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MrSnappy

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  1. I don't really visit these boards much anymore (perhaps some old timers will remember me) but this thread is driving me crazy. I raised and lived with border collies in apartments and condos, including highrises, in dense urban areas, for most of my adult life. Fostered countless rescue border collies. Raised several rescue litters in said apartments. All of them were fine, well adjusted dogs. I live on a farm *now* but my border collies I've raised on the farm are no better and no less well adjusted dogs than the ones that were raised downtown in apartments. I've still got one of them left; she's nearly 15 and still truckin'. They grew up walking city streets and playing in dogs parks, and they were all FINE. They had lots of border collie and type dog friends who lived in the same environment they did. They were all fine too. And I did it all while working full time. I've said it many times before, and I'll say it again now; in 19 years of rescuing border collies, I've never received a single dog from someone in apartment who said "this dog just can't handle the city living." They all came from suburban or rural homes. And there have been over 1,000 of them. Once, many years ago, whilst running a border collie rescue, I got turned down for adoption by another border collie rescue that simply could not conceive of a border collie living in an urban apartment. Go ahead and get a border collie if you want one. Just don't expect it to use the toilet. Doesn't matter how smart they are, that's just unrealistic.
  2. The border collie rescue in her area doesn't have any dogs for adoption. We rarely get dogs in rescue nowadays. We refer people to the CBCA website to make contact with breeders who might have puppies available.
  3. She could be a BC. She could also be a German Koolie. She looks more like a Koolie than a BC, to me.
  4. I've worked in the shelter system/animal control for years. The green ink and the black ink both fade and blur, as do the stamp type of tattoos. RDM
  5. Here in BC, it is extremely common for dogs and cats to be tattooed when they are neutered. The tattoo is in the ear, and is a combination of clinic code, year and animal number. It can be easily traced back to the clinic by looking on the CVBC website and contacting the clinic to get the owner's contact information. The problem with tattoos is that they fade and become difficult to read - depending on the skill of the tattooist and the chemistry of the animal. And the problem with any ID (tattoo or microchip) is the owner keeping their contact information up to date, which so many fail to do. Almost all shelters and rescues here both tattoo and chip. All of my dogs have one or the other or both. I wish that some sort of tattoo was a requirement to indicate a neutered animal; working in animal control, we opened up a lot of pets needlessly, as they were already altered but we had no way of knowing that. I had a dog from the US and the rescue tattooed their symbol on his inner him to indicate he was neutered, also presumably to identify him as one of their rescues. RDM
  6. After 6 years in Animal Control, 4 of them in a city with a considerable problem with loose DANGEROUS dogs, I will echo the sentiment to call Animal Control and have them come and deal with the problem, and not depend on your boot. Your boot will only solve your problem immediately (if in fact it does that) but Animal Control can solve it in the long term/permanently, as well as making sure it's not a problem for other people too, like the elderly who can't take a boot to the dog, or a child, whose face is closer to the dog than its boot is. The other thing to consider is that a boot to the dog could easily earn you a fist to the face from an irate owner, because oft times the nasty dog is owned by a nastier human. I'm not saying that you shouldn't resort to a boot or a big stick if you or yours are threatened (I myself carry a walking stick, just in case), but if you call Animal Control they can impose restrictions, fines and impound the dog (more fees, more inconvenience) which tends to have an impression on the owner. And even if they don't show up right away and the dog and owner make a quick getaway, if this is happening in a subdivision *somebody* will know the dog/owner and they can be tracked down. I don't know about where you are, but here the police do not enforce city bylaws and can't do anything unless the dog has harmed a person or animal - and then all they can really do is detain the dog and human until Animal Control arrives. So call AC. RDM
  7. Our kill list includes: rabbits (multiple oh so many rabbits), squirrels, rats, voles, birds (especially apparently delicious baby birds), fish, crabs and moles (although we do not eat moles, as they are allegedly disgusting, so we spit them out) and two chicken-killing weasels. Oh and once Wootie consumed a dead snake. Surprisingly, most of the kills are the Aussies, not the terriers, though the terriers did kill the weasels. They receive Drontal on a regular basis. I usually let them eat whatever they find, though the rats in particular gross me out.
