male does fine in the heat in his older age. As a youngster he would get wobbly after playing in the heat though. The younger b/w male does fine. My dark red girl (passed away last year) was always fine in the heat as well. Now my red merle girl, very light colored in general, has hated the heat from the get go. When she was a baby pup in the summer she hated being held or touched and would pant constantly and lay on the tile floors. She has adjusted over the years to heat but she still does not like it. She can work in the heat though. Ask these dogs are rough coated. So I guess to me it seems like an individual dog thing, not necessarily a color thing.

Well, my husband and I are currently under contract for a beautiful, 17 acre little farm. We will be building a house on the site which will hopefully start in July. The land includes a large metal 3 sided barn which we are enclosing for the tractor and livestock if needed. It also has a large overhang on the back. The land has been previously used for cattle and has hand set wooden fence posts with 4 board fencing around the entire perimeter but no cross fencing. There are lots of gates and a cattle sorting system that has a loading ramp as well. There are several watering troughs that are plumbed into the well that have the large balls that the animals have to push down to access the water. Are those suitable for sheep? It also has a small pond. We will not be adding sheep for a year or so but will hopefully have a small hobby flock and will sell to the local specialty market. It's exciting but a bit scary too. I've always wanted my own little farm and it looks like my dream might just be about to come true.

My young boy is now 19 months old, I got him at 4 months old. He was leggy at that time and my older dogs were so good that I forgot how tempting grilled hot dogs are just sitting on the counter. Well, he got highly rewarded for counter surfing with those yummy hot dogs. That started several months of him trying to check out the counter constantly. But we were vigilant, saying "ah, ah leave it" when we heard him in the kitchens and he was crated during the day and at night so he couldn't reward himself again. It took a few months but he no longer even looks at the counter. I still don't entirely trust him loose when we are at work all day so he is created at that time but he is fine at nigh and we are working toward daytime being out of his crate. I guess my point is that if you can prevent the behaviour for a length of time she may just forget her interest. Also, crating to prevent behaviors that can be deviating is not even a question in my opinion. My boy will survive being in his crate, he might not survive getting in the trash. As far as the mousetrap idea goes, I had a friend who did this but she set them up upright and placed a layer of newspaper over them do they would still pop but not pinch.

Ha Ha! Yes, I was trying to give her something to live up to that's positive with the name. If I named her appropriately it would be Chaos or Tornado!

Thanks! We went to home depot and the guy scratched a piece of laminate flooring with his knife and told us that it would scratch very easily. It seems like a knife pint and dog nails are very different but I just wanted some first hand recommendations.

Hello all, My current foster is having a difficult time finding an appropriate home so I thought I'd post here and see if that might help. She is a 9 month old Border Collie (?) mix. She is extremely high energy, athletic (I have paw prints over my head on my screen door and I've seen her jump a 5 foot fence from a standstill) and is quite reactive. Now by reactive I don't mean aggressive, she just reacts to everything she sees, from trying to chase blowing leaves to constantly be on the move investigating everything. She is a great example of a dog that was never taught an "off switch" so we are working on installing one and teaching her how to have down time in the house where she doesn't have to be running around and constantly playing with the other dogs. She is very sweet and desperately wants to be a good girl, she just isn't sure how. She does come from a known abusive past. The previous owners admitted to kicking her and encouraging their kids to hit her on the head when she jumped up. She was quite hand shy when she arrived but now comes when called, sits, downs, waits to eat and started a little bit of agility. She is looking for a home that would pursue a dog sport with her and this is proving difficult to find. She is a petite girl, around 28 lbs and shorter than my 19" girl. Now, introducing Zen! Here she is with my two boys, showing how little she is

Thanks y'all! We are definitely not DIYers. We will be depending on the builders to install everything. I did hear about luxury vinyl tiles that are supposed to be very tough.

My husband and I are in the process of buying some acreage for sheep and we will be building a house on the property. The issue I'm have is what kind of flooring to use. I'm afraid that hard wood is just going to get scratched to hades. I thought about laminate, pergo type, but I was told that scratches easily. Considered tile but we are doing this on a budget and I think tile may be out of that. Any ideas? Recommendations or things you wouldn't do again? Thanks!

I had one of my border collies and my chihuahua both got slab fractures from chewing on antlers. The border collies are very enthusiastic chewers and the chihuahua is pretty darn enthusiastic as well. I have never given them again after that time as it was 2 extractions of otherwise healthy teeth which were not cheap! Mine do well on occasionally given raw bones and occasional rawhide, but I still closely monitor all chewing! My fiance makes homemade paneer (cheese) so I think I'm going to experiment and try to make my own Himalayan chews.

