Lawgirl

I would say that six months old is right in the middle of the dreaded teenager time, when a BC's brain is the victim to floods of hormones, and some days their brain falls out and it feels like they have forgotten everything they have ever learned!  This too will pass, and one day you will wake up and realise that you have an adult dog.  It may be at a year old, or 18 months or 2 years, but it will happen.  Some dogs will always be a little puppyish, others will be adult very early.

I completely second to enjoy the dog you have now, and do not burden them with expectations, but let them learn and grow at their pace.  They will get where they are going faster that way.   And don't be surprised if at some point you have to go back to scratch with something you thought he already knew (recall is renowned for this!). 

We don't mean not to challenge him to learn new things, just don't have a timetable as to when he should have them down.  BCs love to be challenged with something new to learn, to work their brains.

Oh. My. Goodness. Taani is unutterably cute! I am a complete sucker for a tri-colour...

I do not have any real suggestions other than to maybe try using some other reward than food, if training with food is too high value.  Will praise and pats be enough? Or a quick play with a toy?

Seconding the welcome to you and your gorgeous pup!

Love the look of your product. I don't leave my dogs tied anywhere, or I would definitely look at buying this.

If you find that 15 minute training sessions result in him losing attention, then the sessions are too long.  For a 13 week old puppy, I would let him guide how long he can concentrate, but this will probably be no more than 5 minutes, and may be less.  Try to end as soon as he shows signs of losing attention or becoming overstimulated, and try to end with something he knows, and can do well, so that you can reward generously and end on a high note.  You want him to think training is fun!  You can do multiple short 2 to 5 minute sessions throughout the day, and you can also incorporate training into everyday events, like requiring a sit before feeding, or opening a door, or getting a pat.  Or asking him to lie on a mat and praising/rewarding, then letting him play.

You don't say when you last take him out and when he gets to go out in the morning.  How many hours is that?  At 13 weeks, he is like a toddler.  We don't expect a toddler to stay dry overnight, so why should a puppy have to?  If you want not to have to get up at 3am, take his water away a couple hours before bed, take him out before bedtime and get up early again to toilet, and be prepared that there will probably be some accidents.  You may want to think about crating or confining him somewhere these will be easy to clean.

I find that the best mental exercise for BCs is either teaching them a new trick or getting them to use their nose.  Feeding him a meal, or all meals, using something like a snuffle mat, or a rolled up blanket that he has to push open to find kibble, or a treat toy, gets him to think and use his brain.  Hide and seek toys/treats etc makes him use his brain.  This is as tiring, if not more tiring, than physical exercise at his age. You can exercise with him by walking once his shots are done, but take it at his pace, let him sniff and explore, and for short periods.  Running for extended periods would be better once he is a year old, once his joints and bones are more fully formed, and even then I would ease him into it.  BCs are known for going past the point of hurting themselves.

I would not be too fussed about the elevated bed.  Most of my BCs will move around during the night from place to place, from our bed, to dog bed, to floor, to couch etc.  So long as they sleep where they are comfortable, I do not worry about it.

At 13 weeks, he is probably teething; the chewing will pass, just redirect when you see him chewing something inappropriate.  You could consider buying something like antler/goat horn/cow hoof to chew on, but there can be issues with these.  A frozen raw chicken neck or leg may be better as a chew toy, if you can keep the mess contained.

Can't comment on the dog food, sorry.

As for the car-sickness, I am no real help.  Hopefully someone with experience can chime in with advice.

One thing I would say with this, is that short sessions are better than a long session.  You ideally want to end on a positive note if possible, and training until your puppy is tired or overstimulated (i.e. drew blood) can undo training, so stop while the dog is doing well, perhaps only a couple of minutes when young, but train several times a day.

I am not by any means an expert!

And I would say any contact/mouthing is a oops/uh-oh and crate.  This is a dog who has a bad habit that he needs to unlearn; he will not understand the difference between gentle mouthing and hard mouthing.  He needs to learn not to bite at all. Consistency is key.

What fantastic photos!

GentleLake, I have another BC Facebook friend who keeps packets of bicarbonate of soda (I think what you call baking soda in the USA, also known as bicarb soda) in her car for use in emergency poisoning situations.  In South Australia, the local and state governments will bait foxes (an introduced pest) with poison baits, and these baits can be picked up and carried outside known bait areas, so accidental poisonings are not unknown, and in rural areas, it can take too long to get to a vet.  Apparently this will also induce vomiting, although it may be a little harder to get down the throat of a dog.  It has a long shelf life, but you may get the police having a closer look at you for having measured packets of a white powder in your car...

As an Australian, I have been so sorry to see the photos of what is happening on the West Coast.  It brings back such sad memories from early this year in Australia.  Although where I live was over 400 miles/700 kilometres from the closest fires, I still ended up with breathing difficulties in January because I happened to have the bad luck to get a chest infection at the wrong time.  I can't imagine the impact that the smoke and particulates from these fires will be having added to COVID19.

Where I am has been very lucky in terms of COVID19, no cases in my city, closest case was over 50 miles/90 kilometres from us, over a border when border movement restrictions were in force.  My 70 year old mother has been living in the outer areas of Melbourne, Victoria, which is the state where 7/8ths of Australia's deaths have been.  She has left her home only a handful of times since March (other than some short daily masked exercise) and she has not been able to see us or my brother's family (5 grand kids) since February, except on video calls.  My sister lives in the same town with her three kids, and even they have been able to spend very little, socially distanced time with her.  My mother has been getting a ridiculous amount of knitting done...

