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I have an 11 month old BC puppy, who I re-homed from another family when she was 6 months old. She spent most of her first 6 months on farm properties and I feel like she had never really experienced all of the sights and sounds of a suburban area until she moved in with us. As a result, she was very reactive to strangers and other dogs at first (lunging and barking). We have taken her to obedience classes and we have been doing a lot of training with her. She is no longer reactive to strangers during the daytime and she is slowly getting more comfortable passing other dogs (we are slowly closing in the space between us and them and rewarding her with lots of treats in the process). However, we live in a country that only gets a few hours of daylight during the winter months. I've noticed that she seems a little skittish in the dark and tends to be reactive to passers by. Our trainer told us it's not unusual for dogs of her age to go through a fear phase, with darkness being a common fear. I take her for her evening walk a little later when I know there will be less people around. Tonight, we were walking down a short and narrow, snowy footpath (a route that we take most evenings). All of a sudden a woman came out of her house and was following us down the path. My pup stopped and turned around and I could tell by her body language that she was nervous. Then, out of nowhere a guy appeared at the bottom of the footpath and started to walk up towards us. She panicked and was running in circles on her leash and I fell over backwards on the ice. I managed to regain my balance and hold on to her. She had dropped to the ground which is generally what she does before she starts barking and lunging at a person. I was trying to get her attention with treats, but the space between her and the guy was just too close for her. I thought he would see me struggling and give us a little space, but instead he walked right towards us, and of course, she jumped up and started barking / lunging. I explained to him that she was very nervous, but he totally ignored me. He continued to try and get past us and I couldn't move at all because she was pulling so hard and the ground was so slippery. In future, do you think it would be a good idea for me to ask people to stop and give us some space to pass to avoid getting caught in a situation like this? I usually avoid narrow paths and stick to the wider roads while we're in training, but this one is so short and we've been walking down it every night for weeks without any events. Do you have any advice on how to better handle these situations in future?

Hello everyone, We have a bit of a beginner question. Hope you guys have some useful insights! We adopted a lovely border collie puppy two weeks ago. We've been planning this for ages and she's from a very reputable breeder. She is from two parents active in sports, with calm temperaments at home. Both of the parents are great dogs. Let me start off by saying this: our little lady is lovely as well! We fell in love with her. she is very affectionate. After 10 days she was pretty much potty trained, she loves her crate, sleeps all night and responds so well to training. All in all, the perfect little border collie. However, we are already experiencing some hyper behaviour. She turns into a little landshark sometimes, bites her leash like a maniac when we go out, goes ballistic in the garden and in the house by running around and into things, to the point where she's panting and gets the 'crazy eye'. I honestly don't think it's because she's overstimulated, but just to be sure, this is what we do with her: We go out with her about three times a day, for about 10 to 20 minutes, around the neighbourhood, trying to get her socialised to everything. She gets unstructured playtime for an hour or two a day, she gets kongs and chew toys, and she gets clicker training twice a day for about 10 minutes. The rest of the time she sleeps. I've started taking 5 minutes at the end of every walk sitting down with her and rewarding when she simply sits and calmly observes things. Same thing in the house. This is not easy for her though. We understand that hyperness can be a trait of the breed, but if there's anything we can do about it now, it will of course be better than later. We live in a crowded neighbourhood, (also with lots of parks and green and room to roam), so she needs to be able to settle when we want her to. We don't want her to turn into a cardio machine, so I don't want to completely tire her out physically, especially not at this tender age, so the walks can't be any longer just yet? Any tips? Is this normal baby behaviour? Are we overanalysing? Any feedback is greatly appreciated! All the best, Two new parents

Hi I need some advice regarding my 6.5 month old collie please. He's been doing so well and I can walk with him off lead almost anywhere, he is very responsive so I can't fault him there. The issue I have is when we meet with my friends dogs (two collies too) and my dog is OBSESSED with the younger of them (they are all males btw), if we are throwing a ball for them he will only chase and copy the other dog, circling/ herding him and nothing can break his focus. I've tried all sorts...running around manic to get his attention, having his favourite toys, favourite treats, loud noises etc. NOTHING will break his focus and he just will state at this dog and constantly run just behind him (or weave Infront). Any advice how to prevent this, and what he's doing? I'm assuming herding but it's only with this dog, and the other dog ignores him but starts growling after a while. It's annoying for me as I can only get him to follow me to leave with his lead on and he pulls against me to break off, then when the other dog is out of sight...he goes back to bring good as gold! Thanks

