Border Collies... who has one?

She only barks at Neocons, but she's pretty quiet because they only co me here by mistake.

Nervous yes, and she does bark, but not at much as the damn chihuahuas.

 

A friend of mine has one of those Yorkie's, it's my understanding they're very similar to Chihuahuas personality wise.......I hate his dog, it's so damned annoying I think it'd be a flaming Buffalo Liberal if it were human.

I've always liked JRT's though, I think that's the one dog my wife and I agree on and my kids are craving a dog in the worse way. Hmmmm.

 

Having owned a couple back in my early years I can pretty well assure you that watching a border collie mess with your chickens (if they're roaming the yard) will be a hoot. The dog's natural herding instinct will amaze you. If not trained to herd, the dogs will just keep chickens, sheep, and some other small animals in a group. I guess they do it in the quest for POWER.
Like others have already stated, they're smart as hell and can be destructive if not trained and given a lot of attention. I used to catch a view of one of my dogs and wonder what the hell the little fucker was up to because it looked like he was sneaking up on something all the time.

 

This is my dog's most salient characteristic; he really loves to heard children under five years of age.

 

I have a border collie mixed with a black lab. She is lazy but very smart. She cant catch anything, You could throw a hamburger at her and it would bounce off her nose. SHe is the best behaved dog i have had. Great with kids and other animals.
When we first got her we also got chickens. She would run around playing with them. One day I found a dead one and the dog walking around with her head down. She never messed with them after that. She knew what she did.

 

Even a good JRT can be nippy, so I don't recommend them for households with small children. Kids need to be old enough to understand and respect that a dog needs its space.

 

Based on the reviews you guys gave me, I decided against a border collie. Mainly because they have so much energy and must be entertained. Between work and kids and life in general, I don't have time for a high maintenance dog.

I did, however, decide on a little fox terrier. He's a rescue dog that was on death row at the Orange County animal shelter. Some asshole burned his back with hot oil. He's all healed up now and doesn't appear to be any worse for wear from his ordeal. Totally housebroken and follows all the basic commands. As an added bonus, when we went to meet the dog, he ran right past my wife and straight to me.

I was granted exclusive naming rights to said animal. So far I'm fairly well set on "cracker" and my wife is dead set against it. She wants to name it something retarded like "Pete" or "Bandit".

Here's the dog. I pick him up on Wednesday.

 

Congrats! And I'm glad you picked up a rescue.

 

It’s their wolf pack instincts. It’s hard-wired. They were bred and trained to harness their instinct to kill.

 

Pete!

 

Agreed. Rescue dogs always seem more grateful than those who come from breeders, etc.

 

You dumbasses got me wanting to visit my local pound now!!!


A few years back I had the opportunity to snatch up a Pitbull pup (dark grey with a few white patches), I don't know dogs/full breeds much but man if this lil guy wasn't beautiful, appeared to be full breed not a mix. He was one of about a dozen pups being raised for dog fighting.

My wife wouldn't have any of it.....

 

We already have a rescue grey cat, a rescue black cat, and a rescue Rat Terrier/Chihuahua.

They are all AWESOME animals. :up:

 

Congratulations on the rescue and the toy fox. I have one as well. I really should get an updated picture (this is from 6 years ago and their mussel's are so gray), but here are the boys. Marty the rat terrier is on the left, Max the toy fox is on the right.



Here is where Max spends most of his day since I work from home.



You're dog may be different, but what I can tell you about Max is:

1) Excellent rodent dog. Mice, voles, chipmunks, etc.
2) Sight trigger for prey so you may have to watch him if your yard isn't fenced.
3) Loves to chase the ball. (Racket balls are the best)
4) The world is his and he needs to protect me from it. Since I'm out in the middle of nowhere, it's no big deal so I don't know if that can be trained out of him. (Probably since after a few days at the campground he'll only grumble a bit when we're walking verses an aggressive strut.)
5) DEDICATED. Max was a rescue and had a difficult past. He is totally dedicated to this family and loves to snuggle. When it's cold at night, under the covers he goes.

Good luck, and enjoy!

Dawn

 

A buddy has a border collie. He was having a hard time getting the dog to not tear up the house when they left. One day the dog tried to get on the treadmill while he was running on it. Ever since they put the dog on the treadmill for 30min a day at high speed and the dog has been great. It's the craziest looking thing to see a dog on a treadmill but it works for them...

 

FYI: my rescue chihuahua has bitten me more than 40 times. It's more like him trying to stab me with his one remaining tooth, but you get the point.)

 

Lots of folks use a treadmill for exercising their pups...

 

Our dumb mutt will do the same thing for hours if we let him. Infinite energy ... except when it's ten o'clock. That's his bed time.

 

That is my Border Collie, Scooter. I really like him but I am not sure I would get another one. He is super smart and very energetic. I think he would play ball till he died. He would never stop on his own. We also have chickens and cannot let him out with them. He tries to herd them but when they get upset and start flapping and running he can't resist and just runs them down. He would accidentally kill them if we let it go very long. He's a bit neurotic like other people have said. He has lots of weird routines. We've learned that if we keep up the routines he is pretty easy to deal with.

 

I have a hard enough time getting my dog to walk out to the back yard to piss. He's not even dreaming about running anywhere.