waffles

Yikes, what a reaction. I never said they were the same temperature. I answered the OP's question of "when do you put clothes on your dogs in the winter" and the answer was never. I then typed a little antidote about today's weather and walk. The OP is free to do as they wish but I responded to their question. Guess I'll go back to not responding much on these boards as no one enjoys being called out by name for such a benign post as winter clothes on dogs.

I dont make them wear winter clothes. I have a rough coat and a smooth coat and neither seem cold in the winter. We just got back from a 30 min walk and its currently 18 F outside (its sunny though!). The only time they seem bothered by the cold is when they get ice/snow packed into their pads and I have to pull out the little snow balls. I cant imagine taking the time to put boots on them and them actually liking them (takes long enough for me to get suited up to go out). I thought it was pretty nice out today with the sun and of course we all have to acclimate. A month ago 18 F would have been so cold!

Yes to this. Harnesses should only be on for the purpose of walking or training with a leash attached. Use a regular collar to attach ID tags to that stays on the dog at all times.

My 16 year old cat has this. He has had a few episodes but always fully recovers in a week or two. Its been about a year since he has had one. Its rough looking for a few days but he always recovers. Not much the vet said to do other than make a comfy spot for him with food/water near by and let him ride it out. Once recovered no one would have any idea he has it.

This! I would drop the narrative that he is a poor abused/neglected dog. I think it can set people up for a negative mindset from the get go. It does not sound like his past is actually known so he may have crate issues because well, he has crate issues or was never properly crate trained. I know lots of dogs who have been in the same house since puppy hood who are not neglected but have behaviors that might make it look that way if they were plopped into rescue sight unseen. If he is coming into your home as the only dog you may never need to crate him (though it is of course good to work on if he ever does need to be crated in his lifetime). I would look at him like any other dog and assess as best you can. Listen to the foster mom as she knows him best but some quiet one on one time with the dog is probably your best gauge as to whether he is your next companion. Best of luck!

The good thing Diane, is that the prey model or 80%/10/10 way of feeding is something thats been used long before FB or yahoo groups existed. I personally wouldnt use a website that has something to sell me or requires so many supplements. Or requires a vet to oversee it. I dont consult my doctor to make my diet or my family but completely understand why someone would like the idea that a vet made the food. To me, the entire idea of feeding whole food is that supplements arent needed. They get what they need from the food, just like myself. Unless there was a medical reason to Supplement of course. Everyone should do what makes sense to them and what works for their dogs.

Most run of the mill grocery stores sell beef liver. Kidney can be hard to find and for that I just order it by 15lb cases at the meat market. It lasts a long time too. I feed our two border collies that are 45lbs and 27lbs. They eat about 16 oz and 12-13 is oz each per day. In general most of what I feed is .49/lb-$1/lb plus the free venison I get. I do sometimes splurge and buy something for 1.30-$1.40 I would say I feed about 50lb per month so I would guess my monthly costs are $35-45 or so depending on what I have. Years ago with one dog I used to feed Fromm kibble and figure raw is about the same or probably less than what I would pay for Fromm for the two dogs. I do have a small chest freezer in the basement that I use for our own food and for dog food. It was free so not sure the size. I store their meat in 64oz freezer bins (when I get home from the store I just shove as much meat as I can in each bin, I don't actually portion out meals or anything): Extreme Freeze Reditainer 64 oz. Freezeable Deli Food Containers w/ Lids - Package of 8 - Food Storage https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008XLE0IQ?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf I label them with a chalk marker and keep two in the kitchen fridge and a couple in the freezer to have them handy. The rest get stacked downstairs. The FB group I mentioned was moved over from the old yahoo groups that I think has been around for 15 or so years. Its the basic 80/10/10 prey model type feeding that they subscribe to. You can read about that specific feeding style on other sites but their files are filled with useful troubleshooting for when you first start out. Many members/mods have fed this way for decades too. Some of their advice about health/diet is a little too woo science or holistic for me personally but the feeding guidelines are solid. It does get easier and quicker the longer you do it. I just hand them boneless meat (I sometimes weigh it sometimes dont, you get good at eyeballing it) for two days then the third a bone-in. I throw in some liver and kidney a few days per week and each day a fish oil pill. It takes about the same amount of time as scooping kibble. I dont cut or grind anything (except the whole chickens and the enormous beef hearts into 1lb hunks).

