dancinbcs

Border Collies shed a lot, in easy to clean up clumps, twice a year for a few weeks. The rest of the year, shedding is minimal and easily contained by a good weekly brushing. Short double coats like GSDs shed one hair at a time 365 days a year and it gets into everything. The worse shedder I have ever owned was a Labrador, which also has a short double coat. They shed so much more than the Borders do.

CL Ceroid Lipfuscinosis

This site lists all the breeds that now have tests available for CL.I have also heard of it in Mini Schnauzers as well and it is likely to occur in other breeds, with more being found all the time.

Trainability, Loyalty, Responsive, Doesn't bark too much, Doesn't Shed or Drool Much, Not High-strung, Willing to work, Even Temperament, Won't try to kill livestock or small animals, Not to small a dog, Doesn't have a tendency to bite, Can spend a lot of time outside or by itself if needed, Can think for itself like a GSD

Apart from the bit bolded above, you have described a Border Collie. Any loyal and highly trainable breed will want to be with their trainer, not stuck alone in a yard. Many dogs cope alone while the owner is at work but if they spend that time alone, they should be with the family the rest of the time.

To me the problem sound like a neuro one. He is the right age for something like CL which is now being found in many more breeds. It could also be a brain tumour or some other form of brain damage. All of which will cause him to be in serious pain. Be very careful handling him as he may suddenly become very dangerous. Sudden overreaction to noise is a key symptom for neuro problems. Check everything else out but if he gets worse make your safety top priority.

Brightstar 123, it sounds like her whole system is out of whack. I would take her to a Dr of Traditional Chinese Medicine and get her sorted out. I can recommend Lyn Stevens at Alternative Therapies at Camden or Neil Barnsley at Animal Holistic Therapies at Greendale. Labradors do smell more than most other breeds but what you are describing sounds like things are not right.

For any sort of poo or mud, pack with potato flour and allow to dry before brushing out with a cheap bristle brush. Great for long coated dogs if they have the runs. Much faster and easier than washing every time. If there is still a smell use Plush Puppy Wonder Wash that you spray on, lather and rub off with a towel for a waterless wash. It removes stains and odour including axel grease, with no trace.

This lab has many different breeds listed for CL testing but does not mention ACDs. Labolkin

There are different ages of onset in humans but in BCs as stated above the onset is not until about 15 months at the earliest. It takes that long for the waste product in the body that is not being eliminated to build up and cause a problem. Seizures are possible but not a main feature of CL. Dogs with CL seem to lose their co-ordination as if they cannot tell were the ground is. They can go blind and display odd behaviour like snapping at nothing or being frightened of a water bowl. In human children, all patients go blind eventually and the different parts of the nervous system start to shut down until they all fail but in children it can take about 4 years for the whole process to end in death.

My guess with a 5 month old puppy is liver shunt or some form of epilepsy.

Bathing dogs weekly does no harm so long as you use the right shampoo for your dog and don't have the dryer too hot. Thousands of show dogs are bathed every week for shows and have wonderful coats. The tendency for a coat to bleach is partly genetic. None of my Border Collies have ever had any part of their coats bleach out. They have all been genetically the blackest of blacks and I have never done anything special to keep them that way. I have had many people over the years ask how I get them so black and I always reply that I just breed them that way.

Livamol can either blacken a black coat or cause any red tint in it to show up more so it can be a gamble using it on a black dog. Unfortunately there is nothing you can dot to fix a coat that is already sunbleached apart from dying it black again. You can prevent any more happening by keeping the dog out of the sun, adding supplements and using coat oils but the now bleached hair will have to fall out and be replaced to get rid of the problem completely.

Why would they not register a litter? The puppies are worth more with papers. If the bitch owner is not a member and does not have a prefix, the bitch can just be leased to someone who does and the litter bred under their prefix.

I would just get a fence put up there and send the neighbour half the bill for it. Young dog or not, there is no way I would be letting that dog anywhere near your little ones.

I would highly recommend this course. I have never had anything to do with Katrina, but Kelly is, without a doubt, one of the best dog trainers I know.

If the course shows people to raise puppies even half as confident and consistently well trained as Kelly's puppies are then you can't go wrong.

I will second this comment.

I will third it. A wonderful idea from an outstanding trainer who knows how to raise puppies right. Katrina's high profile and enthusiasm for spreading the word about dog care and training plus Kelly's vast experience make them a great team to help those without access to a good puppy school, get off on the right foot with training puppies. I wish them every success with this new venture.

Registration papers are the only guarantee that you get a purebred puppy. Without papers it could be any sort of cross and they can be hard to tell apart as puppies. You have no comeback if your "Pug" then grows to be 40cm tall and an obvious crossbred. As already mentioned it is a condition of being a registered breeder that all puppies must be registered and the buyers provided with papers. There is no acceptable excuse for not doing it. Find another breeder as this one sounds very dodgy.