  8. I'm glad to hear you caught it early. This is the cancer I lost my beloved Tweed to shortly after he turned 15 years old. Unfortunately, we did not catch it early as it did not expand outward, but inward, and by the time it was detectable, he could no longer defecate easily, and given his advanced age surgery was not an option. Even more unfortunately, it had been identified by an ultrasound a year earlier, but was misdiagnosed as a "fatty mass." None of my dogs acted strangely about his rear end, but then again, nodog in my house would have dared to snuffle Mr. Tweedles behind as it was a big no-no in his social rules to live by ;-) RDM
  9. My bestest dog Tweed was a border collie / Aussie mix. He died in June at the age of 15 and I miss him terribly. He drove me crazy when he was younger because he was more independent and I had to work harder to get his respect than I did my border collies, but I would have another him again in a heartbeat. Less. he had all the border collie intuitiveness, but none of the weirdness/obsessive stuff that you sometimes see in the breed. He was a very level headed dog, if a bit of a goof when he felt in the mood. Having said that, I have met many of that mix that I *don't* like - in general, I am not a fan of Aussies. They bark too much and are too quick to bite when afraid. I was at an agility trial recently where an Aussie attacked the judge, completely out of the blue, and it was pretty aggressive - scary to watch. I've met some nice crosses (and some nice Aussies too!) but I don't know that I'd get another myself, because they wouldn't ever be as awesome as Tweed. RDM
  10. My blue and white italian greyhound is not quite three years old, and her face is very grey (her teeth are also already shot to shit). My orange and white Aussie X is not *greying* so much as he is turning whiter and whiter. I imagine in a darker dog it would appear as greying, but in him it looks like his orange is both fading and shrinking at the same time. His tri coloured biological brother is not greying at all. They are just about 10 years old. Tweed, a red and white, who died a month after he turned 15, never greyed or faded at all. He still looked like a 5 year old dog. Piper, who is 13, is not greying all that much. Dexter, who just turned six, is a tri but his tri bits are brindle. His eyebrows have gone completely Einstein and look giant, bushy and white! We have a sheltie at work that is a cryptic merle. She is otherwise a black tri, but has a very small patch of merling on her head, otherwise there is none to be seen. In Aussies, the cryptic merle is sometimes located on the tail and since those often get lopped off shortly after birth, often nobody knows the dog is genetically a merle, which can lead to sad things when breeding the dog to another merle. RDM
  11. Huh, I thought you were talking about my foster for a minute. He's 18 weeks and was 30 lbs when I picked him up last Thursday, but I am feeding him more appropriately and he has lost about 5 lbs of puppy chub. But he's gonna be a big 'un - huge head, giant feet RDM
  12. As someone who has been renting for 25 years in the Vancouver area, I would argue that if you look hard enough, you can find places to rent with a dog. I rent and I have 8 of them. My landlord lives on the same property and is cool with it. Previously I lived in downtown Vancouver with 4 of them. I moved many times with my dogs and always found something. Before you rent any home, and no matter with whom, you should have a written agreement stipulating the allowance of your pet and the residential tenancy board will uphold that agreement in the event of an arbitration. RDM
  13. I have endless coyote problems. I had one local coyote who was no trouble for several years - she'd snatch the odd chicken if if wandered out of the coop, but was otherwise harmless. She was killed by a car. In moved a larger, and much more assertive coyote, who not only cleaned out my entire coop over several weeks (broke the door and the perches getting them out) but also tried to steal my Italian Greyhound. He only got a mouthful of coat (it was winter time, and my little dogs wear clothes, so sue me) and I was not 20 feet away. One my Aussies pile-drived him like a wrestler, knocking him off the IG, and then both Aussies ran him off. He came back two days later and made another attempt (to be clear, my dogs are NEVER outside without me - so I was again about 20 feet away) at the IG, but I think he was faking it to get the dogs after him, because the Aussies and terriers took off after him and he got one of my terriers. I couldn't see what was happening as they were in the scrub and it was dark, but I could hear her screaming and it was the worst sound. He put several large punctures in her throat, but she must have fought back like the devil because while her punctures were not bleeding, her feet and legs were covered in blood, so I can only assume she got him good. This one also got hit by a car (I work for Animal Control in my town, and I recognized him when the ACO brought in the remains. And I did a little happy dance) about a month later. I've never been happier in my life. I had some of the local hunters out trying to shoot him, and I would have been equally as happy if he met his end that way too. Whoever the local coyote is now, it steers mainly clear of my property. I almost never find coyote poop anymore, and my chickens have gone unmolested. Although it did eat two of my ducks when they got out of their enclosure a few weeks ago. I am not fenced, and my landlord is not keen on an LGD anyway. But if another aggressive coyote moves in, I won't hesitate to shoot it or have someone shoot it for me. And I'll keep shooting them if i have to. I have had problems with weasels twice, and both times they were killed by my terriers. doG bless a terrier! My "good" coyote story is from when I lived downtown many years ago. I lived near Stanley park (it's huge, go ahead and google it) and I was playing fetch with a Kong on a rope with my dog in the park with a juvenile coyote shot out of the shrubbery and stole my Kong. She ran around with it for a few minutes, and then dropped it about 5 feet in front of me. She then took turns fetching with my dog. Briggs was very dog aggressive, but interestingly never seemed offended by the coyote. She joined us for after work fetch for about 3 days in a row, but on the third day starting following us home up the street, so I had to throw a couple of rocks at her. She took off, and we never saw her again. I wish I'd had a digital camera back then! RDM
