manthaje

I know I deserve razzing for following through with bringing this pup home. All of the red flags were there. I would say the same to another person. I should have kept the post and about the registration, but I was trying to add context to my concerns. I'm frustrated. This pup is a project dog for my son with ADHD. He picked the breed and breeder. I wanted a Belgian Tervuren, he wanted another Border Collie. I researched AKC v ABCA and that was what we decided together. The timing of the litter also worked very well, but we did have other options. I discussed all of the red flags with him after we made an initial visit and told him we had the option to back out, and that would have been my vote. I had previously put down a deposit, but didn't really care about that. In addition, the pup was the only one of the litter that really showed outward fear. I let him pick, and he decided to go through with this breeder, this litter, and this puppy. I don't regret letting him choose his dog and it's all a learning experience for him. Luckily I've got a very good, responsive, moderately high drive dog. She adores the men of the house which they love, because normally the dogs cling to me. She grew out of the fear and accepts dogs/strangers better than I could have ever dreamed after my last border collie. Heck, she wags her tail and looks at the mail man adoringly. I really don't mean to bash the ABCA. Not my intent, and I'm sorry. I respect what they do. The breed is made to work and I can't provide the kind of work that adds to or assesses it's functionality, so I would never dream of breeding. The registration isn't about that.

So my BC pup is over 5months now, and on the third request to ask about abca registration, the breeder made a Facebook post to mention that the paperwork to register the litter didn’t make it in the mail so she is starting the process again. She never bothered to answer me directly. Mind you, she has not even asked me the name that we gave the puppy. Doesn’t care how she’s doing or acknowledge updates. I’ve tried to interact kindly and patiently, but the feelings I had about this breeder early on seem to be correct. Does the ABCA care when a breeder claims she will register a litter and doesn’t follow through? The adult border collies at her place (4) we’re living in a muddy 10’x20’ enclosure and had essentially run a circle track into the ground just running laps. The 18 puppies were in an ammonia reeking dark shed. Right after all of the puppies were homed, she got rid of most of her breeding stock, and I see her interested in on buying other puppies in some of the groups I’m in. I imagine she got rid of her dogs so that when she went on her cross country motorcycle trip on the bike she bought with her litter money, she wouldn’t have to worry about the dogs. My take away? ABCA will in no way guarantee quality. I got lucky and got a good pup anyway. I’ve met some AKC BC breeders who have done more stock work and betterment for breed quality than this ABCA breeder.

Hi! I have a baby too, she’s five months Keep with it on obedience, she’ll get there. Sometimes we have tantrums/ pity parties and act like she’s forgotten everything she’s ever learned, other times she gives me a requested behavior on a dime. I’ve been told to keep working through it, and you may need to digress a bit and reward her for smaller victories. When all this is going on, she’ll still listen to the men of the house, which is more than a little annoying. Just two days ago she “forgot” sit and down, but today she’s flipping her hind end around to heel on a dime. The potty thing. Up until about a month ago, we figured out Indy needed to potty 2-3 times before she emptied her bladder. We did a few things: taught her a “go potty” cue, and taught her to ring a bell to go outside. Once she learned go potty, we would cue her to go more than once before coming in. It’s hard to stand still long enough to fully empty your bladder when you’re a baby BC! The bell cut down on accidents exponentially. Agree with the others that she’s probably too fired up with the motion of you running at such a young age and just wants to play along. Leash train first and it’ll work better!

I will take that advice and use it! My lab was an easy pup and the last BC was a 2yr old shelter adoption with reactivity problems. I know sensitivities and quirks are part of it and just want to give her the best chance at it. My dogs have always been running buddies so I don't want to mess this part up.

We've had Indy for almost 2 weeks now. We brought her home at 8 weeks. She was the shy/timid one in the back of the room, exploring on her own, a bit withdrawn. Which is fine, honestly. She has warmed up to our family and adores the old lady, our 13 year old lab. The lab tolerates her, but doesn't put up with too much either. She has become more patient with puppy antics, and Indy responds to her signals when enough is enough. Good news is she LOVES kids, is open to meeting any dog with a friendly demeanor, and accepting of most adults too. She was a little afraid of men at first, but we seem to be past that. When we're out and about, people think she is a mellow dog, but really she is just so busy taking things in she doesn't play and rough house the way people are accustomed to, which again, is fine Right now, leash training is the struggle. She is afraid of vehicles between the movement and the noise. We can't walk because she huddles in the grass or next to a fence/building and won't go on. We've been using lots of rewards, but it hasn't improved much. She walks along just fine when our lab comes with, but man goodness, it's not easy to walk those two together! I think we're on the right track, I guess time will tell! Oh and we've got sit, down, stand, and she chases rollers with the disc. This week we focus on recall.

