CaseyKay

Thanks. My favourite photos of her

I used to think colour was important to me as a pet owner; in border collies I don't like merles or ones with a lot of white (and not so keen on light ee red or chocolate!). Love black and whites and black tris. Contacted a breeder I was interested in to order a girl, black tri. She asked me a lot of questions about the training and sports I wanted this puppy for, and I ended up with a blue white girl (a color I had seen a total of once in real life) no blaze and freaky yellow eyes. If I had had a choice between her and my "perfectly marked" imagined tri girl (none in Gael's litter anyway) I would probably have taken the latter just because I love that colour and because Gael was an odd looking puppy. But can't imagine life without my ideally matched to me stunningly gorgeous blue girl She is such a dark slate grey as an adult most people hardly notice she is different to black and white now anyway. Next puppy I want a boy and suspect I will take the most suited puppy, having learnt my lesson but he would have to be perfect in temperament and structure to overcome my merle aversion.

Tassie I taught them "back up" first when facing me (I walked towards them). Then moved onto standing beside me and walking back but up against a fence. Also a tip I was given was when you start don't change direction abruptly and back up slowly or else with the BC type dog you tend to get leaping backwards rather than walking backwards! Watching some dogs on the weekend they may have gotten "back up" confused with "call front" as when the owner started going back the dog swung in towards the front of the handler (hind end out). "Moving stand" was hardest to teach my old girl (11 years and competed in obedience for several years) she seemed to have a well ingrained automatic sit. We could do a moving down no problem but the moving stand took ages (months actually) so I was rapt she got it on the day! My youngest dog who has never done obedience I taught moving stand easily as she doesn't seem to have a "default position".

I have 2 x border collies with RA titles (the NZKC recognised rally titles in January 2011) and we just had our first go at Rally Excellent. LOVED it, going to be a real challenge to get 100. 9 dogs attempted it and none qualified. Both my girls got to station 9 with no errors and it was "Halt, stand, down" and one just looked at me on the command to stand and the other lay down ah well. The club running it gave prizes to 3rd anyway which I think was a great idea to help keep up motivation. Both my dogs did "moving stand and walk around" and "back up 3 paces" perfectly. It was also nice to run 2 classes each with them in a day (Adv B and Exc A). My middle BC of the 3 is a 9 year old pet-only girl with health issues (epilepsy, progressive blindness) and I was so happy with her as she now has her RN title, qualifying 3 from 3 and so happy and waggy when working. This is why i love rally, it is suitable for all ages and breeds of dogs and most of all it is a fun sport and very supportive!

I more have colours I don't like in my breed of border collies. I don't like BCs with a lot of white, or merles or chocolates. I like black and white and black tri the best. I think due to the way the dark and light contrast. My 2 previous boys and my 2 current girls are black/white and I was holding out for a black tri girl but got Gael instead who is a dark blue/white. No blaze and spooky yellow eyes. Took a while to get used to her, and her appearance sometimes terrifies small children, I guess she looks like a small wolf. But in terms of temperament and personality she is the perfect dog for me After Gael, with my next BC puppy I am totally open to male/female/any colour.

I own 3 border collies girls, 2 from working lines and 1 from show lines. The show lines girl is the only one without an off switch! She can be really annoying in the house, and she seems to only sleep at night otherwise wants to play non stop! The other 2 if not much is happening they curl up quietly and nap. They get lots of exercise and training. If you ask the working girls to do anything they will be up for it and give you 110% all the time. On eof them does like to be with me all the time but if I am working at home during the day which I do sometimes she will just lie quietly at my feet.

Good luck with your pup. I have a BC girl (now 11 years) who was very aloof and independent as a pup. She is very much all work (working lines) and until she was 5 she lived on our farm with us and we did use her for working cows although I didn't buy her for that, I also competed with her successfully in obedience, agility and tracking. Our working relationship is great but the standoffishness/very serious demenour doesn't suit me. She is unsatisfying to say the least as a pet dog. I have 2 younger BC girls (9 and 2 years) and they are 100% in my face, having cuddles, shadowing me, obssesive etc. I love them both to bits, others might find them annoying! But I know this is the sort of dog I like and I would not keep another independant pup.

Sorry to hear about your boy I thought "Goldie" reading your original post. Or maybe a show type cocker pup? I know some very sweet and cuddly cockers. Not a working one, my friend has a 6 months working cocker pup and she is a mega full on busy girl I have 3 border collies but I have always like the sounds of the Vizsla as well with the description of them being a "velcro dog". The flat coats I know (not very many granted) seem more boisterous than your average goldie so might be harder with a small child.

Both if I'm not working too late but always mornings. At the moment due to winter and it being dark early we head out at 7am (still pretty dark) and home at 8am for me to make work by 8:30. If I finish at 4:30pm we get another 3/4 hour walk in. If I finish at 6:30pm well I start later so do 1.5 hours in the morning and some tracking or agility training with the young dog. I have 3 border collies and don't see the point of onlead walks so we don't walk in the dark. Young dog goes to training under lights 2 nights a week: agility and rally obedience which I find is great in winter. 9 year old BC is probably the most annoying on nights we don't get any walks She runs around the house throwing toys at me. OH is home until 3pm when he goes to work but he generally doesn't walk them (certainly not all 3 at once ha ha), he might play fetch in the park across the road but generally they just hang out at home.

