aaquick16

Aw, thank you! I like to think he is very cute. He has been doing well with sit, lie down, stay, standup, shake, high-five. I'm impressed so far, but I might have to start creating some useful and fun ones like you have. I can't seem to get him to follow a treat for "roll over", even though I've watched many YouTube videos on it. He also isn't good at "chase your tail" because he sits his butt down, then tries to scoot around. LOL! At least those commands aren't as important as some of the others. We're signing up for a puppy obedience class that starts the end of the month, mostly for puppy socialization and maybe I'll make some new friends too. I saw the Instagram feed you shared, and her ears are adorable! I like the 40-ish pound range for dogs. Its big enough to be a "big dog" but small enough to control and pick up if need be. The breeder thought that Fisher would be 35-40lbs, so we'll see. Please keep us updated with pictures of Niamh. Before I brought Fisher home, I kept trying to find pictures of Border Collies from puppies to adults. I think it's fascinating to see how they grow and change over time.

She sure is cute! I love you cute little commands. "Stay out of foreign conflicts!" and "Go be happy over there." How did you train "Go be happy over there?" That sounds like something my Fisher needs to learn! How big is she now that she's a year old? Do you have any better "hunches" on her breed(s)? She does look like Border Collie to me, but I just have a 12 week old one myself, so I'm pretty new to looking at pictures of Border Collies.

Tea, I was going to move it, but I didn't see a way to move it after I posted it. I originally put it in here because I figured that the lifestock folks would know more on the topic than the agility folks. Then I realized that there was a training category under stock. Oops! If you know how I can move it, I'd be happy to. Thanks to everyone else for your suggestions! It sounds like I'm being overly cautions with my dog. We are planning to sign up for puppy obedience in the next class, the end of March. I may start teaching him to heel, because he's in need of leash manners! He loves to bit, chew, and pull on his leash. I've found a few tricks online to teach them not to bite the leash, but so far we're still training, and he still likes to grab it. He'll even just grab it and carry it around the house, even if I'm not holding onto it. His pulling is becoming more annoying now that he's almost 15lbs. I'm not sure how soon he'll get the idea through his head that he isn't supposed to pull. He's still young, so I'm being patient, but don't want to set him up with bad habits. Right now Fisher spends the majority of his day in the house. He goes out if we are outside, but in general that's just weekends, or for small chores (getting the mail, feeing the chickens, etc). When we are outside, he can see the poultry from one side of the yard. He doesn't fixate on them though, and doesn't have prolonged exposure to where he's just watching them.

I debated putting this in the training forum, but I felt the working stockdogs forum would have more people with stockdog experience seeing it. Edit: Now that I've posted this I see there is a training group inside of stockdogs. This post should be there, but I don't see a way to move it. If that's possible, I'll gladly move it. Sorry for posting in the wrong topic! I have an 11 week old Border Collie that was bred for herding. Both of his parents work on a 150,000 acre cattle ranch! My intentions for him are on a much smaller scale, but I still want to make sure I do things right. What sort of things should I not teach my dog? I've heard to teaching them to heel and to only walk on one side of you can ruin his ability/desire to herd, since he learns to only stay by your side. I did read that teaching them to walk on leash without pulling you is okay though, thank goodness! I also believe I've read not to teach tug-a-war, but that may have been for other non-stock related reasons. I know that's a bad game from a dominance perspective anyhow. I also read about a lady who taught her dog the herding commands on a ball while playing fetch, then the dog wanted to play ball every time that it was supposed to be herding. I wont try anything like that! I have the book Herding Dogs-- Progressive Training by Vergil Holland. From what I've seen, this is the go-to book on training stockdogs. So far I've only read the chapters on puppies/new dogs. I have a good few months before we need to start actual herding training. My key questions are: What should I not teach my dog to do? Is puppy obedience class a good idea, or would I have to skip too many things that are covered in the class (mostly things involving a leash)? So far we're learning commands fine on our own and socializing with dogs of friends/family. Do you have any other tips that will help me to raise a good puppy into a great stockdog? P.S. I figured that a post on this would already exist, but my searching did not turn up anything. If I've missed it, please forgive me. Any direction to related posts is also appreciated.