If you are cooking the food or feeding raw, you can buy the meat at any grocery store. I have no clue how to feed a cooked dog food diet but there is not need for a special supplier. I would assume a cooked diet is mostly the same with lots of meat but they probably add in grains, veggies, and lots of supplements. I have seen cooked recipes before online and it looked way too involved (so much grinding!) and time consuming for my personal tastes. I buy chicken and liver mostly from Save-a-lot, Aldi and Wegmans, depending who has what on sale. This week Save-a-alot had whole chickens for .79/lb. I usually get quarters for .49 on sale too. I can get pork roasts for a good price at all 3 stores too (sometimes .99 for bone-in and 1.69~ for boneless). I get turkey, pork hearts, beef hearts, liver and kidney from a local Polish meat market that sells all kinds of meat, packaged goods, produce, etc. If I call ahead I can get a better price by asking to order a case vs just coming in and buying 10lb or whatever like normal people do. We used to have a great restaurant supply place with cash/carry but they closed. I am also lucky to have family members who hunt and give me venison and I do run a CL ad in the summer/fall before the new season starts. I was lucky this year to get about 80lbs of free venison from 2015-2016 seasons off of local people. What I am getting at, is that you can buy whatever you need for a raw diet in human-food stores without having to go out of your way to find some kind of dog-meat supplier. If you were interested in raw, the facebook group "raw feeding (rf)" is a good place for the simplest version of raw feeding. The group is a bit militant on what can be advised or said, it can induce some heavy eye rolling, but they offer pretty straight forward information for getting started/troubleshooting.

This is well, a lot of dogs, especially border collies. My oldest male is not tolerant of rude, pushy, in your face dogs (that includes puppies). He too, may show initial interest in meeting a dog or puppy that is pulling on their leash or is whining to greet us, but we just keep walking. For the most part both my dogs ignore other dogs because they have learned that they don't need/have to/get to go up to them. If I were to allow him to greet one of these over the top dogs, he too would do an initial sniff then the teeth would be shown and if the dog doesn't get the idea to back up, then he too has nipped to get his point across. Keep your dog on a leash (especially inside a business) and you shouldn't have problems. Levi goes all kinds of places with me on a daily basis and we don't let him meet dogs that fit the above description (we honestly rarely every let our 2 dogs greet strange dogs while out on leash). IMO, dogs should not be someone else's problem in public and should not be made to or allowed to greet every single dog they come across. No one should feel obligated to stop or talk to me because I want my dogs to meet theirs. I may be the minority in that, but if I am in public with my dogs then I am there to spend time/exercise with my dogs and not everyone else's. And of course, you can't always predict what the other dog will do. You can only control you and yours. I also wanted to add that these type of interactions are clearly stressful for your dog, as they were for mine. It is better for everyone to keep your dog by your side and enjoy your time together instead of trying to make him greet dogs you know he isn't going to enjoy meeting. Again, if you show your dog that he does not have to interact with these dogs, he will likely relax and be fine in public. I constantly get praise from strangers on how well behaved or calm my dogs are in public. I look out for them and don't let them get into situations that are stressful (I too don't want to meet every stranger I see on the street). If they only saw Levi's reaction if some big shepherd or doofy doodle thing came running up to his face, they would think he was 'aggressive" too.

I got my 2 year old border collie at a time when I lived in an apartment. I don't think that is the issue. The OP has said she has zero dog handling/owning/training experience and there is no option for an adult rescue. You are a very experienced dog owner so having a border collie in a city setting was not a big deal. Same for me, I had years of experience personally and professionally (working in a kennel) that made it much easier to train, handle a border collie in an apartment. I also think you see a lot of border collies coming into rescue from suburban and rural homes because those are the people that get border collies. There are more living in suburban/rural settings than city settings so that means more are likely to come into rescue from those settings. Most people don't get dogs like border collies in a city setting unless they know what they're doing. So that dynamic would skew where dogs are coming from. I still think as someone who doesn't actually appear to know the breed well, she may be interested in getting a border collie because of impressive YouTube videos of them doing advanced tricks or because they are known to be smart (which many mistake for easy to train). I think part of why people are saying for her to maybe reconsider is because she may very well be very disappointed that the pup she gets grows to be a dog that is nothing like what she wanted. Any dog can learn impressive tricks or be an active companion, it is up to the owner to have the knowledge to teach the dog those impressive behaviors. Now maybe if she said that she has known many border collies personally and loves their sensitive nature, their athletic ability or had some more in-person experience with the breed, people may be more inclined to agree that it would be a good idea given that she is up for the training and exercise needs. Just my thoughts, as I agree with you that lots of people successfully live in urban areas with these dogs. But they typically have more experience and knowledge with dog training or the breed.