All colours are gorgeous but I love the faces on the tricolour I would love to get a Cavalier one day, they are my husband's favourite breed but not sure how a little Cav would go living with my working line border collies. I also have a very quiet, gentle little show lines BC girl as well, (now aged 9 years) who has a job as a pet therapy dog in a rest home, and we always thought when we don't have her anymore we would like to get a Cav. My husband likes Blenheims best and I like Black and tans so we figure a tri would be the best compromise too.

Two of my current dogs I fell in love with the first day. Adore both of them. My oldest girl she is nearly 11. I have never felt a bond with her. Despite this we competed successfully in agility, obedience and tracking. We work really well together but we aren't buddies. Strangely enough if you ask any of my friends and family they all say how much they love this dog. That she is the "best dog ever" or their favourite of my dogs. She is extremely well-behaved and a nice easy dog to have around. Doesn't really have any bad habits. I'm not sure why we never clicked. She was a pretty full on puppy but settled about 8 months.

I have 3 female (desexed) border collies. They all get along fine. But I know other people also with border collies that have 2 girls that would like to kill each other. I have girls because I prefer to train and compete with them. If it is a pet dog only I like male BC's just fine

I currently have Border collies #3, 4, & 5. Have never had another breed just the working farm dogs I grew up with (BC's, heading dogs, huntaways and working beardies). My older 2 girls are senior citizens now. I like having 3 dogs and would not have more than that. Next will be another working lines BC, same breeder/relative of my awesome youngest dog. Also a HPR gundog breed for my husband to take hunting and me to train for field trials. Would love a Brittany but they are pretty rare in NZ. Vizsla is the 2nd option as of the many gundogs breeds there seem to be more dual purpose breeders in that breed. My husbands "one day dream dog" has been for years an Irish Wolfhound. I say to him "but what would you DO with it" (all my dogs compete in sports/have "jobs") he frowns at me and said "well it would be my FRIEND". Such a novel idea to me, a dog you do nothing with! I LOVE the look of Salukis but have to be realistic they probably aren't suitable for me no matter how incredibly beautiful they are.

Would never breed. I only like to own and work (sports) with girls, in my chosen breed border collies. Having them come on heat every 6 months would be disruptive. All my girls have been spayed when mature. I would worry if anything would happen to my beloved girls while pregnant/whelping and then I would have to keep all the puppies as well in case new owners were unkind to them or neglectful.

The ever popular "Boarder Collie" and anything that is "well bread" and once I even saw "well breaded" hmmm.

The 3 border collies (girls) I have now I have had from 9 or 10 weeks old. The previous 2 were adults (boys), 3 and 7 years old when I got them. Bonded strongely with all of them bar one of the girls (just a personality clash). That was never an issue between puppy and adult dogs. BC puppies are full on and hard work, the last one now 18 months I enjoyed immensely but it was 7 years since the last puppy. But the ones I got as adults both had "issues" I never quite managed to fix. I very much doubt I would get an adult BC again but it depends where it comes from, they are a breed I think clueless people can easily mess up permanently. My 3 girls all have very different personalities but in many ways, they become similar as they grow up. Also already having both dogs and cats I think it is easier to add youngsters to my house. I have ALWAYS had adult rescue cats, we recently went down to one cat when the elderly girl died. Our other 2 year old cat is the first one we got as a kitten and she and the dogs get on amazingly, play and sleep curled up, whereas the others have all ignored each other. She is a sweet gentle cat and very trusting, I doubt I could add an adult dog because I don't know if I could trust it not to chomp her.

Gael's breeder sent me for the first birthday last year an email with 12 months photos of all her littermates in it. That was really nice, I printed them out and added it to her puppy folder as it also had all the pups at 6 weeks in the front of the folder. I email Gael's breeder for a chat once a month and send photos. All the other pups and the breeder live a long way from me and we've never met any of them, so I get to gush on how she sold me the most perfect, best loved puppy ever (well she is 18 months now) and update the breeder on how Gael is going at competitions.

I just got this book too (Precision Tracking), it is a good book with lots of ideas. I will work on some of his ideas with my young dog who tends towards air-scenting. It is somewhat ruined for me by the last section on "proofing". He does say at the start of the section that people told him it would reduce the "palatability" of the book, it certainly did that for me, so maybe I will just remove that section. I would hate to loan it to people who thought I agreed with that sort of thing.

I have 2 border collies that are turning 9 and 11 this year. The oldest started going grey about 2 years old so I have hardy noticed her aging. KC my precious girl only starting going grey last year. They are still fit and active and keep up on long walks with my 16 months pup. My old BC boy was the same, then he turned twelve and became an old dog very suddenly It is sad having 2 who will get old together, I'm hoping they go for a few years yet as companions and mentors to my young dog as I want around a 4 year gap between dogs now. My last two boys died within 6 months of each other aged 17 and 13 and that was so hard.

