dancinbcs

If re-selling the puppy is going to be easy I think I would send the whole lot back but if you need to advertise again I would keep something towards that cost.

Sheena, any chance you can link to one? Not sure what they are but they sound like a good idea. I have a new pup coming home in 2 weeks and might come in handy. Jo Hi, If you just go into Ebay & type in Ultrasonic Dog it will come up. The collars are no good, you want a hand held one. I tried one of those when I had 4 dogs and they took no notice of it. Didn't even acknowledge the sound at all. I thought it was broken so tried it on a friends dogs and they all ran for cover. So for some dogs they work but not for others. With my barky JS, who is not at all timid and is very tough for a JS, I eventually resorted to a throw chain to stop him barking at us. Throwing the chain collar near his feet to startle him had the desired result and if he is being a brat now, all I need to do is touch the chain and he will stop. Very useful when you are on the phone and he is barking at you and biting playfully at your feet to get you off. I didn't use it until he was 6 months old because some dogs can be very frightened of it. He isn't but knows if the chain comes out he has really done something wrong. It's almost as if you can hear him saying "damn, now I have to behave". He still barks a LOT more than any of my BCs but JS are a very vocal breed.

I wouldn't recommend any of those breeds with several young kids. They are all boisterous high energy breeds that will be very mouthy as puppies and have strong jaws. For little kids a carefully selected gundog or working dog is a better option as most are not hard mouthed (with the exception of cattle dog breeds) and are very easy to train which is important for a busy Mum.

If she had turned up on the appointed day to collect the puppy you may have been legally obliged to hand it over but as she has not turned up and cannot be contacted you cannot be expected to keep the puppy indefinitely and should now be able to sell it to someone else so long as you refund her deposit asap. I never ever promise anyone a puppy and warn them that I will not decide what I am keeping until 8 weeks. If they want to leave a deposit to have first dibs on a particular puppy if it is available I will take it but it is never a guarantee that they will get a puppy. That gives me an out if I change my mind about them right up until the last minute.

Again anything black/white is dubbed a BC and anything small and white is a Malt in pounds when in fact they may not have any of those breeds in them. The same with Jack crosses as that is the default shape of mixed small terriers. Cattle dogs and crosses have been abundant in pounds for over 30 years. There may be lots of working type BCs in pounds but show bred ones are very rare and when they get a different coloured one they are called something else. A friend recently came across a lovely red/white BC in the pound and they had it down as a Golden Retriever.

Border Collie temperaments vary a lot even within the same litter so there are puppies to suit most situations. It is just a matter of telling the breeder what you need in a dog and seeing if they have anything suitable by 6-8 weeks when the temperaments are very obvious. A fairly robust but calm dog would suit you best. You do not want a hyper, bossy, timid or sensitive dog with small children. I would actually suggest getting a puppy well before your youngest is walking if possible because then the puppy has a decent chance of escaping a toddler if they are a bit bigger by the time the child is on their feet. I do not like kids aged 1-2 with baby puppies as the risk of them picking up a very young puppy and dropping it is quite high. If the puppy is a few months older by the time the child is mobile there is a lot less chance of it being picked up or stomped on. Aussies are a similar breed, not as smart or fast on the uptake as Borders but still smarter than most other breeds. This observation comes from my many friends who have trained both breeds in obedience and dog sports. They are bigger, heavier and generally more boisterous than Borders. I would be worried that an Aussie would be more inclined to send toddlers flying when running around than a Border would. I also have a Japanese Spitz and do not think they would be a good fit with little kids. They are highly excitable, bark a lot at noise, tend to be bossy and are bitey as babies. I have never had a Border that bites in play but the JS can definitely be like that for months. They are also very tiny, delicate babies who are easily damaged until they grow a bit. A great breed with older, calmer kids but not one I would get with little ones.

Box 1 Gold used to be the same thing but now it's actual kibble, not sure why they changed that (I'd still not use it though, it's definitely not a high quality food) Ingredients do look the same (from what I can recall, anyway- the last time I bought Box 1 Gold was about 5 years ago). The original Farrells biscuits and kibble were just wheatmeal, meat meal, tallow and salt. They were the most popular foods for greyhounds along with fresh meat and a concoction of supplements. When I worked for Western Pet Foods in the 90s we sold an enormous amount to the greyhound people. Box 1 bought out Farrells and kept the same formula for Box 1 biscuits for a number of years, then for some reason known only to them they changed it and added flavours and preservatives. That is when I stopped buying them. Most dogs had no problem with the original formula and my dogs always had a Box 1 2x2 for breakfast. Garlic is fine for dogs and is added to many dry foods. I have fed a teaspoon of granulated dried garlic to a 17kg dog for months to clear up itchy feet and it worked with no ill affects. Small amounts of cooked onion are also fine and dogs who get sick from onion have usually been fed a large quantity of left over bbq onions or similar. I have never heard of it being used as a supplement though.

Tell her the puppy has some sort of health issue that means it is no longer for sale.

I know the shelter where I got my dog calls any bull breed a kelpie cross if they can get away with it, for easier adoption. Maybe this is why? Yep and anything that looks like it might possibly have a hint of Lab becomes a Lab cross because people are more likely to adopt them no matter what else is making up the rest of the DNA. The pounds will always choose a more popular breed description if they can get away with it.

I would have her to the opthalmologist immediately. It might be something that can be treated. Eyes should always be treated as an emergency and you need a specialist fast.