I second that! If you are still working on his recall then he should not be off leash. The longer he is allowed to chase birds and blow you off then the more fun it will be for him. It will make proofing his recall harder in the long run. Keep him on a long line and work on his recall in settings where he can succeed. Then slowly as he gets better at recalling, you can work up to places where higher distractions are (birds!). Chasing animals is a self rewarding behavior so your little treats are no match. Prevent the behavior now while he is young and as he matures and you continue training, you will eventually be able to call him off.

I'll chime in with my first thoughts...you're making your life more difficult than it needs to be. I think the odds are stacked against you but certainly can be a success story since I don't know you personally or your situation. But from what you have written, I think you would be better set up for success by finding an individual adult dog through rescue who fits the lifestyle you have to offer. It's a selfless thing to think about, "what can I offer a dog" instead of I want this particular dog/breed and how can I make them fit into what I can offer. Lots of people successfully live with border collies in city settings but as someone who has zero dog owning, training, handling experience on top of no border collie experience who lives in a city apartment...just sounds like an uphill battle for both you and the dog. The best thing to do is find an adult dog who can thrive in the environment you have to offer (whether that is a border collie or another breed/mix). One thing that also jumped out, is that 1 hour a night of trick training is not realistic. As a young pup you are lucky to get several 2-3 minute sessions in per day. Even with an adult dog, we do maybe 10-15 minutes of advanced trick training at a time. My dogs will quit on me after a certain point or get frustrated (even if they are getting click/treat for each behavior) as the repetition gets to them.

I too would suggest working with a rescue group who can pair you up with the specific dog that fits your lifestyle. Do you know many border collies in real life? They're definitely not like other breeds in many ways and it is something most people cannot fully understand unless you know some personally. Your desired list of attributes can be found in pretty much any dog of any breed or mix. Border collies in general can be much more sensitive than other dogs. They notice things in their environment that other dogs would not, can develop weird quirks or phobias and really make you think about how you approach training. If you want a companion dog to do activities with, any active breed/mix can fulfill that role for you. I would really suggest at the very least, talking to a rescue or people you know who own the breed and try to get their honest feedback on what the breed is like to live with. If you are as young as you sound, then also consider what your parents want, who will be the actual caretaker day to day, who will pay for vet care, classes, food, etc. What will happen when you want to move away from home and the dog may not suit your new lifestyle (college dorm, pet friendly housing fees, job transfers/longer work hours, etc). It can be really hard at any age to consider where will be in 13-15 years (average life span of the breed) but even more difficult if you are young enough to still be living at home.

I know every dog is different but when we had a 1 year old spayed she rested herself the first night and second day home. She wasn't interested in doing much. The third day she was ready to go and we kept her to just leash walks and trick training inside. By the the 5th or 6th day it was pretty much business as usual with off leash walks/runs. We did no fetch or swimming though for a while longer. I think the vet also advised 1-2 weeks of rest. I would suggest doing trick training, filling and freezing kongs and just regular leashed walks for a while. It's a good time to let her know that sometimes life is boring but she still needs to chill/behave in the house.

There is no reason to spend all your time (certainly not 3 hour walks each day) and money on your dog. As others have said, as I type, my two are sleeping at my feet. If you don't sincerely have an interest yourself in working stock then I would pass on any type of herding lessons you may find in the LA area. It is about more than letting your dog run around and burn off energy. If you do have an interest in agility then the same goes there. Classes are likely to feel slow and boring (especially in the beginning when you're not doing any obstacles for a while) if you yourself have no interest in the sport. If you do, then it is a great way to train, bond and expel some energy in your dog. I agree with others that the daycare is not working for her and I would stop taking her. A dog walker is a great alternative, it provides more structure, less 'go-go-go' type of stimulation that daycare places provide. I don't think anyone has mentioned it yet but teach her an off-switch. It sounds like you are a tad annoyed at how much attention she demands. Teach her to chill when you are home and otherwise occupied. This is a lot about teaching yourself not to give in. If she begs, wines or demands attention just ignore her or give her something else to do. Teach her 'place' command and you can send her to place (my own dog does place for 30 min. at times while I vacuum and mop). This also uses her brain while giving her structured down time. There are videos on YouTube of how to teach 'place.' I don't think any one of us here spends all of our time and money on our dogs, they are here to complement our lives not further complicate them.