Madison's Mommy

My husband and I are expecting our first child in 10 weeks! I noticed that our border collie seems to have become very clingy to me lately. I always wonder, do you think she can tell I am pregnant? (maybe I smell different to her, or even just her own maternal instincts can tell)? I am confident she will be great with the new baby (so long as we introduce them correctly, continue to give Madison lots of attention, exercise, etc.). I am curious to hear about other's experiences with their border collie and new babies!

I would never own a Jack Russell. It is besides the point anyway because I will also never own anything but border collies!

Is it necessary to get vaccine boosters shots every year? Not just for Madison, but also my two cats? Or is this just my vet trying to make some money?

ANy recommendations for where to buy agility equipment? Someone told me ebay is great for that?

Her doctor's appointment is Nov. 10 at 9 a.m. Thanks to everyone on this board for giving me advice. Even though Madison is apparently not a working dog (and comes from a show breeding line), she still means the absolute world to us and she literally has saved my life. Our life has been HELL since February (for reasons I cannot go into), and getting her has been the best thing possible. She is our heart, our love, our life. I cannot even express enough in words how much we love her. All I want to do is what is best for Madision. Madison is the best.

Yes, Piper and FlyAway2Me, I think I have made up my mind. For Madison's health and the health of any future puppies, I am going to make an appointment tomorrow to have her neutered as soon as possible. I have already told my parents (who were hoping for one of Madison's puppies) to go to the rescue farm up north of Binghamton, NY and to rescue a BC. Madison is still the best dog in the world (sorry Piper), and that is why I want her to live a long healthy life.

Will do... just go easy on us!

Madison is simply the best dog in the whole world. It's true!

One more thing. I know Madison is young, and that it would be years before we breed her. I do not know at this point if she is a good working dog. However, I am planning on getting her involved in agility training and whatever else I can do so that she does get a chance to "work" to the extent possible. If she is terrible at it, that would influence our decision. But what if she is great at it? We just don't know yet. Yes we are new border collie owners but we take it very seriously, and we were aware of the special qualities of BCs before we got Maddy. As an example, our golf course has four or five working BCs, who keep the geese away. They are great dogs and we love them and are very close to them all. Our good friends also have a BC (Astro). I do think Madison is special because she is extremely alert, extremely smart, and very athletic. She is a great runner and swimmer, and is very aware of everything going on around her at all times. We do not yet know how she is as a working dog, but we intend to find out (and I suspect that she will be very good). The reason I am asking questions at this early stage is because if we decide not to breed her (mainly for health reasons) we would want to have her neutered as soon as possible. So in some ways, we have to make an initial decision now. But you can't assume that she is not suitable for breeding merely because we do not live on a farm.

Philologus, She is blue and white and has long hair, but she is not a merle. She has blue eyes. The stud is black and white. We are still undecided, but we are considering everyone's advice. Btw, we do not own an SUV so we can't hop in it and drive upstate. I think Jason's point was simply that on LI, people that own border collies generally do not live on big farms, and border collie owners on this board have to understand that- it is frankly a little annoying that those that are lucky enough to have places for their dog to work somehow look down on us because we do not, and seem to consider us second class citizens (in the world of border collie owners). Last time I checked, buying acreage on Long Island of any type would cost millions. We have actually considered moving elsewhere (namely Prince Edward Island) for the sole reason of being able to afford acreage. We look out for our dog and other animals (we have rescued two stray kittens from our neighborhood)and give them a great life, and I believe we are not less qualified to be a proper owner of a border collie even if we do not own sheep. Btw, thanks to someone on this board, we have found a herd of sheep on LI and we are planning to introduce Madison to them. If we do decide to breed Madision with Astro, we would certainly do our homework on both of their lines, health, etc. and only breed if it would better the line. The puppies would go to my parents, us, Astro's owner, and, if possible, our siblings, therefore we would be involved in their care and upbringing and we could ensure that they are all spayed/neutered, so it would not result in 67,000 dogs. Also, I used the phrase "that time of the month" lightly (obviously I know they do not menstruate on a monthly cycle as humans do). I just thought that was a polite way of addressing the topic.

Thanks everyone, for the advice. I will definitely consider it. First and foremost, I would never do anything that could endanger Madison as we love her as if she were our own daughter (weird, I know, but most dog owners seem to understand). However, I do believe that Madison is really a special border collie- physically, she appears to easily meet all the breed standards (except she has blue eyes, she is blue and gray). Her parents are both prize-winning border collies as are her grandparents. She seems exceptionally smart and sweet-tempered, and I am going to try to find a place for her to try herding. The male we had picked out is also a great dog, and his line is also known to his owners. We would only breed her once, and do it in an educated manner with the best health care available. We would have her eyes, hips, etc. tested before hand. We would only give the puppies away (not sell them) to family members who understand the nature of border collies. Also we would likely keep one and so would the sire's family. Also, the people that would take her pups would most likely not go out and adopt a dog on their own. So if Madison did not have pups, they probably would not have any dog. I do not think that breeding her once would in any way endanger the special qualities of the border collies breed. However, we will do whatever is in the best interests of Madison. Now that she appears to be in the midst of her first heat, is it too late to alleviate the risks of cancer if we neutered her now?

Thank you to everyone for your advice. We certainly have alot of thinking to do. You have to understand that we LOVE Madison so much that it is scary. We know her whole line and the stud that we were planning to use also comes from a great line. But there is obviously alot more to it than that (not to mention that I would die if anything happened to her in whelping). Anyway, Solo- I would love to have your trainer's e-mail address and maybe to meet up at one of those shows. I really would like to know another border collie owner in person, because we honestly want to do everything as best as possible for our dog, because she brings us so much joy.

Madison's Father again: First, sorry, but the above is condescending in my book and is the reason for our spirited responses, in contrast to the above, what should have been said was what Mr. Snappy said, which is pointed, informative, and impassioned. Second, thank you to all for the later posts, they have been very informative and we now know some of what we were asking about to begin with. Third, from a genuine health and safety concern, it is overbreading among humans that all on this board should be most concerned with. Fourth, nobody answered my question about keeping BCs as pets, is it the informed position of this board that the only good BC is a farm working BC?