  14. There's a group on facebook called Dog Sport Vehicle ideas & set-ups that has some useful information about all these crates. I'm waiting until I win the lottery, because 6-8 of ANY of these crates is way out of my budget. Mine travel in Varikennels because that's what I have. RDM
  15. waug15 (1 of 1)-14 by The Food Lady, on Flickr wsept15 (1 of 1)-4 by The Food Lady, on Flickr wsept15 (1 of 1)-17 by The Food Lady, on Flickr FERGUS, 9 months old, herding blend (border collie, australian shepherd and australian cattle dog), neutered male. FERGUS is a high energy adolescent who is looking for a human companion who can keep up with him and engage his body and his brain. He is a busy guy who likes new challenges and learns quickly. He lacks the intensity of many border collies and has a little more "bounce" in him, but he is still drivey and energetic. He would appeal more to an Australian Shepherd fan than a border collie one, we feel. Fergus was sadly given up when his owner had to leave the country quite suddenly. Fergus is generally a well behaved dog, but he does have some issues with impulse control and needs ongoing work on learning when to respond to something and when to check his impulses. He is mainly a social dog, but can be guardy / protective of his home and property and needs to learn to let his human take care of visitors, and not take matters into his own paws. Out and about he is friendly with most people, but from time to time will take exception to a random stranger - there does not appear to be any pattern to his dislikes (both men and women have been targets), and many of those strangers have since become his friends, but his handler should practice management in social situations. Fergus is a "react first, think about consequences later" kind of dog (again, impulse control) and his bark and lunge can be scary for other people. He needs to learn to let his human take the lead and to retreat when something worries him. Fergus has learned some important skills, like waiting politely at the door for his turn to go out, and to look to his human for guidance. He is getting better all the time, and will continue to improve with patience, and consistency. Fergus is NOT good with children. His foster home is working on teaching Fergus to ignore children and seeing success, but on the whole he is not trustworthy with children or teenagers. ******He is absolutely not available to a home with children, no exceptions will be made.******** His new home will have to be aware on an ongoing basis of his antipathy to kids, and always be prepared to intervene or remove Fergus from the situation. As Fergus has encountered many children whilst in his foster home, he has learned to mainly leave them alone and ignore them, so provided a child does not approach him quickly, he is content to live and let live. Fergus is good with most other dogs; like many herding dogs, he can be snarky at initial greeting but when given space and the opportunity to be friendly in his own time, he is very dog social. He lives with several other dogs currently and gets on well with them. He is learning to take turns at fetch time and and not try to get every ball thrown. He plays a bit rough with the small dogs, but backs off when they tell him he's being too hard on them. He is a crash-bang kind of player though, and would frustrate a more sensitive dog. He was initially quite bad with the cats in his foster home but has learned to leave them alone and could live with a confident cat. He will chase the ducks and chickens from time to time, but is easily distracted from that naughtiness, and prefers to play fetch. He will leave the horses alone entirely. His favourite canine playmate is a 100lb mastiff mix, and they have a grand time together. Fergus is not a good dog for a first time border collie owner. He is best suited to someone familiar with the breed and who has the confidence to give him good direction, as Fergus is the type of dog who will step in if he thinks he can do a better job than his handler. He would benefit from a positive reinforcement trainer, but not a permissive one because a well timed and fair correction goes a long way with these smartiepants. Fergus is crate trained at night, but is loud and fussy about being crated in the day; his foster home is working on that. He is trustworthy left loose in the house for several hours provided he has been physically exercised beforehand, otherwise he may get bored and get into trouble. He can be a fussy eater. He is housebroken and will let you know when he needs to go outside; if you ignore his request though, he will pee in the house. Fergus likes the sound of his own voice and can be a nuisance barker - he learned along the way that this gets him attention. In foster care, he is learning that it gets him negative attention, like social isolation, and is starting to self correct when he starts barking. Smart guy! Fergus likes routine and has quickly learned that outside time is for playing, inside is for quiet time. He is a good housedog when he has been exercised sufficiently, and enjoys cuddling on the sofa to watch a movie with his human. He would benefit from more brain exercise as he has received extensive physical exercise to the point that it is not always sufficient to calm him down as he is quite an athlete. He would make a nice agility dog as he is long, lean and athletic, and can clear a 5 foot fence with ease from a standstill. If you are interested in adopting Fergus, and feel you have the skills and experience to manage him and help shore up his "weak" points, please _email us_ at bcrescue@shaw.ca. Fergus is neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and ready for a forever, committed home that can give him everything he needs.
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