OH and I both grew up on farms with working dogs. After we were married I got my 2 border collie girls. Maddie to do sports with and KC who is my heart dog. They have always been pretty much my dogs, although he is fond of them. I feed them, train them and walk them. He plays with them! Then we got puppy Gael (another BC) a year ago and they just love each other, it is really sweet. He has his own nickname for her and they are very soppy, she sleeps on him when they are watching TV etc. Unlike the other two she is a very very cuddly and tactile dog and when she sees him she goes into a play bow and does a whoo-whoo little howl noise that only he gets. He is BANNED from coming to shows. The one Rally obedience he did come to (this is a dog who works beautifully) she spent the whole time gawking around my legs trying to keep him in sight, I gave up and left the ring and she wiggled up to him.

One thing my young dog really loved last summer was when I made her an "iceberg" to jump on and try and sink in her pool. Fill an ice cream container or similar with water and freeze. Great for hot days!

Appears that Rally over here in New Zealand will have NZKC recognised titles from start of 2011. Unfortunately they won't recognise titles that have been earnt this past year since Rally started, as the north and south islands had 2 slightly different versions of it. My old girl had her RA and I was looking forward to trying Excellent with her, the young one had RN and one Q in Advanced, now we are all heading back into Novice! The main way we lost points in Novice was me and the many stupid things you can do with a lead...poor dogs. But it looks like clubs that were offering Novice A/B, Advanced A/B and Excellent will now be offering 2 x Novice A/B instead to help people regain their titles more quickly. There were 2 different clubs having Rally 3rd weekend in January so hopefully that will mean 4 x attempts to get that RN title after their registered names. If enough teams get that the next shows can offer Advanced A again as well.

When my older border collie girl was attacked by a Rottie, I felt so helpless, it was HUGE, no collar, no tail to grab and no response to my kicking it or hitting it. Luckily 5 teenage boys playing basketball across the park came running over and between them managed to get it off it, one of them carried my dog home to my car and another 2 followed the dog home so I knew who owned it, they also rang dog control and gave them the address while I was at the vet. If those boys had not been there I believe she would have been killed. The owner of the dog was not in the park, the dog had gotten out and had already been declared dangerous so was PTS that night, surrendered by the owners who also paid my vet bill and didn't seem like bad people at all. This was three years ago and I am still quite nervous of large unrestrained dogs running at my dogs.

My girl KC (8 years border collie) has this two weeks ago (16/11) for the first time in her life. Lucky was caught early as she crashed badly. The vet said didn't look good but threw anything he could think of at her. 3 days on a drip and looking half dead she pulled through. She was very quiet and extremely clingy for the first week home. This is a pretty active dog, usually does 2 x at least an hours offlead running a day. When she came home she was still on 6 different drugs. Her diet had not changed at all I am VERY careful about it as she is epileptic and on two different meds for that. Well turns out one of the meds, Potassium Bromide may be linked to pancreatitis but she has to stay on it because it stopped her life threatening cluster-seizing 2 years back. She just started back on semi-normal walk today of about half a hour, which I decided she was ready for due to her general hyper-activity around the house which has come on the last couple days. But yeah it has taken her 2 weeks to get mostly back to normal instead of just laying around looking depressed and whining unless I was right with her! She has been on the same commerical raw diet for the past 5 years. The vet has her now on Royal Canin I/D dry which is very low fat and he says she should stay on it for another month at least before we look at going back to her old diet or a different one. She isn't very keen on the dry food, poor girl. The vet has said she may now be more prone to developing pancreatitis again so we must be very careful with the amount of fat she eats. The dry food fat % is 7%. The dry matter % fat of her raw diet is arund 33%. She is a good weight, on the thin side which he said is also helpful.

3 smallish border collie girls: 10 years, 8 years, 14 months. Commercial raw diet, $40 per week for that and their bones. Usually walk all 3 at once, on leads 5 minutes to a big reserve where they run off lead for an hour in the mornings and about an hour and half at night where we see more people and have social time. Youngest one also has training 2 or 3 nights a week at my club. Don't have a lot of vet bills, middle girl has epilepsy but the meds are not expensive about $20 per month. She has a seizure about once every 6 weeks, but I don't take her to the vet for single seizures. She just had pancreatitis which cost $1800 to save her. That is by far the most massive vet bills I have had in ten years, $1200 of it was accrued over the first 24 hours alone. Vets are expensive I am considering getting insurance for the youngest one. At the moment while KC is recovering the other two get normal walks and she gets 10 minutes around the smaller park across the street twice a day. She has always slept in our bedroom (in her crate), the other two sleep inside in crates in winter and outside in summer. I figure when the older two slow down a bit in a couple of years I might end up doing a longer morning walk with Gael and take all 3 out in the afternoon. I like having 2 or 3 dogs, don't think I would have more than 3, or more than 2 that are under 6 years old and I am competing with them.