Ah thank you for this thread! My almost 13 yr old lab has been putting pup in her place when she gets out of hand, only escalates past a low growl to a louder growl if necessary and she has had to use a snap once or twice. I felt kind of guilty telling my kids to let her go, but honestly my 9 wk old pup respects her reprimands and she puts her right in line! I think the old lady knows what she's doing

There is currently a man facing 2nd degree felony assault charges and up to 7yrs in prison for trying to hit my fiancé and I with his car repeatedly. We didn't know him, just driving down a country highway, and apparently he didn't like that we were only going 5 miles an hour over the limit. We eventually turned to head back to town, and he tried to hit us head on. Didn't know him. Didn't provoke him. Only tried to evade.. He followed us all the way back into town at a high speed, trying to hit us. The police eventually found him, he was "impaired". Not sure if it was drugs or alcohol. It was the craziest thing, I still can't wrap my head around it.

There are a lot of crazy people in the world, and unfortunately this one got a dog. I would guess if he was bold enough to do this in front of company, he has harmed animals before. I feel a bit sorry for the people/animals of his inner circle, they only have 18 months to enjoy his absence.

I work in critical care, and many of us have experienced a lot more than we’ll admit in that realm. I should stop here.

He did spend time talking about border collies in this book as well. Early on he said to never introduce a dog to playing fetch and chasing, or they will only become accustomed to it and expect more of it. Later, he states that in preparation for a BC puppy he was to get, he went out and purchased balls and toys so that the BC would have an outlet to use its tireless energy. Denice, I actually don’t categorically disagree that there is more to the world and our relationships with our animals than what we can hear, see, or feel. I am skeptical when people look for messages that are not there or contrive and embellish them to sell a story. What bothered me, was that Katz was trying to explain to readers that these animals didn’t want to live any longer, when the primary issues were behavior problems caused by Katz’s mishandling-such as with Orion. So he puts them down. Katz only describes situations in which the animals behavior is exactly what image in his mind he has projected to the animal. This is after multiple attempts at coercing the behavior in conventional ways. Also, the animals are sending images back to him. I stopped listening part way through the book, I’m not sure where we were at in the story. Katz admitted that he’d taken on way too many animals and was in terrible debt because of the farm he overinvested in. He abandoned his marriage to move to this farm for his BC. They were feeding his flock of sheep (I believe he said 31) individually so that there wouldn’t be fights over food. Do I believe his BC Rose woke him by nipping in the dead of the night because a ewe was lambing? I 100% do. He loses his credibility in other ways.

Well I had my first Katz experience while looking for an audio book about dogs to borrow from my library. I didnt know...... Part of me wanted to stop listening after about five minutes, the other wanted to hear the rest of the train wreck. I wonder what the gentleman who had to orate this book thought to himself? Katz assigns human logic and emotions to animals, and believes he is able to speak to them telepathically. Ive never been exposed to true delusions in published literary form until now. He says that more than one pet wanted to be killed because they werent enjoying their earthly existence. He communicates telepathically with dogs, cats, and a steer. He communicates images to them and they send images to him. One time he sent a steer onto a truck to be taken for slaughter by telepathically sending an image to him. They had a close, understanding relationship. I did go back in the forum and find to my delight that Katz is well known to be a poor source for advice. This book was just published May 2017, so I thought Id give you all an update

GentleLake, this post is the first I’ve heard about this syndrome, and it makes my heart skip a beat a little to be honest. Can I ask, do you know if it can cause an elevated amylase and lipase? I’m terrified I missed something.. could he have made it all the way to the age of nine?