I am hoping that everyone pulls through this year okay.  2020 is becoming a swear word in my home.

Yes, the ear infection was pretty much gone.  We were on our last day of ear drops when this happened and he was not showing any more signs of irritation in his ear.  He had no symptoms of vertigo/vestibular issues with holding his head to the side, nausea, drooling, vomiting.  The vet was able to manipulate his ears without pain, and the infection was apparently only a mild yeast infection.

I am resurrecting this thread because I have to change what I said above.  I now have a dog who has had a fit of some kind.  It happened last Friday night with George, our eight year old BC.  I was just getting ready to feed our dogs, after we had eaten.  George had been given a few (less than ten) small hot chips/French fries from our meal that night as a special treat.  He currently weighs about 24kgs/53lbs, which is a very healthy weight for him.

As I bent down to pick up one of the dog bowls, George suddenly had his rear legs collapse out from under him next to our sideboard in the kitchen.  He then lay down.  I was not sure what was wrong, so I called out to my SO, and then tried to lift him up so I could check his legs.  He stood up with all four legs splayed for perhaps two seconds and then collapsed entirely and began barrel rolling wildly with legs outstretched across the floor of the kitchen.  I screamed for my SO, who was only coming from the lounge, maybe 20 steps away.  He arrived at the kitchen door and grabbed George and held him still so he would not roll into furniture.  he called George's name.  George immediately stopped moving, and came out of whatever was happening to him.  He was able to respond to his name, give his paw etc.  The whole incident lasted probably less then 10 seconds.

We took George to the emergency vet straight away and he was normal when examined in terms of cranial reflexes, heart rate, temperature etc.  Because we had to call the vet in to the clinic, she could not do bloods etc that night, but we took him back the next morning when they took bloods.  His kidney and liver function were all normal, red and white blood cells normal, haematocrit normal, cholesterol is good.

Fortunately there have not been any repeats of that really scary experience.  The vet has said because it was so short, and because he came out of it so quickly and so well, there is probably not much to worry about at this stage.  He was not hungry afterwards, and did not eat tea that night.  He was a bit stiff the next day, but has otherwise shown no further signs of problems.

The only thing that had been different about his routine before this was that he had a mild yeast ear infection and was receiving ear drops to treat it in the five days before the episode.

Totally scary, even if not repeated.  Fingers crossed this was a once off weird thing.  Also, we are never giving him hot chips again.

Love the gangly teenager look!  He is gorgeous.

That is a good photo of Blue from above.  I would agree that he is a little overweight, and cutting back on his food should be all that is needed.  He does not seem dangerously overweight, in that he does have a slight waist, but he is a little blockier than is ideal.

I tend to adjust my boys' diets constantly depending on how their body feels, as their metabolism seems to vary with the seasons etc.  They pretty much get weighed when they go the vets, and that is all.  I find that body score is so much more individually accurate than weight.

Happy Birthday Logan!

Can you try posting the photos on a photo hosting webpage like photobucket and share a link?  If your photos are too big, they won't post.

I have not read it myself, but have read some good things about "The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of The Lakes District" by James Rebanks. Another British author is David Kennard, who writes about his sheep and his border collies.  Again have not read his work myself, but seems to get good reviews.

One of my favourite photos of an adolescent Oscar

He was a water baby.

I am so sorry for your loss.  I lost my Oscar suddenly to sepsis on 9/11 last year.  He would have turned 8 today.  I am struggling today.

My introduction to the Border Collie breed was the Footrot Flats comic by Murray Ball from New Zealand.  I read the comic from childhood, owned some of the books, loved the movie.  Then ended up with my very own Dog.  I defy anyone to tell me Oscar was not the spitting image.

My boy Bailey had rear hind dew claws, both loose and floppy, just a flap of flesh and claw.  They never tore but they occasionally got caught, so when he was under getting neutered I had them removed, and he has never looked back.

powerfulgazelle when you said Kip was Rudyard Kipling Dog, and then said your puppy was Walt, my mind immediately jumped to Walter Whitman Dog as his full name - the literary connection perhaps?  I love it by the way, great name and a gorgeous puppy (which I think I mentioned on another thread).  Feel free to post as many photos of him as you would like

urge to herd Do we assume that L. J. Gibbs came through his dental procedure okay?  I hope so

There is also Dances with Dogs, which is also not a collie thing specifically but which BCs are excellent at.  It has competitions but you can also just do it at home, and be as creative or not as you want.  It is really a routine of tricks set to music. 

The trick with a dog that does not like to be told what to do is to capture their natural behaviour with a reward ( eg bow while stretching - click, "good bow!" and reward). That way they are doing what they want and getting a reward - win/win!

That is hilarious!

I live in Australia and have been competing in agility, with a mostly black dog.  In Australia, most agility competitions are outside and during spring/summer or autumn(fall), with temperatures often reaching into the 30 degrees Celsius range, which is 86 degrees Fahrenheit.  A lot of competitors here use cooling coats for their dogs, between runs.  May be something for you too look into?

Sounds like you both had a lot of fun, which is great.

So cute! I think you have wonderful times ahead.

I am very sorry for your loss, and hope that your new friend goes some way towards helping fill the hole.  Although I have learned recently that is not really true, rather your new friend expands your heart to create a new place for him/herself!

Also, photos please whenever new friend arrives!