dancinbcs

Lots of good advise above but also report this BYB to their local council for illegally selling a puppy. In NSW all puppies must be 8 weeks old, microchipped and vaccinated. There are fines for not complying with these state laws and unless the ripped off puppy buyers report them they just keep doing the wrong thing by the puppies they churn out.

Honestly, I don't think boarding kennels are a realistic goal for at least the next decade or so. Your first priority would be to work out how to make a large enough income to be able to afford to buy an acreage in an area that is likely to be successful with kennels. Without some sort of financial help (from parents, etc), most young people now days struggle to get a mortgage on a suburban home, let alone a house on 2 hectares with a kennel complex on it. Most people I know with kennels had the property and plenty of dog experience first, then decided to add a kennel business on their existing land. Working for a kennel is a very low paid job so that is not going to get you near your goal. Some alternatives to look at are becoming a dog groomer and getting a loan to buy a mobile dog wash or get a well bred puppy from a good breeder and train it to highest level while studying dog training everywhere you can. this could lead to a career as a trainer or a job like a customs dog handler.

Hot water and hot dryers will make a lot of dogs itchy so keep it cooler. Also don't comb down to the skin unless it is only with a Collie Comb. Anything finer will rip the undercoat out and irritate the skin. Let the force dryer do the work of removing dead hair and use the Collie Comb to make sure there are no tangles. I can't imagine showing a Sheltie that hasn't been bathed for 9 months. Weekly is more usual for show dogs.

I'm hoping for the same effect here. My boy has been incredibly sooky over the past few weeks though. I thought it was a side effect from the Suprelorin but perhaps not..? Another question; are bitch pants worth the hassle? It depends on how much discharge they have and how clean they keep themselves. Mine hated bitch pants because it stopped them keeping themselves clean and they really didn't need them. A few covers on furniture would see the odd spot and that was about it. I have however seen others make an awful mess so in those cases the bitch pants would be great.

Don't beat youself up over any of this. I quizzed my vet about it after a friend lost a dog to IMHA. Her reply was that is increasing in all dogs, they don't know why or what causes it and despite their best efforts, some dogs will survive and others won't. It just seems to be the luck of the draw if one survives, but most don't.

A lot of breeders register for the puppy insurance but most breeders don't have their own dogs insured. The cost is prohitive if you have more than a couple of dogs and the insurance doesn't cover most things that breeders need.

I have only ever completely separated them on they key week but I have known my males and girls and their reactions very well. Bitches can be ready to mate any time from day 3 to 29 so I never took any notice of the books about days. None of mine had much discharge at all so that wasn't much help either. I always took more precautions with a bitch's first season till I worked out how the dogs reacted to her. That was my dogs but I have known some that completely ignore a bitch in full standing heat until they are sure no one is looking. If you have a sneaky one like that you need to be a lot more careful.

Me either.

I love my Oldfield which is now about 25 years old and still going strong.

What are you using clippers for on a BC? Any trimming needed should can easily be done with scissors. Dancinbcs, I use the clippers to trim the bottom of their feet, the soles around their pads as I find I am more confident with them than scissors & quicker. I use scissors for the top part & to trim up to their stopper. I like to keep their feet really neat as it makes it easier to spot ticks e.t.c. Should I not use them Dancinbcs? We usually don't trim around the pads between the toes on Borders but if you aren't showing and it is to make tick searching easier I can see your point. For the show ring we just trim around the foot and trim the hair level with the pads underneath. If they have untidy long hair between the toes we push it up between the toes and just take enough off to make the foot look neat when the hair settles back down.

If the cruciate ligament is damaged but not snapped then complete rest will sometimes allow it to heal. This is usually done with complete crate rest but a brace may do the same thing if it completely imobilises the leg. If the cruciate ligament has snapped though it will have to be surgically fixed. Again complete rest for 3 months after the op is required.

What are you using clippers for on a BC? Any trimming needed should can easily be done with scissors.

I would never leave a dog unattended with lamb flap without the bone in. It is one of the few things that I have known of several dogs to choke to death on. If I feed lamb flap I cut that bit off and dice it before feeding.

One thing I would do different is to have two gates so you can enter or let the puppies out at the back of the run, without them running through poo in the morning. I find they tend to poo nearest the gate so a second one would be great. I have a shed attached to a fully enclosed lockable run, with a kennel inside that for warmth. It would be better the have the shed nearer the house and the run at the back to encourage them to use the shed. The run is locked at night and if no one is home to stop anyone taking them. I line the run with wood shavings and change it weekly. It is so much easier to pick up wet and soiled patches with a pooper scooper, the puppies stay dry, clean, smell fresh and the flies stay away. I have done the newspaper thing and never again. Because I only bred less than once a year or two I had temporary fence panels to make a bigger puppy yard (about a third of my suburban yard) off the run that they could run around in during the day when someone is home. This set up worked well for Border Collies from 4 weeks in the day and 5 weeks at night.

