Super-Levi

This is a very interesting topic. I wanted to leave Tobias intact too until he was fully mature but still unsure. We live on about 15 acres and the yard is not fenced. He's only 10 weeks and hasn't really wondered off but as a mature intact male wouldn't he be more likely to stray? There is a high way maybe 100 yards from the house that doesn't have much traffic but people do go fairly fast when the roads aren't slick or icy. For our Great Dane we altered him when he turned 6 months and he is still dog and people aggressive regardless. He also never filled out and is on the skinny side but for such a large breed being a under weight is probably benifical for his joints but I kind of wanted Tobias to fully fill out and mature if possible. My toy poodle male I kept intact until he was 3 or 4 years old. Although he was always on the more dominate side he was always friendly with other dogs and people male or female. For over a year I had two intact toy poodle males living on my house together and never had an issue with marking in the house or fights. They we good boys. However when a family member brought their stupid unhousebroke male who had a male diper band on he marked in the house and then it up set my males who didn't appreciate this stranger marking in territory that they couldn't mark on. I when a head and neutered after that just because my boys started acting weird.

I discovered as much as Tobias loves cheese and other treats his regular dog food works best for him usually. Especially in the morning when he's really focused on eatting I ask for a trick and give him a couple of kibbles then ask for another and so on. I only ask for a couple of minutes at most but ask for at least one trick before eat meal biscuit and chewy bone I give him because it seems to be the moments that he's most motivated. Now that he knows some tricks really well to make it more fun sometimes when playing I'll ask for a trick so his reward is more play. I don't over do it though because I don't want him to think playing with me is no fun nor do I want him to think I just want to take toys away and make it a chore for him to get them back. But using toys for first learning new tricks doesnt seem motivating enough for my 9 week old. As for aloofness I give Tobias his space and sometimes it definaly feels that he loves the family Great Dane more than he likes being with me but its also kind of nice that someone else can entertain him for over an hour. I'm keeping faith that as he grows older he'll bond more with me when he realizes that I'm more than his babysitter.

My little guy talks back when I say "No you can't do that". Its kind of cute but I stay firm and as soon as his little fit is over I calmly praise him verbally and with a soft pat or stroke. If its something he shouldn't be chewing on then sometimes I'll roll a ball or offer a game of tug. I've also sprayed bitter apple on things he consistently want to put his mouth on and that seems to have helped a lot so far along with a variety of busy bones pig ears and greenies given to him at different times of the day. He is the first pup I've ever had that likes to chew on furnitare. He's only nine weeks and I've only been a border collie owner for the last two weeks so I can't really say if what I'm doing is correct in the long run or if Im in any position to try and help with advice but that's kind of an idea of how I've been handling my pup's desire to touch things he shouldn't. Prevention and redirection. Best success with Ziggy.

This really isn't about raising a balanced border collie, though it does have a part about how to successfully live with a bc. Before I got my pup I found this video quite insightful. I can't really say that its accurate or not since I've only recently brought my first border collie puppy into my home but it's very intersting and informative in my opinion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tGqTi57Bks

I agree with this. I'd much rather have a pup who had a little less socialization so I could intoduce things to him/her first hand. Though if the breeder really knew what they were doing they probably wouldn't make something a bad experiance for the puppy but the idea of getting a pup who is a 'clean slate' is more attractive to me personally. As a horse trainer, I'd much rather work with a wild horse with no prior human contact than one thats more 'domestic' and possibly already has issues from bad training prior to coming to me. Of course with dogs being a little diffrent I don't think I'd want a feral puppy either but its the clean slate idea that I'm refering to. However with my new little guy being brought up in a barn, there are noises that he doesn't like such as the vacum and hair blow dryer but he's getting use to it very quickly. The important thing is that I know that he isn't going to have a bad experaince if I can help it. With the family great dane however, he was always very socialized as a pup. Not sure what the breeder had done with him but we got him at 6 weeks old. Anyway he will try and bite other dogs who are larger than a toy poodle (he's a gentle giant with his poodles and thankfully little baby Tobias) and does not like strangers at all. We found out that one of his brothers form his litter did attack someone so I would think that his issues are definately genetically linked. Though not all the pups turned out aggressive. His runt sister is a very friendly dog to all strangers like great danes are supose to be.

I think if some were mixes I don't think their breeder knows.I suppose I could still test my guy to make sure he's a full border collie but either way he seemed to have a good temperament and everything I'm looking for so I'm not really too worried about that. But I'm super curious about his brother.

Yeah this was the first pup I wanted but unsurprisingly he was already being held for someone. I hope to keep in contact with the breeder and maybe the owner of my pups brother. I'd love to see how he turns out. If he were mine I'd do that genetic testing on him but I really don't know what his owner plans to do. He is the biggest of the litter but not much bigger than mine.

This isn't my pup but rather my little guy's brother. I don't have many good pictures but this puppy is very oddly and fascinatingly marked and I was wondering if ya'll have ever seen these kind of markings. He isn't really black looking, more like a blue or something. I was looking on this site:http://www.bordercolliemuseum.org/BCLooks/BC_Looks.html but couldn't find any explanation for these kind of markings. What do you think? Also here is a video. Its poor quality but you can see this pup's markings better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKjuOYBGwfM&feature=youtu.be