I love hearing everyone's responses on this! Blaze, your dog is a bit older than mine, but I'll share with you what we've been doing for "bonding," maybe it'll give you some ideas. Right now I'm working on basic obedience with Fisher (11 weeks). He also goes where we go. If we are out in the yard, he comes outside with us. If we are in the house, he's in the house (although he's in his crate a good bit of the time for potty training, and so he doesn't get into trouble when we can't watch him). My husband and I each take several breaks a day with Fisher, where we work on obedience, play with him (he loves fetch, although sometimes just for about 45 seconds), and have lots of snuggles. He goes with me to take care of the chickens (three times a day), and also to go pick up the mail at the end of our driveway. (We also work on obedience while we are near the chickens.) He rides in a box on the quad-runner when my husband goes out on our property for various tasks. When I go into town to help the school with their FIRST Robotics team, Fisher tags along to that and enjoys "helping" the kids build their robot. He also goes with us when we go over to houses of friends/family, and comes ice fishing with us. So far I think he's doing well bonding with us and becoming integrated into our lives. Once Fisher gets older, we are going to train him to herd. We have chickens, ducks, turkeys, and soon will be getting cattle. Herding wont be a major job for him, since we live on a small hobby farm. At best, I expect we'll bring the poultry in once a day, and maybe move the cattle every few days. I do plan to continue to teach him commands and tricks, beyond basic obedience. We wont get into the agility competitions, but I like being able to tell my dog to do something and have him follow my lead. Things like, around, under over, etc could be useful in our everyday life. I also thought about teaching him to pick up laundry off the floor and put it in the hamper. Maybe you could think of ways that your dog could help around your house. I actually had the though of seeing if I could put the bags of garbage in a sled, and having him pull the sled out to the road for me. We'll see if he can manage that once he's older, both in strength and in restraint not to chew through the garbage bags.

My limited experience with Border Collie breeders in my general area (Mid & Northern Michigan) is that dogs are bred for herding and/or agility. I haven't see "strictly pet" Border Collies, other than ones not from breeders, such as listings on Craigs List & Hoobly, possibly coming from an "oops my dog got pregnant" situation. Although, to be honest, some of them are probably from breeders, and I should give them more credit. I did actually find my pup's breeder on Hoobly, after all, and was very pleased with the entire experience. They just tend to be more difficult to get information on their puppies, pricing, and future litters until the dogs are ready to find homes. When purchasing a herding dog, I would expect that both parents are working. Not just that they come from herding lines. I was told that my dog will have a natural tendency to herd once he "comes of age." Both of his parents have herding experience on a large cattle farm. I believe about 80% of the puppies that came from these parents over the years are working dogs, but some are not. I did not get the impression that the breeder was disappointed about the other 20%. Some of them actually are pets for some marathon runners, and he seemed pretty happy that these people found his dogs which were capable of running high milage with them. Maybe my breeder was more relaxed than some, but I think he'd be happy just to know that you'd give the pet a good home, love it, and give it what it needs. If a dog isn't bred for herding, I would expect that it might have less of a natural tendency to herd. Although, it might still have that tendency, just that the parents don't have formal experience in putting it to use. I wouldn't say for sure that it wont have a strong tendency. From my experience, some of the "real farm dogs" actually had a more affordable price point than the Border Collies which were advertised for agility and show. Again, I'm sure this varies for every area. It's just what I observed in doing research before bringing home my pup.

No tan around his butt. I figured he wasn't tri, when I was comparing him to his siblings. I was tempted to go with a tri female, because of her coloring (even though I initially had wanted a male). My husband picked out Fisher, because he has a unique brown + white ear (even though he had initially wanted a female). We also liked the two spots on top of his head. I'm really happy with our puppy and love him to pieces, so his lack of light brown isn't a deal breaker. I'd love to be able to take photos outside in the sun, but unfortunately the sun is in short order here in Michigan in February. As I'm new to Border Collies, I'm not terribly certain on the color wording. I had found this website through a Google search, which calls the color Chocolate (brown/red/liver). http://www.bordercollies.es/colors.html Is "red" the more accepted color term?

Wow! That's a lot of dogs to walk. I can see how that could get complicated. If you have many close neighbors, see if any of them would be interested in going for walks with you. When I lived in an apartment out in Maryland, I would go walk with 2 of my neighbors that did have dogs. It's a nice way to get some chit-chat in, while also getting some exercise, both for the dogs and the humans! While it may not be possible to have a friend or neighbor every day, it could help make some days more manageable for you. You may also want to ask high school or college students if they'd like to walk with you or for you. They could even just take one dog out on it's own for a bit. I know I would have done this for you when I was in college or back before I moved to a farm. These days I'd be up for walking dogs with you. Good luck!

I don't see any lightness under his tail at the base, but then again, that fur hasn't come in fully yet either. A week or two ago, I thought I did some some lighter spots on him when we were outside in good sunlight. Now I don't see any of that. I think his eyebrows are dependent upon lighting too. I suppose I will just have to give it some more time and see. He is a bit of trouble, but his adorableness makes up for it. He's my first puppy, and actually my first ever dog too. I've fostered dogs and done lots of dog sitting, but never truly had one of my own! He just melts my heart every time I look at him.

Hello! I'm thrilled to be part of the Border Collie club. So far, I'm loving my new puppy. He turned 11 weeks, this past weekend. I've had him for 2 weeks and have enjoyed watching him grow and develop his personality. When I bought the puppy, the breeder told me it was a Brown Tri, even though he didn't have any of the light brown/tan color. He said that the puppy would grow into it. I noticed that his other litter-mates did have the light brown/tan color, so I thought it was odd he didn't have it, if he was in fact going to be a tri. I am curious what you guys think. Do you see any signs of tri in him? Is this something that some puppies do grow into? I don't really care if he is tri or not, I'm just asking out of curiosity. Here are two pictures that were taken over the weekend, at 11 weeks of age. Thanks!