Border Collie?

[oobar]

Anybody know where we can find a border collie pup, female?

[NeverSure]

Have you had a border Collie? I grew up on a large ranch where we never had fewer than a dozen of them. If you have had Border Collies, ignore me. If not...

Border Collies are smart, fast, energetic and aggressive. They were bred to herd sheep. They are widely used to herd cattle. They need a lot of exercise to keep them calm.

They have exactly the instincts and habits of a wolf, except they don't make the final kill. They stare down sheep, herd them into a group, and keep them there. If staring down and bluffing doesn't work, they will bite the herded animal. Many have bitten children because to them a child is no different from a sheep with no wool.

Some are more mellow and make great family pets. Those are the ones who would fail as a working animal. In fact, if someone buys one for a herding animal and it isn't aggressive enough, it will be given away as a family pet. Still there is always the chance that it could snap and bite a child.

We always kept them separate from the house and they weren't pets. They had their own building and fenced area. They got very good care including vet service, They were let out to run when the children were in school, or the children were confined to the house and the fenced yard around the house.

Up to you as they say. If you get a good pet you have a great one if you assure it gets lots of exercise. If you don't know how to temperament test a puppy to choose it from a litter, there is a lot on YouTube. We wanted aggression. For a pet I'd want calm and non-aggression.

Sorry if you know all of this. I love dogs but worry about children.

Have fun.

[happylarry]

Excellent post, well done.

HL

[Torrens54]

Have you had a border Collie? I grew up on a large ranch where we never had fewer than a dozen of them. If you have had Border Collies, ignore me. If not...

Border Collies are smart, fast, energetic and aggressive. They were bred to herd sheep. They are widely used to herd cattle. They need a lot of exercise to keep them calm.

They have exactly the instincts and habits of a wolf, except they don't make the final kill. They stare down sheep, herd them into a group, and keep them there. If staring down and bluffing doesn't work, they will bite the herded animal. Many have bitten children because to them a child is no different from a sheep with no wool.

Some are more mellow and make great family pets. Those are the ones who would fail as a working animal. In fact, if someone buys one for a herding animal and it isn't aggressive enough, it will be given away as a family pet. Still there is always the chance that it could snap and bite a child.

We always kept them separate from the house and they weren't pets. They had their own building and fenced area. They got very good care including vet service, They were let out to run when the children were in school, or the children were confined to the house and the fenced yard around the house.

Up to you as they say. If you get a good pet you have a great one if you assure it gets lots of exercise. If you don't know how to temperament test a puppy to choose it from a litter, there is a lot on YouTube. We wanted aggression. For a pet I'd want calm and non-aggression.

Sorry if you know all of this. I love dogs but worry about children.

Have fun.

Excellent advice! When I was a kid (about 6 years old in Australia) we had a beautiful Border Collie and we had a very large back yard but he was very active and after growing from a puppy to a mature dog he became bored.

He was ultra protective of the immediate family and very quick to snarl at anyone who visited and looked as though (to him) that they might be a threat to the family. Thus, he had to be kept away from other kids if we were playing, as he went into "Guard Dog Mode."

Our next door neighbor used to tease him from the other side of the fence until one day, our dog managed to get out. He visited the fellow next door and promptly "sunk his teeth into him." In those days, if a Dog bit a human (even this low-life character) and it was reported to Police, the dog was shot.

That is exactly what happened. Police arrived, the dog was seized with a "snare" and promptly dispatched!

Now, I don't think that sort of thing happens in Thailand. Doesn't happen in Australia any more either but the fact remains, many Border Collies are just not suitable as Suburban Family Pets. Get a BEAGLE......you'll find they are PERFECT!

[NeverSure]

Thanks guys - good stuff. It would be hard to keep one in a neighborhood of houses.

If you ever watched Cesar Millan in the show The Dog Whisperer, he was amazing at training a dog to a leash - also available on YouTube.

After that, he would exercise dogs by riding his bicycle. Sometimes he had several dogs on leashes at the same time. So I guess he got a workout too.

But these high energy dogs have to be exercised or they get stir crazy.

We had one BC that was a female and she wasn't worth a darn, LOL. She was submissive in every way. It was obvious she saw children as just more humans, and humans ruled in her thinking. That's true of any good dog. She was so mellow she got to live in the house and not run with the pack.

Dogs are pack animals and the alpha male and female are the leaders - with force if necessary. The first thing to do with a new puppy is to teach that all humans, even a baby, are pack leaders and the dog brings up the rear. There are routines you can do to teach a dog that your kids are pack leaders - again on YouTube, and the sooner the better in the dog's life for that.