Advice on buying border collie please General Chat

I'm helping a friend train his young dog for Obedience. Now if you could guarantee you could get a puppy that turns out like him every time they would be suitable for a youngish family, but Fred has put in hours & hours of work with him.

His dog, Glen, is very laid back & loving & is from show lines, but he still has the instinct to work & is very active needing to be occupied all the time

My BC was a farm bred working dog, my oH has always had them (until now at least). In his youth my OH would be out walking/socialising him from about 9am til 3pm...I'm not joking. Okay, he had a lunch break! By the time I came in at 5ish, our BC was ready to do 'training' and I did a lot of obedience work with him for at least an hour. In the evenings, we would be throwing a ball to each other with him chasing it, or hiding the ball in the house so he and Biffters could find it. The end result was the most beuatiful ,well behaved dog who was fantastic around everyone and who adored and protected my young son as soon as he was born.
BC's can be incredibly special pets,but you HAVE to put in a phenomenal amount of work...yes it is possible to exhaust them physically....but you then have to exhaust them mentally AS WELL. It isn't easy when they are young.

Too late! Am very disappointed but family member could not wait for advice and went ahead and bought one, am rather upset as was trying to suggest he waits and so on. He bought one from a lady in Carlisle Erica Downes, anyone know her, took it to the vet and vet says dog in good condition although slightly undershot! She is a tri coloured 11 week old bitch from Holmelyne lines, ah well just hope he puts in the work, mind today he is painting the outhouse in readiness for insulating it and has already sent off for a grooming table, and also got a cage for the pup, I am going to visit today!!!!! thanks all for advice appreciate it

Oh dear not a show/working(as in obedience etc) kennels despite being a KC accredited breeder no mention of DNA testing or Hip Scores for the BC's only clinical eye testing, which no longer enough for responsible breeders.

The puppy is under shot I hope it goes correct otherwise he will have no chance in the breed ring-where competition is very very hot.

Erm well I better not post in public what I think about this

Just to add though,although its not a fault puppy will more than likely be smooth coated which will make it extremely hard to compete in todays showring also.

Looked this breeder up also breeds labs , sorry but i wouldnt have had a dog off her

They are very active dogs, but i have a collie pup of 20 weeks and a 9 month old = two labs and i manage just fine, but we do spend lots of time outdoors walking and playing...i think as long as your prepared for that, there are no worries.
Hope that helps.
Gem

P.S There are some lovely collies on the Many tears rescue site and wiccaways have lovely collies too, thats if he would be content with amateur showing???, but of course agility would not be a prob with a rescue

What a time we are having! Thought a KC breeder was ok esp as flagged but when Son got to place it was an old farm with dogs and kennels everywhere, a puppy farm of sorts, choc labs, cream and black, lots and lots of collies and babies but did all seem very clean, eyes clean etc, I tried persuading him to go home and think it over but he had to have one there and then and trusted the man who said yes shes a beauty to show etc, not got papers yet as Erica away. Anyway Pete going to phone them today and ask if we can return pup as undershot and paid for a show type, Son feeling rather ashamed of himself for rushing into it, wanted a dog to show so much as in the past always shown ours with us etc, anyway your help here has been brilliant, hopefully we can get him a dog to show, oh he first thought of a rescue dog but no one would look at him having two small children!!

Please give him this message from me.

To quote a very old saying"Everything comes to he who waits"

A long time ago I judged an interclub Obedience match. At the match was a five month old puppy dog, who did some training before the match. He was a strong handsome tri colour & his work was stunning & I fell in love with him. Our love affair lasted all his life & continues today. He wasn't the best of stud dogs so didn't leave many offspring behind & I was never in a position to have one anyway. I was heart broken when he died, but at least his owner has a lovely black & white son who I also loved to bits.

I have longed for a BC from these lines(as the first dog's father was equally stunning)but have never been in a position to have one.