Hi, was hoping to get some feedback with any info anyone may have on this breeder I am looking at called Buck Branch Border Collies. This is my first BC and I'm really doing my homework here but my reach into the community pretty much stops at the internet. I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of them before or if one of you seasoned pro's could take a look at their website and let me know what you think. They sound great to me, and I'm able to check off all the boxes of what to be looking for from a reputable breeder. Just figured it couldn't hurt to ask for some guidance or info. Thanks

Hi All, I've just been away and my 6 y.o. BC was under the care of my father and grandparents. They made her incredibly overweight which i became aware of and asked them to change her diet repeatedly (they are very experienced BC owners so i don't know what happened). Eventually she became injured and my grandmother took her to the vet who said it was most likely a ruptured or torn ligament in her back right leg. I have just gotten home and so have not been able to take her to the vet myself to find out if it is ruptured or torn, as they would have to put her under general anaesthetic and then go on to surgery under the same anaesthetic if it turned out to be ruptured. The problem is that i haven't been able to find a vet who will perform the surgery in rural Australia for under $6000 which i can't afford right now, as any dog over 15kg is considered a big dog so they charge $6000 instead of $1500. We have gotten her weight down to 19kg so far (her usual healthy weight is 15-18kg) and she has been on house arrest for the past few weeks while taking joint medication and having an hour of massaging every day. I'm lost as to what to do- my preference would be to monitor and let it heal at home but that is obviously not possible if the joint is ruptured and not just torn. Any advice/opinions?

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum! And new to getting a border collie. I'm on the list for a pup in 4 months, from a very reputable breeder. I'm so excited, but I've also been doubting a lot about my choice and I would love to get some input from experienced border collie owners. It would mean a lot! For years , it's clear to me that I will get a dog. My family always had Border Collies and I love, love, love the energy of these dogs. The problem is: I live right in the center of Amsterdam (Netherlands), and I'm in doubt if this is the right environment to make my dog happy. I have a home with a (small) garden. I live near a large dog friendly park. I have my own company and can schedule my time the way I want it. He can come along to the office if I have a long day, which is also next to a huge dog friendly park. I don't live alone: my boyfriend desperately wants a dog as well, and so the dog wouldn't have to go to the office every day. I have a dog school around the corner that offers puppy courses, agility, obedience and frisbee classes. Amsterdam is a very crowded city, but it still has the feel of a village, with small streets, low buildings and lots of green. But it's packed here, and there are lots of cars, and more bikes than there are people. So Im afraid of intense herding instinct, which could lead to him getting hurt. And like any city: it can be noisy and hectic at times. My dog should be able to handle this. He should be relaxed walking around. It should be possible to sometimes have him be alone at home, for a 3 or 4 hours. He should be calm when people walk by the house. The forums are full of stories about border collies becoming nervous wrecks when there are sounds/noises. Long story short: I don't want my greatest wish to turn into my greatest nightmare.. What do you guys think? I appreciate any advice. Thanks in advance! M.

Thinking about getting another BC after the loss of my heart dog in November. Looked at shelters, rescues, and a few "breeders". I ran across a few names that may be reputable breeders. I am thinking about just getting a puppy. I would consider a shelter or rescue dog but that just seem to go very fast. I wanted to mention a few of the people that I have talked to that are breeders but don't know if you are supposed to on this forum?? Thanks

