CMP

Yeah, I hear ya. Listen, it's your dog and your life and the very fact that you are on here seeking information should be a general heads up that you're concerned to make the best decisions for your dog. If we all waited for the perfect time to have a kid or only let people with the perfect credentials have a kid, there would be virtually no kids and we'd die out within ten generations. Same with puppies. Sure, there are perfect conditions and perfect scenarios and very few of us are fortunate enough financially, vocationally, situationally, etc. to be able to come anywhere close to them. Get your puppy, respect your puppy, have reasonable expectations of it, treat it kindly and fairly and decently and everything else will be forgiven, worked around, not known it's being missed and plain old unimportant. Listen to no one or nothing that advises you that you are unfit or unready for a puppy and/or that a puppy will not thrive under your care. If you are determined that it thrive, it will. I could take you to some working farms around here that might melt your brains, given some of the things I read. Working dogs are often kenneled for long periods of time and receive nothing like some of the "pampering" you read about from pet owners. Dogs are dogs and their happiness is tied up in their relationship with you. Take care of that, attend to his basic needs and you're set to go. Good luck,

We actually have a commercial washer in our house because I got tired of buying new washers every few years after the dog hair killed them. Well, the dog hair and the horse blankets made the case. Due to a chronic health issue, I'm sort of obsessive about keeping my environment clean and wash all blankets, towels and doggie what nots at least once a week. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Scotties who hardly ever bark and do not shed. Bless their stoic little souls.

Your dog can and will get used to whatever environment you choose. I live in a farm area and no dogs get stolen - so depends where you live, I suppose. Nothing wrong at all with leaving a dog in an outside kennel. Nothing wrong with leaving a dog inside all day. Whatever works for the pair of you is what is right. I have seen many people create kennel/run spaces that attach to their residence via a doggie-door - seems a perfect solution, really. My dogs have the run of in or out while weather permits and in the winter they tend to be happy to stay inside more, naturally.

So, I had to change up my toy storage system. The plasic baskets I used to use did not withstand the barrage of puppy abuse. So we now use an old nylon travel crate (large enough for an adult Berner) as the "toy box". Yes, my dogs have a walk in toy closet. I know, I know. This required training the dogs on the new "put away your toys" protocol. It gave me a great anecdotal story to relate when someone says "So, are Border Collies really smarter than other dogs?". I have the three youngest dogs - 6 month old BC Molly, 1.5 year old Scottie Snap and 2 year old Berner Mina all in my impromptu training class. The best way to teach them seems to be to get them to go inside the crate, drop the toy and go back out for the next one. Our system involves coming to a specified spot to pick up a treat after each toy is put away. So, the deal is I set the dogs to putting away the toys and the dog who puts the most away gets the most treats. The Berner, until the day she dies, will take every toy into the box, drop it carefully, come back out and get her treat. The Scottie will go much faster, the drop will be made, flyball style, while he is in transition from in to out - and he will do that all the rest of his life. The BC puppy discovered that (a) you can throw them in from outside and if you have a lot of momentum they whack the end of the crate and you can get the treat and next toy faster. So, she's got five thrown in while the Berner is carefully depositing the first one and the Scottie is on his second and ( that if you hide toys under the couch you can get them when everything else is done, put them in and get even more treats. BC puppy has also discovered that any time you put a toy away, you get a treat. Which will have to be changed as she now goes and gets toys out, just so she can come and get me to give treats while she puts them back in.

I prefer as much black as possible - and a face that is not split and has no odd eye area coloring. I am not keen on merles or reds. I prefer rough coated, prick earred, smallish collies with light/med brown eyes, mid length legs and full tails. The "wolfier" they look, the better for me. That all said, give me a good hearted dog with athletic skill and a good work ethic and I will take a short haired lilac merle with wall eyes and legs to kingdom come.

Oh, good luck with the cat toy business. I bought the puppy's insurance on the day she had her rabies shot. Which was also the day I casually mentioned she looked like she had a slight hitch in one hind leg. Several thousand dollars later and it turns out it is a "pre existing condition" because I mentioned it the vet in morning and the insurance request did not go into head office until the afternoon. Yep, I kid you not. Bastahds, as we say around here :/

Salmon oil makes my dogs think anything is edible. It's power is sometimes frightening

I love my Berners and Border Collies, but man oh man, I do NOT love the shedding. There is so much hair in my house right now, I could start a stuffing business. I won't - but like every year I am tempted to have the groomer come out and shave them all to the skin :/

