dancinbcs

I just don't get that attitude at all. If my dog sired something that could beat me and everyone else, I would be delighted. I get far more of a buzz from seeing what my dogs have contributed to the breed that any show win could ever give. I love it even more when new breeders becomes successful with foundation stock from my prefix. For me it is all about doing what is best for the future of the breed, so if my dog is better than anything else they could use, they get to use them, provided I think they are ethical. I am very generous with stud fees either giving a free return for less than two live healthy puppies or charging on a per puppy basis after the first one. I don't have any conditons on my dog's progeny except "not for export", but would be happy to negotiate that if the overseas home was an established show home I approved of. My breed does not really have any imports among the show dogs, we are far more likely to export, so the situation is different to breeds where all the top stock is imported. Most stud owners are pretty gererous with stud fees and only a few have iron clad conditons on using their dogs. Most simply expect the courtesy that the breeder will consult the stud owner on where they are placing main register puppies in case they have any serious objections. Anyone who does the wrong thing and places a puppy somewhere they know the stud owner will object to, is pretty much black banned then by everyone else. It is not about legal contracts but common courtesy to ask if there is anywhere they really don't want the puppies to go and why.

Sorry but in my experience, kidney failure in old dogs or cats is usually a sign that the body has simply worn out. It is a common ending for animals that have had to have a lot of medication. Eventually the kidneys can no longer cope and they are usually just the first organ to fail as the body can no longer function. For me personally it spells the end of the line and I have pts my animals that have gone into kidney failure after battling long illnesses. My attitude is keep them going with medication as long as they are fit and happy but be prepared for when the kidneys fail from that medication and let them go before they really start to suffer. I kept a cat with kidney failure going far too long once and will never do that to another animal.

Missed answering these questions. I think the bond between dog and owner is depends on if they just "click" or not. Even though I prefer to raise my own puppies I don't really get bonded to them until they are about 8-9 months, and I have a stronger bond with some than others. I always bond closer to males more than females, but not every male has the same bond with me. Some breeds are definitely a lot less work than others. I am always intrigued to see breeders of other breeds with a litter sitting quietly in an open basket, at the vets for the 6 week vaccination. If you tried to put a litter of Border Collies in a basket like that the first one would be out again before the second one was in. Basically, as puppies Borders are never still unless they are asleep. They have to be doing "something". They never just sit there and look cute like some other breeds. If you tie up any sort of fence or barrier with occy straps or cable ties, Border babies just chew through them. They are very, very demanding as babies, constantly climbing, digging, chewing and running and activity starts at about 10 days when they start escaping the whelping box. On the plus side though they are extremely easy to toilet train, so there is a trade off sometimes.

I would still try and find a chiro now, in case it is an injury. If it is and you leave it for a couple of months, it could cause more damage in the mean time. Always a good idea with Border puppies to have regular chiro checks as they grow because they are so good at injuring themselves.

I prefer mine home bred whenever possible, otherwise at 8 weeks. Training really young puppies is so much easier and having them behave exactly as you want from day one, makes up for any destruction. My babies are almost toilet trained by 8 weeks and completely toilet trained by about 10 weeks. They don't get carsick, are crate and lead trained as well as knowing the meaning of all their basic commands, well before 3 months. My puppies are still puppies and do all things normal puppies do, like chewing and digging but they know my house rules as part of life with no other alternative ever being learnt. The more puppies you raise the easier it gets. I can't even imagine going back to trying to train older dogs that have already learnt bad habits.

Find a good dog physio and get their opinion. Our one here is always spot on, picking good or bad hips by feeling them. they should also be able to tell you if he is carrying an injury that could cause him to move strangely. Border puppies are very good at injuring themselves but not showing any obvious pain. Hopefully it is not HD, as severe HD is very uncommon in registered BCs but sadly all too common in unregistered ones. There was a young man here on DOL last year getting advice on treatment following two hip replacements on his young unregistered BC. I have never heard of registered one having hips bad enough to need that sort of treatment.

