Border Collie Discussions

What beautiful collies you have!

More gorgeous collies, thanks for sharing

Here are my rescue babes :

Milly (blue merle wsd)


Timmy (75% wsd, 25% whippet)


Taffy (bc/retriever X)


Beau (sheltie/bc X)


Last but not least Max, my blind WSD



And here they are together :

Fab pics - beautiful dogs! How does your blind collie cope?

He copes very well, still does everything he used to and runs round like a loon with the others, albeit he runs off in the wrong direction sometimes and I have to clap so he knows where I am when I recall him. He has gradually gone blind over the past couple of years and has probably never had perfect eyesight, so he is used to it. He's just that bit more 'special' and I feel more protective of him :smt049

AWW YOUR BABES ARE SO GORGEOUS NICE TO SEE ANOTHER MEMBER WITH A MERLE

This is like, my favourite thrread ever, I'm a bit of a border collie girl!

I have a 4 month old Border Collie pup and an 8 year old BC x Lab but we think she might have some whippet in her, any thoughts?

I'm going to give you lots of pictures now, since I'm bored and can't decide whick to include!



Alfie's mum and dad, not a good picture of mum. Dad is one of the most gorgeous border collies I have ever seen.



Skye, the pup we were supposed to bring home and we followed her from birth. In that picture she was around 4 weeks. Sadle a few days after that photo, Skye died. At the same time, one of the other pups in the litter couldn't go to the home he was meant to. Some of our friends said we were heartless for taking him on, but we feel it was a sign that the two events happened so close together and that Skye sent him to us.

Anyway

Alfie at a few days old -



At about a week old, not exactly sure -



At 5 weeks, the first time we met him with the intention of him being ours.



First night home, 8 weeks -



About 10 weeks -





In the bath after he got covered in jam. As you can see, he is all fluff!





A few days ago, 4 months -



Getting up to mischeif, he jumped on the chair and onto the desk to look out of the window! He was quickly put back on the floor but I couldn't resist getting a photo first. Dogsey on the computer, typical!




The funniest thing is watching his nose get blacker!

This is my BC x Lab with suspected Whippet. She just seems to small and lean to be that mix, and she's seriously fast, like oh my god fast.







Together -




I'm so sorry about all the photos, I get a bit carried away. If it's too much, I can remove them. I'm really sorry.

Aww bless him - no wonder he is your special guy

Don't apologise - you have some gorgeous dogs. I loved all the photos

wow Lovely pictures.
Love the one of alfie on the pooter!

Has anyone had a BC with only one plum? if so at 5 1/2 months is it not ever going to appear?

What lovely piccies. I'm in BC heaven.

The other one can still come down. Have you been to the vets for them to have a look to see if the other one is present. If it's not down by a year then you'd be looking at getting it removed.

Retained testicles rarely drop, [ some might say it will but vets will disagree... ].
You really do need to talk to your vet about castration for as soon as possible as retained testicles can, [ and often do ], become cancerous plus there is the risk of testicular torsion so castration is the only recourse.

It is hereditary also, so even if a such a dog was fertile in the descended testicle he should never be bred from. If you got yours from a breeder, please make them aware as they should not use the same stud again *ever* because of the hereditary factor, and if he is registered with KC or ISDS, please make them aware too so that its on record, [ though a decent breeder would not dream of using the same stud again anyway once they are made aware....].

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&articleid=897

http://www.2ndchance.info/cryptorchid.htm

http://www.k9magazinefree.com/k9_perspective/iss28p2.shtml

Hiya, just to mention, all the vets I know of and have read articles by agree that if not descended by 12 weeks its highly unlikely that a genuinely Cryptorchid testicle will ever descend.
You are spot on suggesting a vet check to initially find out if this is a Cryptorchid case or not of course :smt001

Thanks Megan and Patch,
I have always intended getting him castrated, I didn't realise it was such a serious problem ie hereditary.
The chap i got him from had only bred the litter so he could have another bitch for himself, he's not KC reg and i'm not sure what ISDS is but will let him know.
My Vet recommends castration from 7 months onwards is this correct? she didnt give me an indication as to when to expect them to both decend but told that would need to be kept an eye on.
i didn't have my bitch spayed because i didnt want her to have such a big op when i am happy to keep her safe when she's in season and havent had a problem with this in 7 years now it looks like he'll have to have a similar op looking at those links! :-( (my first male pup)

International Sheep Dog Society.

Oh right thanks will def let the chap know, I wonder if the other pups had the problem.

Moobli
You beat me to it. Just knew you'd pop up being the ambassador of the ISDS


If you are going to have the dog castrated anyway, I would let the vet keep a check on it but give the pup a bit longer. Either way he is going to have an op so a few more months will not make much difference. How old was your pup when his first plum came down?
Here is another posting on here regards the subject

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=51219&page=2&highlight=undescended testicles

Just to clarify, I refered to genuine Cryptorchids never descending as opposed to just `late bloomers`.
Hope that clears it up as I obviously did`nt put it well enough previously for which I apologise for causing any confusion :smt001

Don't worry, I kind of guessed that's what you meant which is why I deleted the above

I, naturally, always keep an eye on any collie or GSD discussions