However on Monday of this week part of that dream has come true I have a little bitch from the bloodlines & everything crossed I will be having her full brother early next year

I would hope he won't have to wait for 21 years before getting his dream dog, but I can tell him it is worth waiting for the right dog at the right time. Rather than rushing out & grabbing the first available puppy

WE HAVE TROUBLE Son been in touch with Breeder [name removed] explained was sold show pup and vet says 2mm undershot so can he return pup. She went mad and very abusive down phone said do you know anything about dogs, told her we shown and bred for many years, so her reply was, well do you know border collie,s mouths as they are different!!! told us to get the vet to write a letter as proof and to get jaw x rayed. So phoned vet wheo has gone mad also, will not advise anyone to use her from now on and refuses to x ray a pup of this young age as could cause too much stress, says anyone can see pups jaw by looking in her mouth. So we are in a sright muddle here, all because Son rushed in too quickly wanting a bc pup to train and love.

Oh dear.
Did the pup come with a contract?
This is really sad, poor pup.

Don't know what to advise but just feel sorry for the poor pup.

I had this problem with rescue too, but Many tears and East midlands dog rescue are very sensible and of the view that children brought up with dogs correctly is a very positive.
I have all my dogs from them and a very happy little boy who loves hid doggies

Sorry to hear about this poor little pup, sounds about right coming from a puppy farmer. :-(

Well i wouldnt worry, your son wanted a pup to love and he got that, he wanted one to show, well he didnt get that quite, but great fun can be got from showing in the ameteur leagues But most of all i geuss it will show him that in the future, to listen, think things through and that actions have consequences

Puppy will not be going back there whatever, its a puppy farm and too cruel to send her back, we can all give her lots of love and exercise here. Son and OH took vets letter as proof of overshot as requested by them and they were thrown off the farm this afternoon by a very nasty overweight farmer, partner cum relative, we are contacting necessary agencies as this needs looked into, anyway thanks all for help and advice, Son loves the upu now so she stays however her teeth look!! Vet helping too, so all you BC folk thank you you are a lovely helpful and friendly lot and we all appreciate your help with this.

I know a girl who tragically lost a young Bitch recently has bought a pup from there

Would love to see some pics

Firstly, this is only my second post so might have done something wrong haha!

Would just like to say I got one of my girls, Jazz, from [removed] Jazz is perfect in temprement, so easy to train, not to mention that she is absolutely gorgeous! All my Border Collie friends love her and are amazed how she can be so friendly and gorgeous, some have even looked at her pedigree so they can get a pup from her lines, although not necessarily from Holmelyne.

I looked into the breeder alot before I decided to get Jazz and visited her kennels first, although she has quite a few dogs (which I must admit I was worried about because I had been the KC website and seen the number, and I am VERY against puppy farming) I was happy with the set up she had. She had 4 very large runs, 1 for the BC bitches, 1 for BC dogs, and the others for the labs, then she had a row of kennels (which were heated) where the dogs with pups were (there was only one litter when I was there) and where the dogs slept at night. She also had a smaller outdoor run where she kept her oap's, this was more sheltered and was quieter as it was further from the other runs. I liked this set up as the dogs were very well socialised and were having a great time running around playing with each other and all the toys. The breeder's husband also came through while I was talking to the BC dogs and let out a couple of the collies which then followed him as he drove off on a tractor so they could help on the farm, there were also labs in the house sleeping on the couches. I find this far from a puppy farm.

Jazz's litter was inside the kennels with their mother, with the door unlocked so the mother didn't have to stay in with the pups, and their mothers sister. Both of these dogs had the full run of the inside of the kennels and were running around with toys and came to greet us.

All in all I thought the breeder was a lovely breeder and very interested in all her dogs and pups, she was very conscious of ensuring we knew everything we had to and gave us an information pack and insurance and was very keen for us to send her photos of Jazz, and she was especially excited that I was calling her Jazz as one of her oaps were called Jazz although she was keen for us to call Jazz Bandit which would have been appropriate!

Went on a little there but just saying I do not think there is anything wrong with the breeder I really liked her set up, and if I hadn't not only would I have not bought a pup but I would have loudly voiced it! But then again, after saying this, my dogs are predominantly pets and only occasionally compete in agility and obedience for fun, I have no experience of showing at all. So I suppose it's what you want your BC for, if you want an amazingly friendly, eager to please and a BC that is not snappy I definitely recommend [name removed]

Personal opinion, sorry if I went on a bit! x

This thread is 3 years old

Yes I know it is now haha! It was my first post, I was lookig at their new website and googled and this came up and I joined just so I could say... However I then realised it was 3 years old :? I'm still trying to work this thing lol.

Oopsies...