TracyR

I have had my border collie mix for 3 months. She is probably 1 1/2 years old. I took her to the vet to get checked out when I first got her and they told me that she needed to have her teeth cleaned. they would need to put her under and do some kind of deep cleaning or she is going to have sever detnal problems and it will probably shorter her life. has any heard of this? I never cleaned my last dogs teeth and she lived a healthy 16 years. I dont want to put her under unneccesarily.

I am glad to know my dog is not the only one. She is a spayed Female. And she has been around other dogs a lot. I got her from a rescue 2 weeks ago, and they had dogs and cats all over the place. She seems to have certain dogs she stays clear of, but she was swarmed by 3 great danes at the park the other day and didnt flinch...so I dont think she is scared. As dogs approach her they appear friendly then they growl when they get close, and only after they growl she growls back...maybe she has offessive breath? She makes a lot of eye contact, I thought maybe they didnt like that. She is just so incredibly different than my last dog that I am having trouble figuring her out.

I have found that more often than not when I am walking my dog and another dog comes over to snif, they growl at her. Dogs that are friendly to other dogs growl at my border collie. Anyone else experience this or have any thoughts on why this might be?

Thanks for all the feedback! I got her a kong and a chew bone and I started a training/playtime routine in the morning. She didnt do any damage yesterday so maybe we are on to something. I really have no concerns of someone in my neighborhood poisoning or stealing her. My neighbors to the west have 5 dogs that bark incessently and no one has poisoned them yet I will keep trying to come up with new toys for her. i like the idea of something in a bottle that she needs to work on to get out. That will keep her busy.

I can imagine it is hard to work in a Vets office at times but I hope you can see how you truely help both animals and people. I lost my Akita/Malumute mix 3 months ago after 15 1/2 years of companionship...it was very hard. We boarded her at the vets while we went away for our 10 year anniversary. She got tummy torsion that weekend. They couldnt keep her comfortable long enough for me to get home. I knew she couldnt live forever, but I always expected I would be there to comfort her in her final hours. I just wanted to be with her. Karen was the vet tech that called us. She actually came in on a Saturday night when she heard what had happend to Sami. We talked and cried with her throughout the night. Knowing she was with Sami (mydog) was an enormous comfort. She was so kind, and stayed with her till the end. She had known my Sami since she was 5 and they had an affection for each other. It will always bother me that I was not there with Sami, but knowing that she wasnt alone, that she wasnt just another old dog makes a huge diffenence in my ability to cope. As much as I have tried to express to Karen how wonderful she is, I dont think she will ever truely understand what a difference she made for my family and I.

We recently adopted a border collie mix. At least we think she is a mix, I dont really know. We were told she was given up because she was too mellow. That sounded perfect for us! We have fellen in love with her. She is so sweet and loving. She is very well behaved when we are with her but when we leave her alone in the yard, she digs and pulls plants out of their pots and bbq tools off the BBQ and who knows what she is up to today! I am assuming she is bored. I cant be with her all he time. I run with her at night and always set aside time to play but during the day, I have to go to wokr. Any suggstions on how to keep her busy? I really dont want to kennel her.

Why wouldnt you leave them outside? She seems so happy laying in the sun. She is not so happy going into her kennel. But I want to do what is best for her. My last dog was an Akita/Malamute mix, and I just couldnt see locking her up all day. She love patroling the yard and laying in the sun.

We recently adopted a border collie mix. At least we think she is a mix, I dont really know. We were told she was given up because she was too mellow. That sounded perfect for us! We have fellen in love with her. She is so sweet and loving. She is very well behaved when we are with her but when we leave her alone in the yard, she digs and pulls plants out of their pots and bbq tools off the BBQ and who knows what she is up to today! I am assuming she is bored. I cant be with her all he time. I run with her at night and always set aside time to play but during the day, I have to go to wokr. Any suggstions on how to keep her busy? I really dont want to kennel her.

We just adopted a 1 to 2 year old Border Collie Mix (we think she is a mix anyhow). She has been an absolute joy. I guess my question is, can anyone give me some basics on the Border Collies psyche? I have only owned one dog in my life. She passed away after 15 years last August (insert tear here). She was a malamute/akita mix so having adopted a border collie mix I am kind of at a loss on how to communicate. The 2 dogs are so different. So far our new dog, Tess (her name) is really well behaved, but I do want to work on a few things and i dont exactly know how to let her know when she has done something wrong. With my old dog we would use a loud deep voice, grab her by the scruff of her neck, shake her and say no. I just sense that will tramatize my litte Tess. She wants to get on the furniture and she wants to nip at my ankles when we play. Those are two things I would like to discourage, everythign else I think can be fixed with positive reforcement, like come when i call and stay when I say stay. Any words of wisdom to help us get off on the right foot would be great!