Do keep in mind that some dogs are really one person dogs, especially males with a female owner and will only really obey one trainer. It may take a lot of time to get the dog to accept authority from someone else.

I think it depends honestly, I have 5 girls in my house,all dominant bossy types and never had any kind of problem whatsoever. With Multiple males however I have experienced nothing BUT problems. IF I ever own a male dog again I will never do more then 1, females though? I'd be happy with nothing but lol

Its worth adding that I HAVE had issues with hormonal bitches, getting nasty when close to season, but outside of that my females are all good friends. My males OTH barely tolerate each other and for years were crate and rotate and they sometimes cause issues between the females who are very tolerant otherwise. Heck Gem is my "bitchiest" female and she will always do the least she can get away with, ie, when one of my males attacked her she didn't even use her teeth to defend herself, she just rolled over and kicked him till I could get him off her..then she walked away calmly...and then offered a play bow...

I would not tolerate a male that would attack a bitch. Totally unacceptable behaviour to me. I hope your male that did that was not bred with.

I have had 30 years in the breed and think the situation described is perfect for the right Border Collie puppy. If the OP is committed to learning how to train the dog properly from day one and accepts that if they do not get the training right the dog will train them, they should be fine. The other option could be a trained young adult dog from a breeder who has children if they don't want to have to do as much training.

Please do not just go to the DOL breeder ads. Wait for personal recommendations. There are a lot of people breeding Borders who are not doing the right things to breed healthy quality dogs. I could honestly only recommend about a third of the breeders who advertise on here.

Oops, I forgot to mention that the parents of all Border puppies must be hip and elbow scored and have their DNA status known by testing or parentage for the following hereditary conditions - CL, TNS and CEA. Do not buy a puppy from anyone who does not do these basic health tests. A lot of the inferior breeders will have DNA clear dogs but they don't hip and elbow score, so should be avoided. A pet puppy from a good breeder should cost up to around $1200 regardless of colour. Also avoid anyone selling different colours at different prices. Colour is simple to breed for if that is your main focus, rather than quality and breeders doing this tend to mention colour repeatedly on their websites. Your main concern needs to be temperament and activity level, not colour or markings.

A show line Border Collie could be a perfect fit but as they vary so much in temperament, you need the right puppy from any litter. This may mean waiting on a litter and finding there is no suitable puppy in that litter and having to wait on another one - but it is worth the wait for the right one. Either sex could be fine but a male will tend to be more devoted to the one person who trains them, whereas the girls tend to share themselves around more. I always warn buyers with children to lock the dog up if the children are playing chasing games as the dog will join in and may nip with excitement but it is rare for them to do more than a nip. Apart from that the middle of the road, unflappable ones are perfect with kids. My only concern would be your lack of experience with a very quick to learn dog. They are very different to most breeds in that they learn things in just one or two lessons so you have to make sure you get it right first go. Unteaching something you didn't get right can be a lot of work. If you are committed to learning how to train a dog right from the start then you should be fine.

If the crate will fit in your car take him for lots of car trips in the crate to places he likes. Parks, beach, etc, all fun places so he associates going in the crate with fun. I don't do any crate training as such but my dogs all travel in them several times a week and spend time in them at shows so they associate crates with car travel and fun places and soon learn to jump into them in the car. When I bought my first show trolley I worried the dogs wouldn't like it. I put it up in the lounge room and one dog got straight into it. When he got out the next one got in. They just loved going into it and would have loved me to have left it there all the time. When I bought a smaller crate for shows for my now smaller breed, I put it up in the lounge room for a few days for him to get used to it. He wandered in and out and the bigger dog managed to fold himself up and squeezed into it. The look he gave me was priceless as I am sure he was thinking, gee this one is a bit small but he still wanted to be in there.

Quick update regarding Sonny. I have had him on Rose Hip Vital Canine for a fortnight now & what a huge difference it has made He is bouncing around like a 2 year old again. He's moving so much freer. Such a difference even in his face & eye's, he is back to being a really happy boy again. So wonderful to witness the transformation in a short period of time. I wouldn't of believed it unless I witnessed it myself. I have upped his swimming & lessened his running around. Doing more scent work as well as it isn't taxing on his joints. I just have to keep an eye on him as I don't want him to over do it now in all of his 'I feel good' moments :laugh:

I'm wrapped with RHVC & will continue to use it. Have got Stella on the maintance dose as well, can't hurt

Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts & help

Great news. Can you please share where you managed to buy the RHCV for $65? I can't find it under $87 plus postage at the moment.

Do you have a chemists warehouse near you? The human version is often on special there.