When you are walking and asking for a "heel", what is your definition of heel? For me I ask for a true "heel" when we are in classes, practicing or competing at true obedience shows. For me that means close to my left side, with their shoulder in line with my outside pants seam, moving with me, keeping pace and paying good attention. I don't require the extreme look-in-my-eyes heads up posture that I see in a lot of obedience dogs but one of my border collies seems to do that naturally. They can look ahead as long as they are paying correct attention so that if I do something they can respond appropriately. Now, that being said, when we go for a walk around in the neighborhood I ask them to walk on my left side (just habit) but as along as the leash is loose I don't require them to be in a precise "heel". They can look around, sniff the ground, walk a bit in front of me, lag a bit if they are watching something else, etc. Now sometimes when we are walking I will ask for a true "heel" for a minute or two just for practice but then I release them back to regular walking. No need for them to concentrate on the specific, precise behavior for a whole walk. That defeats the purpose of a pleasure walk for them and for me. Olivia

I just had my 7 year old girl spayed at the shelter clinic on Thursday and so far I am very pleased with the results. The cost difference was around $300 and as she is a very healthy, fit girl I decided that the shelter would work well for her. I have had general bloodwork done this year which was good. They did use sutures and gave pain medication before she left though she did not get any to take home. I do keep Tramadol at home for the dogs for various pain reasons (my boy has neck problems that need occasional pain control) that I was able to give her and she only needed it for a day and a half. I dropped her off at 8:00am and picked her up at 4:30pm. I would rather her be at home with me rather than left at my usual clinic as there is no one there at night and if she had problems no one would be there to see until they got in at 7:00am the next morning. I can watch her just fine at home. The clinic was very professional and kind when I dropped her off and when I picked her up they commented on how very sweet she is and the guy asked her for kisses before she left. The surgery site is clipped well with no clipper burn and the incision is very clean. I had many of the same reservations on this thread but this was a good experience for me and I will definitely consider using them in the future as long as she continues to recover as well as it looks like she is going to.

Around the middle of this past July I said goodbye to one of the best dogs I've ever known. Carlie was known by many names, Carlie-Dog, Carlie Bug, Carlie Grace, Sweetest Sweetpea, and many more. She lived in 3 states and 10 different residences with me. She was with me through undergrad and graduate school; she was there when I got married and then divorced; as well as countless days of laughter and some days of tears. There was nothing I ever asked her to do that she did not excel at, obedience, disc dog, agility, and therapy dog; though she was never happier than when working sheep. She was the dog that introduced me to the wonderful, humbling and beautiful world of talented sheepdogs. She was endlessly patient with everyone, from babies to the elderly, and had the most stable temperament I've ever seen. I am so grateful we got to share 14.5 years together. Run free my girl. Carlie on the day I got her. 12 weeks old and her ears never changed! Keeping watch over a young dog learning to work. This was taken 2 days before a bilateral FHO surgery at 7 years old. She officially retired from competition that day but was back in the agility ring 6 months later and showed for another year before deciding that she was ready to take it a bit easier and just do sheepwork. The last afternoon we had together. Her best friend came to sit with us and she moved enough to lay her head on his front legs. He lay still and watched over her as they had always watched over each other.

We at east Tennessee border collie rescue have just gotten in 3 sibling border collie/sheltie known mix puppies that resemble this dog very closely in size, structure and face though they are younger. Very sweet pretty pups, as is yours. Good luck finding the perfect forever home!

Mine are all pretty easy as well. The pup gets about 2.25 cups a day, everyone else gets between 1.5-2 cups daily, depending on the time of year and how hard they are working. If anyone gets more than 1 cup twice a day I can see the pudge start and the diet begins.

How can you tell if a wire crate is the stronger or more flimsy wire? I'm about to purchase a couple of wire crates to install in my new van for travel and want strong crates but when I look online I can't see any difference in the ones offered, just price.

Regarding dogs named FredD or PITA... My young girl is named Sol, as in sun, because she is so bright and shiny, like the sun. I didn't realize when I named her that the name would come in handy as she was a naughty puppy and I realized that Sol is also sh#t outta luck. It fit nicely and makes me and my friends laugh.

I haven't measured water intake as I have a large 2 gallon flip-over-bottle waterer for puppy, the other 3 border collies and the chihuahua. I'm just going by the fact that he doesn't look like he is drinking an excessive amount. I have moved him from upstairs into a smaller crate so he can be in my bedroom at night with all of us and downstairs during the day with the rest of the dogs around in case it is anxiety he would feel better with company around. He is always super excited to get into his crate and will run to it and jump in which makes me think he doesn't associate the crate itself with negative. He still wanted to go out 2 times during the night but at least he was wanting to go out before peeing in the crate, not after! Today he went from noon until I got home at 5:30 without peeing which I think is a record! I'm really hoping we are maybe turning a corner?!? I need the hope! :-) Thank you everyone for your support. It is just a frustrating problem.

Bloodwork was all normal and ultrasound looked good as well. Looks like this is behavioral.

A urine sample had been collected before starting antibiotics but since it was being sent out and the results wouldn't be back for a couple of days we went ahead and started him on meds. Results were dilute urine and mild bacteria growth. He has continued on his antibiotics (which should be the right one) but seems to be getting worse. He is now peeing in his crate 2-3 times each night and is no longer barking before going but afterwards so we aren't able to get him out. If taken out during the night at random he sits down or just sniffs around the yard. He is peeing in his crate during the day, every day, no matter if he was out as late as 1 and I'm home by 5:30. He poops outside reliably and doesn't seem to drink an excessive amount of water. Bloodwork and ultrasound are scheduled for today. This is just getting to be too much to handle. If I saw progress I would feel better but nothing seems to help and it's been 3 weeks now. Sorry for the rant but I just needed to vent.