I wondered the same thing, only he only had access to my backyard. We have a lot of rabbit droppings? The vets first thought is too many table scraps or a high fat diet, but that wasn’t the case at all for us. I have no idea why and that’s what’s so hard.... Both of my dogs had one to two doses of bravecto in the past and a months worth of blue buffalo life source (he had diarrhea so we switched back), and I always wondered if it was something I gave them. Of course you can google either of those things or look at forums and find negative experiences. It’s hard for me not to beat myself up over those choices.

I am so sorry for your loss, it’s so hard. I lost my otherwise previously healthy 9yr old to pancreatitis as well just a little over a month ago.

About a year and a half ago, my BC had a food intolerance while on BLue Buffalo. He developed diarrhea toward the tail end of the transition of the new food and it never quit. We went back to the old food which I am appalled to say, was Purina dog chow. Fast forward over a year later, he ended up with pretty severe pancreatitis. Mucousy stools, diarrhea, they have abdominal pain and will refuse to eat. Vomiting bile. This is diagnosable with a lab draw/X-rays. We did a bland diet of chicken/rice for 3 weeks and antibiotics/antifungals. He got better, but later things flared up again and he died. I’m not claiming the pancreatitis and food are related, just mentioning we had several tummy issues. New foods/treats weren’t well tolerated by him.

FWIW, human growth charts are often off too. There are always outliers and genetic/environmental influences. My 45lb lab mix has a 90lb litter mate. I also believe I stunted her growth by pushing her to run with me too young. I was young and pretty naive.

Is she bored and needing more stimulation? I teased that my last BC didnt have a job, so thats the one he made himself. When he wasnt being stimulated with play, he spent his time alerting to every movement out the front door. We learned to deal with it, but I believe he became more reactive over time because of it. It could be thats the job she knows, until given a new one.

Can I just say, that everyone here was a novice at some point? There are BC owners out here who can and do really enjoy this breed without all of the vast knowledge and training experiences that each of you individually have had.

Thanks for all the advice guys! The border collie rescue is 4 hours away unfortunately. I put in to foster for a local group that was formed a couple years ago to transport rez dogs. The group was formed because a pack of rez dogs killed a child, so authorities were rounding up all of the stray dogs in horse trailers to "dispose of them." These groups came in and transported them away to rescues because the tribe doesn't have the resources to handle the animals. They've now began to adopt out some on their own. We'll see what happens. In the mean time, I have a litter due mid March I'm on a waiting list for from a working home, and an application in on a rescue pup (4hrs away) that looks like he'd be a good fit at 3 yrs old. He's half aussie, but I'll try not to hold it against him Also, I have a hard time trusting anything on Craigslist: "house-trained obedient 2 month old puppy needs new home" type of things are on there all the time lol.. but there are facebook groups and a website that I watch.

It's nice to see hear it's not wrong for me to want a puppy, thank you My last dog didn't fit all aspects of our life because of his personality, but danggit he still had fun and so did we.

I asked my vet for references too, and she said she doesn't know of any breeders and really doesn't see many BCs at all. Aussies are a dime a dozen though!

I asked my vet for references too, and she said she doesn't know of any breeders and really doesn't see many BCs at all. Aussies are a dime a dozen though!

South eastern South Dakota

So this is specifically a border collie rescue with the dogs in experienced border collie foster homes. I gave them a pretty full synopsis of what I was looking for, and I guess what I got in return was not to get my hopes up. Most of the BC's listed currently have issues like deafness, blindness, fear/aggression, etc. I get the impression that those dogs just aren't great at working stock are not the type that make it to their rescue. That's why I extended my search to general shelters throughout a 250 mile radius. I did just see a posting for a litter asking $200 for pups. Said pups sat in the pasture and played while mom rounded up some cattle. I haven't asked yet, but I'm fairly certain not a lot of time or energy was spent on planning these pups. I'm sure there was no health checking anything, but I suppose that could be said for shelter animals and rescues. Then I just circle back around to not knowing what to do! Perhaps my expectations are too high for what I can expect with what I'm able to provide for this breed.

She went to another family already, hopefully it goes well. I also wondered about hearing issues. I was going to see her and possibly suggest the BC rescue for her rather than the humane society if I didn't think I'd be able to work with her. I applied to foster for now because I can't make any decisions. I'll just keep my heart open until the right guy/gal is out there.