I buy the human one in capsule form from Chemist warehouse but the capsules on special work out at $70 for 300g and even at $87 plus $5.50 postage the 500g Canine one works out cheaper. We are a RHV family. My Mum and I both take the human version and one of the dogs is on the canine one. I think we need shares in the company. :)

A lot depends on the breed and the individual dogs. I and every Border Collie breeder I have known have all run multiple bitches together with usually no issues at all, so long as you have one alpha bitch and no others that want to challenge her. My first bitch used to deck every dog or bitch that came into the yard. Once they submitted to her she was fine with them. She never got into a fight in her 15 years. The only problems encountered with BC bitches is that you get the odd ones that decide they hate another specific bitch and from then on they can never be trusted anywhere near each other. They are usually both fine with other bitches, just not each other and it usually ends in rehoming one or the other. In BCs you run bitches together and usually separate entire males from each other. In my newer breed of Japanese Spitz the opposite applies. The males have no inclination to fight at all and can be all run together but some of the bitches can be very narky with other bitches. A lot also depends on the breed's tendency to fight. Most Terrier breeds like an excuse to fight and other breeds bred to work alone are not so tolerant of other dogs. BCs have been bred to work in groups and get on together and most hounds get on well in groups as they have been bred to work in hunting packs.

Quick update regarding Sonny. I have had him on Rose Hip Vital Canine for a fortnight now & what a huge difference it has made He is bouncing around like a 2 year old again. He's moving so much freer. Such a difference even in his face & eye's, he is back to being a really happy boy again. So wonderful to witness the transformation in a short period of time. I wouldn't of believed it unless I witnessed it myself. I have upped his swimming & lessened his running around. Doing more scent work as well as it isn't taxing on his joints. I just have to keep an eye on him as I don't want him to over do it now in all of his 'I feel good' moments :laugh:

I'm wrapped with RHVC & will continue to use it. Have got Stella on the maintance dose as well, can't hurt

Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts & help

Great news. Can you please share where you managed to buy the RHCV for $65? I can't find it under $87 plus postage at the moment.

It may be a breed difference (is it a terrier thing?) but I have no idea why you would need to remove the male from the premises. I have never heard anyone mention that before in 30 years as a breeder. My bitches would simply tell the others to stay out of whichever room they were in with the litter for the first couple of weeks and they respected that. My foundation male loved babies and would sneak in to look adoringly at them when the mum went out to toilet. He would bolt out of the room when he heard her coming back so he didn't get caught. By the time the puppies were up and about at 3 weeks they socialised with my other dogs and bitch and my male played with them. The next male I had was scared of puppies so he was always separated from them so they couldn't get to him, with a puppy pen or similar once they were up and around.

I have no stats but know plenty of breeders who have had at least one of their bitches with it. My dog picked up the very start of it in one of my girls and she was treated with antibiotics successfully. It is usually seen is older bitches but I have known of them as young as under 2 years. Most are saved by surgery if you pick up the symptoms early enough but some still die from the condition. Most desex their breeding girls by 8 or 9 years to avoid it but if the bitch is still being shown in normal competition then you can't do it. Some breeders decide to spay much younger, when finished breeding if they do not wish to continue showing the bitch. At least with Neuter classes now, a lot of older show bitches are being spayed and returning to the ring as Neuters.

The breeder of your girl and even your boy would be your best contacts here. Ask them for help and investigate getting the litter put on limit register on one of their prefixes. I have been the breeder in a similar position when one of my puppy buyers rang me one night to say she had come home to a litter that she had no idea her 11 month old girl was even expecting. She was a show dog and not intended to be spayed so I ran around all over the place to get supplies and a whelping box for her and was on hand to help her out. It was the right mating but a year too early. At least the owner already had her breeders prefix. Yes accidents happen and you have to make the most of it but you will need a experienced breeder to help you out if possible.

I would like to strangle the first idiot vet you went to. Standard procedure for a bitch that you intend to spay is to do it asap after a season if she is accidentally mated. I do not know any vet who would say wait and see.

If by some stroke of bad luck you girl needs a caesar from the start, then I would advise the vet to not revive any of the puppies and to spay the bitch at the same time. The bitch will never know she even had a litter if she doesn't have any naturally. 11 month old bitches can raise a litter but it takes more out of them than the pregnancy does so it is best avoided if possible. Bitches that have the whole first litter by caesar can be really hard work to get them to accept these strange little creatures that arrived when they were asleep. It can be very stressful on bitch and owners as it may take a week or so for them to bond so they cannot be left alone at all and have to have 24/7 supervision. If the puppies are born naturally the maternal instinct kicks in and makes everything much easier but that means that you will have to let her raise the litter.

Baby gates in the house that allow the cat to pass through but not the dog, would provide safety for the cat and put an end to the chasing.