There may be plenty of Kelpies and crosses in country pounds but it has always amazed me that so many basic dog shaped, medium sized, pricked eared, smooth coated dogs in city shelters have been dubbed Kelpie cross, despite the fact that I don't think I have ever seen a Kelpie running loose or being walked in suburbia. If there are no Kelpies then there are not going to be any crosses. Mongrels eventually end up as the basic shape of a Kelpie if you keep crossing enough breeds as it is nature's default dog shape but they may not actually have any Kelpie in them. I'm sure "Red Dog" has been responsible for a rise in dumped Kelpies though, because the same thing happened with Dalmations, Huskies and Border Collies after they featured in movies. We used to get enquiries for "Babe" dogs and we would tell them Babe was a pig not a dog. Half of them had no idea what the breed was even called. Sadly a lot of fly by night new breeders popped up to take advantage of the demand and disappeared just as quickly and I am sure this has happened with Kelpies.

Your breeder should have provided detailed info on how to raise the puppy in relation to diet and exercise.

It is possible for a dog to be DNA affected for CEA and never show any clinical symptoms. If bred with, all progeny will be affected or carriers. I personally know of 2 possibly 3 dogs that this happened with. Clear eye certs as babies and also clear eye certs as adults but DNA test showed they were genetically affected. The 3rd dog was old at the time the DNA test was developed and never tested but none of his many tested progeny were DNA normal/clear.

I have known quite a few dogs to gorge themselves on fruit and then refuse to eat because they are already full. It is very common with Border Collies. Cut down the access to the fruit, try the things mentioned above. If she still isn't eating, offer some roast chicken. If she won't eat that, get her to the vet. It is always my test of whether a dog is really ill or just not very hungry. Also keep in mind that she may be between growth spurts. Puppies do not grow at a constant rate and their appetite can vary a lot as a consequence.

My JS was chewing about 6 hours a day for many months as a puppy. If I didn't provide things he could chew he would find his own, like the furniture, skirting boards, door frames and doors, my show trolley wheels, etc. He had lots of toys and nylabones but nothing other than the antlers was more interesting than the house. He was going to chew for that amount of time regardless of what I provided. He spent part of the 6 hours destroying and ripping apart toys and some of it with the antlers.

I have some questions regarding deer antlers as I've never heard of this before. How hard are they, can they break teeth? Our dogs have a soft enamel so we have to be careful what bones we give them. Also, I note the above photo, what's inside the shell? How long (roughly) do they last. ******** Off topic question. Within the attached link, there is mention of possum tails? Aren't possums protected and if not, what do you do with them? The antlers are fairly hard on the outside with the thicker part having a softer chewy centre that the dogs really prefer. It sort of looks like dried marrow but not quite. The tips of the antlers are harder and solid and the dogs are not as keen on these. My Border Collie and Jap Spitz (7kg) both happily chew the large ones. The BC easily bites small pieces off some of them but the JS just gradually wears them away. The JS was trying to eat our house before I discovered Antlers. Both have great teeth with no damage from the antlers. The BC did chip a tooth on an old raw beef bone he found in a friends yard but not on the antlers. If I give them one each they take turns eating the "best one", then start on the second one. I have no idea why one is always better. Two usually last my guys about 4-5 months but there was one particularly tasting one they demolished in a couple of weeks. I believe the possum tails are probably imported from the NZ. They are a protected species here but a feral pest in NZ.

Maybe you should start a new thread in the breeder's section about Q fever. I always thought it was only a risk from cattle until two vet nurses I know got it in recent years from assisting in a ceasar on a cat. They took forever to get over it. To track down which case it came from the vets rang everyone who had had a dog or cat in for a caesar during the previous few weeks. Now all the staff are vaccinated. Previously it was only thought to be a risk in rural practices.

Sadly by the time there are symptoms it is usually too late to do anything. My girl only had a week from diagnosis and if I had the time over again, I would have given her wings even sooner.

in some breeds it's a disposition, but not in this one. The mode of inheritance isn't known. According to my vets they are seeing a lot more AIHA in all purebreds, crossbreds and mutts. No one knows why or what is causing it. They have no info to indicate that it is hereditary. Did the two cases related to dog B live together? Could it be an environmental cause?

I have been told that Kate is the best of the SASH eye vets by someone who has tried them all.

Very scary situation. Emus can easily kill a dog if they feel so inclined.

I think any of the specialists in Sydney are fine to do the examination. Call ARH and SASH and compare prices and locations that their opthalmologists are available at. ARH SASH

What line was Emma? PM me if you prefer. worldpedigrees.com has lots of breeds and is great for Border Collies with over 150,000 dogs entered, especially the Aust/NZ lines. anadune.com is another very large international BC database. These are private databases and very well done but still have errors. The only official databases are maintained by the ANKC and parts of them can be bought on disk with owner details removed. We use Anadune quite a bit :) It allows you to not only input the pedigree and photos of dogs but also results from hipscores, DNA testing, colour genetics etc I love going back through the pedigrees to find out what information I can about the ancestors of our lines. Just be careful with Anadune as some of the genetics, health and colour stuff is wrong for the Aust lines. World pedigrees has quite a few dogs listed as the wrong colour so don't depend on tracing colour unless you check with someone who knew the dogs.

yes I have one, I find it very good to hold and handle. Thought it might have been a bit awkward but it isn't. Thanks, it is the one I want to buy but wanted to know if it was as good as it looks and feels to hold.

What line was Emma? PM me if you prefer. worldpedigrees.com has lots of breeds and is great for Border Collies with over 150,000 dogs entered, especially the Aust/NZ lines. anadune.com is another very large international BC database. These are private databases and very well done but still have errors. The only official databases are maintained by the ANKC and parts of them can be bought on disk with owner details removed.