Brenna14

Oh I intend to neuter them. They actually don't have papers, which is OK with me since I never intended to use them for breeding. We want to wait until they're a little older just because it seems the verdict is still out on whether it can affect their growth, etc if you do it too early. Thanks!! And I do need to upload some new pics soon!

I guess I should also add - if anyone has any suggestions for raising a SINGLE puppy, that would be appreciated as well Thanks! Brenna

Hey everyone, I wanted to say HI. I recently found these boards and have been reading through the threads and thought I'd introduce myself. I recently brought two male BC puppies into my family and am absolutely smitten. I was always raised with herding dogs (my parents bred Bearded Collies) but have never raised a puppy 100% on my own. My boyfriend and I own a 3000sq ft house (they only have access to our family room on a regular basis though) on 1.5 acres and we crate them while we are at work and to sleep at night. We are gone most of the day for work, but my boyfriend's mother comes over to take them out for exercise and food/water mid-day. We had been looking for border collies for a while, then had a difficult experience with a rescue shelter (they wouldn't even call us back or be polite at ALL when we did get in touch with them ) with some aussie mix pups, then found our two little loves on a Mennonite farm in Northern PA. Both parents are working dogs herding sheep and were very friendly and gorgeous. Royce (B&W) and Enzo (tri-colored) were a day shy of 10 weeks when we took them home and they are a little over 12 weeks now. They are coming along nicely with housebreaking, although Enzo doesn't always hold it all night (we suspect him because Royce will pee forever when we first take them out in the morning, and Enzo just wants to eat grass and go inside for breakfast). They both understand "sit" and "crate" and I'm reading as much as I can and looking into puppy obedience training in our area. I guess I was hoping to hear about some positive experiences people have had raising two puppies at once (I'm really hoping some people have them!! ). Before deciding to get two, we had done research on raising puppies, but only AFTER we took both babies home, did I research raising TWO puppies (duh) and found only horror stories galore (and yes we had planned on getting two - I'm not sure how I had such a major oversight as I'm normally very detailed). Now, I'm not planning on giving up or giving one away like many of the testimonials say I should, so any positive experiences, or things that may not have/have not worked for you please. I'm so concerned I'm going to permanently damage the pups by not being a good enough "pack leader" or at training or keeping them occupied and busy enough. I'm also really concerned that since there's two of them, they won't bond as well to us humans, so I'm trying to make sure we play with them separately each night and take them out to go to the bathroom separately on a regular basis as well. Lots of trainers online say to just give up because they will have aggression problems, separation issues, and will never truly be trustworthy, but I guess I'm going to take a chance that I can make it work with a lot of hard work. We also plan to both go to obedience training with the puppies and probably take turns with them in the classes so they learn to work with both of us (and maybe have his mother come too so she can see the types of things the trainers are teaching US). It's possible we would even have them in separate classes so they don't get distracted by each other if that's an issue. I've also been looking into flyball and agility work to keep them busy so they have a "job" to do. Thanks - I hope to hear some great suggestions from people on these boards. Everyone seems to have such insight and knowledge about dogs that I only hope to have someday! I realize I'm up for a big challenge but I'm ready to do anything to make sure we have well-adjusted, happy dogs. Thanks everyone! Brenna