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Hello everyone :~) My wife and I got a new border collie puppy called Nala a week and a half ago (pic below!) and have found lots of really amazing help on this forum - thank you all for asking and answering questions, it's been amazing to see that other people are experiencing similar challenges haha! We do have some of our own little questions, mostly I guess related to what our expectations can be of a puppy that's 9 weeks old. Any words of advice and help are massively appreciated. In the last few days we've started understanding Nala's needs more accurately and we're definitely much better at telling when she needs to rest, when she needs to go potty etc. After seeing advice in another thread we've started developing a rhythm to her day too (wake up -> potty + sniffies outside -> breakfast inside, calming down -> morning is for resting etc. - very much inspired by this thread), which has been amazing. She feels much more settled and happy with us, even after just a few days of doing this. The first question we have for you all is related to her crate and sleeping. At this point basically all of her resting is enforced in a covered crate; without it, she just won't settle at all (too much FOMO if she can see us, even if we're both just working on our computers). Is this normal for her age? Do we just need to keep this rhythm up for a few weeks and will she pick up on it and instinctively rest at these times when she gets a little bit bigger? Question number two is related to her crate placement. Is it ideal to place the crate inside the x-pen and enforce closed crate time only when she can't deal with being in the x-pen alone? She's really quite jumpy and loud if left alone in her x-pen but settles quite quickly inside her covered crate, so we've removed the x-pen from the equation altogether, but we're reconsidering - we don't really like the idea that she's either in a covered crate or free to move around the whole flat and the x-pen is a natural solution, we just don't know where to best place it. (Side note: we're doing lots of crate training and she eats two of her meals in there every day too, so she's getting lots of positive vibes in that space, even though it's still not a place she'll go to hang out on her own - maybe we need to do something similar for the x-pen?) And our last question - how do we combine potty training and x-pen/crate time at this age? We live in an apartment so we have some puppy pads that she's gotten quite good at using (there are some slip-ups of course), but we also try to take her out around 5-10mins after most naps/meals/play sessions and reward any outside peeing with nice treats. Is that just a question of her learning to hold it in for a little longer as she grows up and not something we need to worry about combining/being worried if an accident happens when she's in her x-pen? Sorry if these are super niche questions or things that are obvious to some of you - we're still very much figuring it out :~) Thanks in advance for any help! Adam & Adela (& Nala)

Okay, so, I have a female BC puppy who is 26 weeks old, and she weighs ~31 pounds. With that being said, she is a tad overweight due to a smoke problem where I live and she couldn’t go outside and exercise for about 2 weeks. She also suddenly hit a growth spurt and is very tall! We got her at 10 weeks and she was an estimated ~10 pounds. Her mom (working lines) is VERY tall, but thin so I’d have to ask how much she weighs. Her dad (show lines) is on the smaller side, and average BC weight for a show male (Id have to ask for specifics) Everyone told me that she is was on the small side when we got her, but could this just be her big growth spurt? (yes she does need to lose a pound or two, but she’s not obese) Thank you

I have had my female border collie since she was 6 weeks old. As far as training goes, she does very well learning tricks and we work on them in short spirts multiple times a day. She knows how to shake, lay down, kiss, and sit. Getting her to listen to me during this is very easy. Although in other situations as to come or stopping her bad behavior. she listens to no one. She jumps up on the stove frequently and now that has resulted in a small paw burn. When she does something bad and we scold her, it is almost like she thinks it is a game and keeps doing it. I am afraid that this is going to result in her getting hurt by doing something stupid or just eating something she isnt supposed to. I am just unsure of how to get her to listen.

This is my first post on this forum. Great website! We are very excited to be getting our first border collie pup in a couple of weeks (she's about five weeks old now) but my research has thrown up conflicting advice on what to do. As I child we had kelpies and, if I remember correctly, they spent their first nights in the laundry before sleeping in or outside when they were older. I see a lot about crating pups, but not really sure what this means in terms of how long you crate them and to what age. To be honest, I don't really like the thought of her being stuck in a box. Other people have suggested the pup goes straight outside to her (open) kennel at night so she gets used to it. She sleeps outside in a big open kennel with a chicken wire pen around it at the farm she lives at now so she's used to that, but she's with her brothers and sisters. The kennel my husband built it actually probably a bit big for how she will be as a fully-grown dog so it may dwarf her! If anyone can shed some light on the pros and cons of both and how they personally dealt with their new puppy it would be greatly appreciated. I am also interesting to hear what people think about leaving her outside when we go to work. Bad idea? Good idea if she has a pen around her kennel for now like her farm environment? Or allow her to roam freely in the garden to get some stimulation and exercise, and start to feel at home. Is there anything I should know that might maake border collies more difficult to deal with than kelpies in terms of their development and level of maintenance? Any advice you have would be most appreciated!