That court case was in fact won by the breeder because it was BEFORE the DNA test was available and it was the first reported case in NSW. That case prompted us to make sure we had a test so nothing like that would ever happen to any dedicated breeder again. Even though the breeder won it dragged through the courts for 18 months and the breeder ended up a few thousand dollars out of pocket. The owner ended up a lot more out of pocket as they had legal fees and all court costs. In that case the puppy was in fact 9 weeks, not 7 weeks like Bailey. The puppy became ill within a few days and the breeder did the right thing, immediately requested the puppy be returned for a refund, plus they offered a replacement puppy. The owners refused and went to SASH who ran every test under the sun, running up thousands of dollars in a few days. At that time TNS had been reported in the breed elsewhere but it was thought to be very rare, a bone marrow biopsy was the only way to get a preliminary diagnosis and it could only be confirmed at autopsy.

I have never needed treats to toilet train a Border Collie puppy but I have never allowed one to make the mistake of toileting in a crate either. That is a big set back so use whatever gets results now and make sure he doesn't make any more errors. I start toilet training the puppies I breed at 4 weeks and by 8 weeks they are almost trained. My male puppies have all pretty much been 100% by 10 weeks with the girls taking a little longer to get bladder control.

After hours service is vital as are reasonable prices for the geographic area they are in. Overheads in expensive real estate areas are going to be a lot higher than in outer suburbs so the prices will be higher. If you have purebred registered dogs, a vet who breeds them and works mainly with breeders is the best choice as they are more familiar with breed specific things. I know lots of breeders who travel an hour or more to my vet. I am about 20 min away and there are closer ones but I use the best with the after hours service. They have several vets at two practices and I will see all but two of them. For certain problems I see certain vets if possible. Things to avoid are vets who offer options with surgery apart from pain relief. Vets that push for preventative surgeries in puppies and those that charge way above the average for the area. Shop around on the phone for prices. The cheapest isn't always the best but neither is the most expensive. After that it comes down to personalities you feel comfortable with.

Before: old bedding they can shred and tear up. During: newspaper and drybed, preferable white of light coloured so you can see what coloured discharges they have. The drybed is important during the whelping to keep the puppies dry and warm as the new ones are born. After: Fresh newspaper and drybed.

Another vote here for a Whippet if you really want a smooth coat. They are wonderful kids dogs and can have a calming influence being inclined to snuggle up.

Definitley agree as well. Both vets and chiros that deal with Greyhounds all the time, are the only ones worth seeing to diagnose odd injuries. Our chiro in Sydney does Greyhounds, horses and performance/show dogs. They deal with injured dogs every day so can pick all sorts of things a normal vet can't.

Did you notice the fleas at the airport or only after you get her home? If it was at home she probably picked them up as soon as you brought her into the house. Fleas just love young puppies. If the fleas were on her at the airport she could have picked them up from another dog on the flight or if she was sent through a transport company she could have got them there, so I would let the breeder know but not accuse them.

I have seen sanded and polished floors scratched very badly scratched by dogs in a matter of weeks. Estapol seems to be a much tougher finish if you want timber floors and does stand up well to dogs.

They only get over it if you keep taking them in the car. Maybe it is a breed thing but it actually very uncommon in my breed. You get the odd one now and then but most are fine. I do make sure my puppies get several car rides from about 5 weeks until the leave for their new homes at 8 weeks and believe this helps a lot.

I realise that this is very painful for you, but try to take a step back and think about about what is best for your dog. Is is really in her best interest to bring her home for a night then have to take her back to be pts, when you could make the selfless decision earlier and release her from her suffering at the vets? The option to euthanise our animals to stop them suffering further is the ultimate gift of love to them, no matter how much it hurts us to do it.

It really is up to the breed clubs to continually educate their members about health issues and genetics in their breed. CC seminars on genetics do create some interest but most people take a lot longer to grasp the concepts involved. Some otherwise intelligent people just never get it despite trying but most do eventually understand. We spent over a decade educating the Border Collie breeders about how DNA testing would work while we getting tests developed. As a result most registered breeders just accepted and understood the tests as soon as they were available. There is no such thing as a genetically perfect animal. All living creatures have faulty and fatal genes but we are more likely to find out what they are in the closed genetics of purebred animals. When prominent animals influence a breed, you get their genes, both good and bad, increased in the population. Eventually you will find out what faulty genes they carried because it will show up as a breed problem but it might take 20-30 years. Being a dedicated breeder means working around each problem as it arises. Those that don't care just breed on regardless and this is where you get most genetically affected animals. Breeding unregistered purebreds is just asking for trouble if you cannot trace problems through pedigrees.Even with the most dedicated breeder though, the more litters you breed the more genetic problems you will turn up as it is all a numbers game. Dedicated breeders should be happy to discuss what health problems they have encountered and what they did to address those problems. Anyone who says their dogs will never suffer from a genetic problem is lying or has no idea what they are doing. To see what happens when BYB decide to just breed purebred unregistered dogs, have a look at the thread about the Sick Border Collie Puppy in the Puppy section here on DOL. I'm sure the same thing is happening with other breeds like Cavs with their particular health issues. We are lucky with BCs that we now have DNA tests to avoid breeding 3 major problems but we still have other less common issues that are currently being researched and in the mean time breeders are workign their way around them.