The Berners are not an intelligent breed. They are a wise one, though. Throw a ball at them and they will duck, look hurt and avoid you for a week. Need a furry head to lay on your shoulder? One appears with a ball. They will sit, stay, lie down and come. And that's about it. The Scotties are like CptJack describes her terrier. Seems a little thick but throw those little buggers in a field and watch the gopher is disappear like a trick at a carnival. They will not do anything particularly easily but once they decide it is a thing they will obey, they always do. I laugh out loud to think of a Scottie working with a handler like a Collie with a Shepherd. The Hounds have their own inscrutable intelligence which flows from the natural world and they march to their own drummers. I don't worry about training hounds. They don't need training except basic manners. Mother Nature gave them all they need. Are they biddable? Who knows. The Rotties are highly intelligent and highly trainable. I find them more easily trained for rote activity than any other breed. They are intelligent but not creative in my experience. The Border Collies are highly intelligent and less trainable than the Rotties - but much more biddable. They are creative. They are the most fun and the closest thing I have ever found (in a canine) to a true companion/partner. Intelligence is a bugaboo in a dark closet. It's relative. It's usually irrelevent in degrees. It can't really be quantified on a universal level so it can't be measured, one against the other. Let me put it this way - I wouldn't leave a young Border Collie minding the baby - I would a Berner. I wouldn't put a Border Collie in a field full of gophers and I wouldn't leave a Scottie in a field full of sheep.

Yeah - "by and large" BC are the smartest dogs with which I am familiar. By and large, they are the most trainable. By and large they are the most biddable. By and large they have the most kinesthetic intelligence. You know that they say about exceptions

Yep. Plenty of them, too. I have met WAY WAY WAY more smart ones, but it's a continuum. They are the smartest breed, generally speaking, but not every BC is smarter than every other dog. Smartest dog I ever met was not even a BC. Edited to say: I read the title as "Has Anyone Here Ever MET a 'Dumb' Border Collie".

Yes, one morning my lovely puppy woke up a raging ... um ... idiot. A few days ago she went to jail (an old crate kept for this purpose and this purpose only) at least ten times in an hour and a half span for not leaving the cat food alone. By the end of it - she was grabbing a stolen bite and then just trotting over to the crate and going in, sighing no less. Then she slept for 14 hours - eventually I woke her up (at 8 hours) and took her outside where she peed in her sleep basically and dropped to the ground, wanting to sleep again. Then she didn't sleep for what feels like a month but is really just about 20 hours. Then she came to every recall like a bat of hell, was nice to the cats, sat still for harnessing, didn't try to get her chewies onto the couch and didn't jump on anyone. Then she was an embarrassment of badness, even stealing a piece of cake from a plate on my mother's table! Outside she goes ... ten minutes later one of the workers is yelling ... the "little black devil" is busy digging up the freshly planted bulbs. And a LOT of them. Would she stop? Nope. Would she let go of the one she decided was lunch? Nope. Did she spend some time in jail? Yep. Did she care? Nope ... took the time to have a nap and work on her personal grooming needs. I will say this - she makes me laugh my ass off when I am not rolling my eyes back in my head and wondering why I ever thought another puppy was a good idea :/ I actually LOVE this phase. They're getting so "themselves" and their personalities are really starting to form. They're learning things a mile a minute and awareness is clicking almost visually. You can see the wheels ... "Ah ... I get it". Sadly, one of the first things they get is that you are really not going to hurt them and a few minutes in a crate is not so bad if you get a taste of Whiskas :/

Recently we lost a 14 year old. My dogs all seem sort of out of sorts, especially the older ones, but not so much that I am concerned. One of my mother's dogs (terrier mix rescue), however, is nearly inconsolable to the point of concern. He has not played, barked or gone outside voluntarily since Mikey passed. He will only eat treats and hand fed food. He does not cry or whimper - he just sits by the door and waits. Odd thing is, we did not really think them to be particularly close. I can't remember them hanging out together all that much. He has now started to act very aggressively towards other dogs (the only time he shows any life at all). He is only 5, so that has to be corrected but we are not entirely sure how to proceed. So far all the other dogs have given him some latitude but I can see the Scotties aren't going to let the little nipper away with crap too much longer (Scotties are serious about standing up for themselves - probably the canine version of the short man syndrome). I suppose dogs are like any other creature - individuals with their own responses to things.

I believe that 99% of dogs, if given the choice, would rather spend their playtime with familiar people in familiar surroundings. If he gets socialization otherwise, which he seems to with agility, sounds like the dog park is more hassle for you both than it is worth. I think dog parks are for people who have no other place to let a dog run - it is not my experience that they make good socialization centers (no controls). If I have ever had to use one, I tried to use it when no one else was there.

Going against the grain as usual, I do not recommend a crate as the answer.:/ I recommend that you work with him to teach him what is and is not appropriate to chew. At his age he has a clear understanding of what you like and don't like. I'd wait for him to chew on the inappropriate things and then teach him not to. Since my puppies are wee things I teach them about choices and alternatives - in this case I would make it: chew this or that / chewing this = freedom and chewing that = crate. At his age, it should only take a few lessons. I am not a big believer in the crate as training replacement tool. For such a small, intermittent issue it seems drastic to have the dog's entire life upended (and yours, possibly). Dogs may like crates but one who is used to being free all day will not find the alternative as good, one imagines. YMMV and all that said, I do have a Scottie dog who MUST be crated when not supervised or he will eat every pillow in the house. But he's not a BC and not as trainable. Before going to crate, maybe try training. If he is a persistent chewer a crate might be the only answer - but it sounds like you have other options yet. Good luck.