Does the puppy just have no immunity to parvo or no immune system? Two very different things. If the lack of immunity is just to parvo that indicates a problem with the vaccine working. No immunity to anything is a completely different story and could be hereditary. TNS in Border Collies is a faulty immune system. Basically the bone marrow makes white blood cells but cannot release them into the bloodstream. There are different degrees of it and the dog may have some white cells in the blood or none. No white cells = no immune system. It is inherited as an autosomal recessive gene and the carrier parents are normal healthy dogs, just carrying a recessive gene fault. Statistically a quarter of the puppies will be affected, a quarter normal and half carriers, if both parents carry the gene. TNS is always eventually fatal but the symptoms vary depending on what happens to challenge the immune system, so the symptoms will be of whatever the infection is. This makes it almost impossible to diagnose unless you are specifically looking for it. The gene for it is widespread throughout the Border Collie breed in working and show lines so it has been happening for a very long time. We managed to get a DNA test developed very quickly (about 12 months) once we really started looking for it, because similar conditions occur in many species. This means that it probably also occurs in many other dog breeds but no one is looking for it. In hindsight many affected Borders died as puppies and were labelled "fading puppies". Others died later from a variety of infections and viruses but now we can trace it through the lines we know many deaths were in fact from TNS. If this puppy has no immune system then you need to keep a close eye on any siblings for possible other cases. Also ask around among other breeders to see if anyone has lost puppies to various infections. If you find any sort of pattern you need to get together and get a test developed so that carriers can then always be bred to normals, with no resulting affected puppies.

Most of my puppies over the years have gone to absolutely wonderful homes. I have never had anyone breed without asking my opinion first, most just want to desex their pets. I had to buy one dog back from a highly recommended buyer that I had a bad feeling about, who lied to me and had to rehome another at 12 months when his owner's life fell apart. There were two oops litters with bitches sold to new show homes, when something jumped their fences. One opted to just desex after that and the other went on to breed a nice purebred litter under my prefix before ultimately desexing her girl. Another, that unfortunatley had silent seasons, was sold to a first time breeder and had a surprise litter earlier than planned, but at least to the right dog. I have had a few jerks stuff me around for weeks and a few that I have just decided when I met them, that they weren't suitable. But I am always glad to be left in the lurch with a puppy, rather than have sold it to someone that turned out to be unreliable. My last litter I had one show/performance potential puppy left to sell and 6 wonderful buyers to choose from, none of whom could have lived with this particular puppy, so I had to refer them all to other breeders. I waited until I found a very active family with a large yard who really suited her. They only wanted a pet so desexed her. You do get a lot of tyre kickers and I am always careful to not give them my address and tell them that there is always someone home with the puppies, even if there isn't. I worry about them being stolen so they are kept well locked up at night and if we do all go out. Only after several phone conversations do I allow people to visit, I never take deposits and never promise a puppy to anyone until they are 6-7 weeks to give me time to pick who I am keeping, decide who suits which puppy best and give me the option to back out if I decide I really don't like a buyer.

Fair enough with not wanting too much detail but most of the questions relate so much to what happened to the dog in it's first four months that I thought that should be relevant. I did put "breeder" for where I obtained my dog, but again there is a huge difference in behaviour with dogs I raise myself and those that come from others. I always prefer home bred dogs when possible so I can have them behaving the way I want by the time they are 8 weeks and not have to undo what they have been taught by someone else.

My repro specialist vet in Sydney is under $200 for a bitch that size. My last one done 2 years ago was $175, but I would say $200-$300 would be the more common price elsewhere. Vet prices are also dependant on real estate prices where they are located. A vet paying a higher rent or mortgage on their premises will always have to charge higher prices to stay afloat, so consider location. Our vets are wonderful vets used by many breeders from all over Sydney but they are not in a really expensive suburb.

Interesting Jed, I'd never thought it serious in terms of breeding but totally see your point. My bitch who had two litters never worried about storms until she was about 6 years old. Then she started wanting to boss the lightning and thunder around - she goes from window to window looking out trying to find the culprit while softly huff'ing. When outside she looks around when a flash or rumble happens but is happy to sit still and doesn't do the faux-barking. Would you call that a fairly serious fault (that showed late)? I wouldn't worry about a dog that only reacted at 6 years old and really doesn't seem frightened. Dogs born with a true storm phobia will react from when they are young. The reaction does tend to get worse as they get older but there will always have been some sign and they usually react before the storm arrives, sensing the drop in atmospheric pressure. Most animals know a storm is coming and seek shelter, which is fine, but if panic or stress starts when the barometer drops the dog has a problem. Most dogs that react to storms also react badly to the pure noise of fireworks, but not all dogs that are frightened of fireworks, worry about storms. Late onset reaction to noise from fireworks or storms can simply be that they are hearing a different frequency as their hearing starts to decline a little with age. My 10 year old that has never worried about anything before and still doesn't care about storms, has just in the past six months decided to worry a bit about loud fireworks for the first time. She wasn't panicked but very clingy last NYE, so I put a t-shirt on her and she settled in about 10 minutes.

Totaly agree with this post. I believe storm phobia is strongly inherirted and will not breed from a dog that is shows any fear of storms, unless thye have been influenced by an owner that has a storm phobia themselves or they have been left out in a bad storm with no shelter and developed a fear of future storms. This is one of the very worst traits a dog can have as far as owners being able to cope with living with them.