Hi everyone, This is our first post on here, we are from the UK and we are hoping someone may be able to shed some light on what our lovely young BC might have - sorry in advance as it might be a bit of a long story! We have a very sweet BC who is 1year 4months old. Last year around October time we noticed that she had a small lump on her neck which we monitored for a while and when we were next at the vets we mentioned it to them as we felt it had gotten a little bigger. They weren't concerned and asked us to continue monitoring it. We did this and after a little while decided that we should go back to the vets for them to check it out again, this time they shaved a patch of fur off where the lump were and it revealed a cluster of lumps which covered a bigger area than what we could feel. Our vets still weren't concerned but did say if we wanted to we could do a biopsy which she would have to be sedated for but they didn't really feel this was necessary and so we left again. These lumps have never bothered our BC - only when the fur above it was shaven and irritated the skin a bit, otherwise she was never been scratching them or in any pain from it at all. We decided we wanted to get a second opinion so we went to another vet who also wasn't concerned by the lumps but did give us a course of antibiotics to try and rule out any possible infections and also did say that a biopsy might still be necessary. The antibiotics didn't seem to change the lumps, although with her fur grown back its hard to tell and we'd rather not shave her again as then it does irritate the skin. We have also since tried a recommend homeopathy cream, which after using for a week or so we thought we started to feel the size of the cluster of lumps decrease however we couldn't be 100% sure of that without shaving her. After another week - 2 weeks of applying this cream no further improvements have happened. It looks like we might have to go down the biopsy route but before we do that and make her go through anything unnecessarily we wanted to reach out in as many places to see if anyone anywhere has ever had anything like this before and may be able to give any possibilities as to what it might be and we thought this forum was a good place to start! We have attached a picture of the lumps from when the fur was shaven, it looks red in the picture but this is only because of how the skin was irritated by it been shaven. We appricate any help anyone may be able to give us! Thank you

Laddie (my border collie) is 2-3 years old and is very energetic. She is friendly and has a big heart, but we have been facing a few problems on our hour-long walks lately and I just wanted some advice on how to lower her aggression levels and how to over-all create a better atmosphere for the walk. I try to take her out as much as I can. It is mostly everyday, but sometimes it is eroded to every other day. I do not have time to take her out in the mornings. That is absolute. I have tried the treadmill, but Laddie did not seem pleased with the idea, so that was scratched. I am usually out of the house for most of the day, and I get back at around 4:00. I immediately take Laddie, out, and for about 10-15 minutes I ride my bike around my large yard, with her following and running along beside. I do this so that on the walk she is tired and spent of any energy, but that does not work. Still, I start off with that, then when she seems tired I hook on her leash and doggy backpack filled with weighted knickknacks. We start our hour-long walk, but when we start getting into a rhythm Laddie plows ahead of me. I reign her back and keep the leash about a foot long so that she stays beside me (I have had blisters from this part because the leash is so taut it slices my fingers). It's hard to hold her back, and I try to keep my energy calm-assertive, but she seems oblivious to my inner struggle for control. Apart from pulling, Laddie is aggressive with other dogs on-leash. Off-leash she is okay, not overly friendly but not aggressive. When we are on our walk, however, she goes into attack mode. When a dog comes into view, I tug her to the other side of the road, so they are not walking towards eachother. But Laddie has her gaze set on the other dogs, and her hackles and shoulder-fur start to rise. Nervous at this point, I try and snap her out of whatever trance she is in- gently nudge her, click my tongue, call her name, clap my fingers, poke her ear, touch her hackles, whatever I can think of. I have even held a treat out in front of her, but usually she just ignores it and stares at the other dog, her muzzle going crinkly as she bares her teeth. Then when the other owner and dog are close enough, she goes into a flurry of barking and lunging and growling. She tugs so hard on the leash that when I pull her back, it makes her stand on her two back legs. At this point, I am thoroughly embarrassed and try and walk her forward, but she refuses to budge as she portrays aggressive behavior toward the other dog (One time, she was so excited that she accidentally tripped me). When the owner and dog walk quickly away, I am thoroughly irritated and hurry to finish the walk, and this whole process repeats over again. Advice on how to correct this aggressive behavior would be appreciated. Thank you!

Hi! I am new to the forum. I am Pamela and I have 2 dogs. One is an Aussie mix who is 2 1/2 years old. The other is a 3 yr old BC that I rescued a month ago. Her former owner didn't want her anymore . I am working on teaching her commands. She knows down, sit and stay. I am trying to teach her "left" currently and then "right." She is having a lot of trouble understanding commands. I don't remember my Aussie having this much trouble getting them. I have tried luring her with food into the left spin and clicker training. I show her over and over and then ask her to do it. She just sits and looks at me or noses me in the face. Any advice on how to train her? She is motivated by food and affection, but doesn't even know what a toy is. Thanks!!