I think I would have one dog or three or more - but never two. If/when one passes the hole is so large for the remaining dog. In three or more dog households, they are a pack and not "bff" and the loss of one dog seems to be taken in a different sort of stride. We just lost a 14 year old and an 11 year old in the past few months. You can see and feel the change - as the pack shifts - and you can see some sadness in some of the dogs - but it's very much a life goes on environment when there are at least two left to sort themselves into a new order. We lost the pack leader, as these things go, and I did notice some ... jostling ... but it seems to have sorted itself and I believe it is a female BC who has captured the crown this time around. If I could not have many dogs, I would have only one and then it is just me to be sad and adjust and I can do that with a new dog to keep me occupied. I don't think I would add a puppy to an end-of-life dog's singular existance. A puppy is a terrible burden for an older dog unaccustomed to puppies. They are *relentless* and I think it would take the sort of control over the puppy's behaviour that would make everyone stressed and unhappy. Or maybe that is just me That would be WAY too much work of the wrong kind for me.

Thing is, Molly looks small. Because the legs are shortish at the moment. Weird. She was born on April 23 and was tiny enough that she was kept under lights for two days. I tend to think she suffers uneven growth and she will, in fact, not gain a whole lot more mass - maybe some height. We shall see. Good to know about the metacam. Thanks!

Yes, sounds very similar. After spending several thousand dollars, consulting with three regular vets, two ortho specialists and a teaching specialist of some note, and getting every possible diagnosis and some pretty radical suggestions for treatment, I got mad and decided that my instincts were worth something. I let her self-govern, more or less - I kept rest periods enforced in a crate, but otherwise, I let her run when she feels like it, rest when she needs to. About a week ago, she spent about ten steps doing a goose step and then stretched and seemed to be surprised that there was no pain. And then she did something that made me cry. Yes, she boinged. You know - like puppies do - something she had not done since she was 3.5 months old. She boinged to pounce on a fluttering leaf - like it was a gold nugget. She has not limped or had any discomfort since that day. I took her off the metacam. She remains on the high glucosamine (1500mg/day) intake, the hemp oil and salmon oil supplements. She is, as best as I can tell, "cured". She's nearly 40 pounds. Her back end is finally getting some muscle. The lameness came on the heels of the last major leg growth spurt and she has not had another so she looks sort of stout at the moment - short legged, strong bodied. She's powerful in build, built for quick speed, not endurance. I dunno. She's not limping now ... that's the best I think I am going to get until she's full grown. I suspect another major spurt is coming my way - her appetite has gone haywire in the last few days.

I've never had a single dog household but my dogs get very strange if away from their pack for too long - more than 2-3 days and they start being depressed. I suspect dogs have the same issues we do - they love, they get attached, they grieve at a loss. Some grieve more than others. I don't think there is a one size fits all answer for what sort of response a dog will have to loss, loneliness and handling your grief as well as his own. It will be hard. How hard it will be will depend on so many things that we'd need a whole site just for that You will have to manage your grief for your loss as you would for your children - carefully and with great regard for the cues they will be taking from you. I have a very large pack and we don't get very many years without a death - and some years deliver us more - this year I have had 3 dogs pass, two of them in the last month. The other dogs (and I) adjust, but it's not always fast or easy.

Very interesting discussion. Having just been through a three month period of intermittent lameness with my six month old puppy which is best described as Veterinarian Roulette and having everything from a diet with excessive protein to OCD to Pano to HOD discussed as culprits, it finally seemed to come down to "uneven growth characterized by extreme spurts". At five months she was 35 pounds. Her mother weighs less than that. Her father around that. At six months she is nearly 40 pounds and while her growth has stabilized it was truly bizarre at times. She is larger than her next largest litter-mate by over 15 pounds. So, when a dog's genetics become confounded by individual programming, it can become like a private battleground - one fighting the other until some sort of balance is reached.

Good luck. It was a lovely post that I enjoyed reading tremendously. Thank you.

Thanks to everyone for their condolences. I don't know about heart dogs. I can think of three dogs that I could not bear NOT to call that. Mikey was one of them. As has happened to me before, I am sorry that I never kept one of his puppies. But - eh - if I kept one of every litter from a special dog, they would be doing a tv special about me - and not in a good way. I hung his collar on the honour wall today (like a dog trophy case - a wall in one of the tack rooms where we hang the collars of our working dogs that have passed). He has the distinction of being the only non stockdog on the wall. My grandfather used to say that you could tell the real value of a dog by the stories that people told about it when they passed its collar. Let's hope Mikey generates a story or two.

Excellent!

A dog I can't see, a breeding place I can't check out, paperwork I am told "will be coming". Meh. I'll stick to getting in my truck/on a plane and visiting people I think I might buy a dog from.

^^ - My oldest BC likes to sleep in a blue recycle container. Go figure :/ I also leave crates with open doors once puppies are house trained. They go in to them when they are stressed (people visit, too much activity) or when they feel tired and the house is still active, etc. Sometimes two or even three will get into one together. The Berners especially like to puppy pile. The Scotties do not share and do not like any other dog going into their crates.