Our vet only charges about $50 for an ultrasound, with no consult fee. What does the blood test cost ?

I always just use Ichthammol ointment on puncture wounds (or abcesses) on dogs or humans. Have never needed antibiotics yet to heal them up properly. The only time I use ABs for a wound is if it needs stitching.

Just completed it for one of my dogs but found a couple of questions a bit odd. Considering this is purebred forum with many breeders there was no option for "Bred this dog" under "Where did you obtain the dog". Then asking what age you aquired the dog, surely birth, 4-6 wks, 8-10 wks, 11wks -1 year and older than 1 year, would have been better options when assessing temperament and social skills. Those early weeks are far more critical to the final social behaviour of a dog, than any other time in their life. Was also a little stuck with the questions about playing with other dogs. Does that apply to the dogs they know or live with or strange dogs, because my dogs are never allowed to play with strange dogs. Just answered it for the dogs they live with.

We also ultrasound closer to 5 weeks when they actually look like puppies.

The most responsible thing to do would have been to desex the bitch, the next would be to abort the litter. As those options are now passed the most responsible course of action now would be to get the vet to pts all but 3 puppies, asap after they are born. That would be enough for the bitch to rear without problems and would mean only 3 would need homes. The chances of finding homes for a large litter of big crossbred puppies is very slim. The op may well find that she invests a lot of time and money to rear these puppies only to find that there are no homes for them to go to. At that point responsible thing to do is pts then, but most simply dump them at shelters for them to have to euthanase. This was always a problem when I worked for AWL. People would ring with large crossbred litters that had cost them a fortune to feed, then found they couldn't sell them or even give them away. They would be told we could take them but all we could do was pts because we had the same problem. Hardly anyone wants a large crossbred breed as a pet. We could place all the little ones but would be lucky to place one litter a month of medium to large crossbreds, but often had a couple of litters a week surrendered.

http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/list.asp The above page lists all recognised dog breeds in Australia. Anything else is just a crossbred, not a breed, no matter what they call it.

Yep, this is the only requirement. So the dog must be more than 50% white overall with some coloured markings but there are no prescribed markings at all and they do not have to be even.

Good luck Rainy and Cazstaff. Hope you get to join us. The assessment is pretty easy for a trained and socialised, bombproof dog. My boy never batted an eye at anything they did or asked of him. The human interview is a bit tougher but the real work starts if you get selected. So much to learn about little kids.

I did. They still need a lot more teams though so anyone else that is interested, especially in metro, the south and west of the state, get your application in for the next intake.

I desexed a 9 year old who had been used at stud, after losing his dad to prostate cancer. No complications, he recovered quickly and the only change in attitude was being less interested in the girls in season. Instead of whinging for the whole three weeks of a season, he was just a bit interested on the key days.

I have friends on 100 acres with small dogs and horses. Friend's OH loves herding breeds but needed a dog he could have with him when working round the property, that would have no interest in chasing the horses or going off hunting if her wasn't watching her and wasn't likely to jump standard rural fencing. He seems happy with the Bull Mastiff her chose and she gets on wonderfully with their smaller breed. I imagine though that they would confine her to the house yard when they go out.

Why do you think a Frenchie or a Boston should cost so much more than other breeds ? Personally, I fail to see why anyone would want either breed, let alone pay those sorts of prices. Of all the breeds I have observed at shows over many years, these are the two I most detest on temperament, snapping and barking at every passing dog, let alone the fact they are so incredibly ugly. Then add in possible health issues with brachy breeds and I really have no idea what the attraction is. Sorry to the people who own and love them but I just can't stand them.

Depends on the breed. I certainly would not condemn a breeder for charging more for puppies from an import. With Border Collies, we basically don't have imports, except in a few of the more serious herding lines, so that is not an issue. Reputable breeders of Border Collies all charge about the same amount $800 - $1000, regardless of colour, markings, pedigree or register but all from parents that have DNA results for 3 genetic tests and have been hip and elbow scored. A few charge $1200 but this is not an indication of better quality. The more expensive puppies in our breed $1500 - $2000, are usually not from health tested parents and have been bred with only colour in mind. They are often poor in conformation, soundness and temperament as well because none of this was considered important. They are also often bred with no regard for possible problems caused by colour. There is a current trend to breed red to merle, resulting in reds that mask the merle gene. If one of these red masking merles are bred to another merle, then double merles will result. You cannot register merle to merle matings in BCs with good reason, but it will happen regarless as people out to make a quick buck, breed when they don't understand the genetics.