Dogs are kind, loyal, and compassionate animals. Why they are always famous than other pets because they are faithful to their master. They protect your home, or any possession, always selfless, and love you unconditionally.
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My Story about getting Border Collies:
My story about getting our Border Collies is best and I hope you’ll like to hear my experience. Border Collies are one of the very famous dog species. You must be curious to know what are border collies known for. They are famous for herding livestock, especially sheep. What else; what are border collies known for? They are very smart, intelligent as I am proud to have my Border Collies. Besides this, they have super energy and are athletic. They compete well for sheepdog trials and dog sports. Many dog lovers are keen to know what are border collies known for and why they should buy them.
One day, I was walking in a nearby Community Park with my family and we saw a lady with a cute and fluffy puppy. She was telling the people if they wanted that puppy. We had curiosity too, so we started asking her about that puppy. We could not proceed as we saw a minor wound on his neck. My son fell in love with that cute puppy. We came home and went for the same next day. There we contacted a breeder and saw many types of dogs. We found an old Border collie that we were not interested in. Our son wanted a puppy.
We took an online survey to help us determine the type that is best for our lifestyle. For a lady like me, a busy mom working remotely, the selection was difficult. Fortunately, my husband’s one friend ran into the shopping center, where we found a huge outlet with all sizes of Border Collies. My son was very excited, so we bought a mother and a puppy as we didn’t want to separate a tiny puppy from his mother.
Sharing details about our Border Collies; mother and puppy:
They are highly trainable dogs and can act like superstars in activities like herding, obedience, and alertness. They treat their masters’ families like their own and mix with old people and well- behave with children.
Vital Stats:
Our Border collie mother’s weight is 30 pounds, and the puppy is 15 pounds. For readers, I want to give some figure for the average vital stats:
Weight: 30- 45 Pounds
Height: 18- 22 inches tall, and Life Span: 12-15 years
Appearance and colors:
Our Border collie mother was athletic, medium-sized whereas the puppy collie was lean and shy. Border Collies have two types of coats; rough and smooth; so ours are having a rough outer and a soft undercoat. The rough part covers the chest, belly, and legs and the smooth coat is short all over but minimal in feathering. The color of the coat of Border Collies is usually black with white spots on the face, neck, chest, legs, and feet.
Food: He eats 1.5 to 2 high-quality dry food a day. It also depends on your dog’s size, age, build, metabolism, and activity level.
Training and Socializing:
We know border Collies for their intelligence and they get training easily from their master. Collies normally love various training as their learning ability is quite high. Some owners get their collies to training centers, where they learn advanced commands. We trained the mother at home and the puppy in the training center due to budget constraints.
Collies must socialize with other dogs or pet communities. They feel happy to meet their fellows, but don’t show when they get bored. So you have to take care of their mood.
We took our puppy to a training center where he started learning words. There are a lot of animals that have been trained to understand many words in these centers.
Temperament and needs:
They are energetic, alert, and responsive, so they require physical exercise and mental stimulation. Our collies are dynamo, playful with unlimited energy. We know border Collies for their intense stare, or eye with which they secure their flock. Luckily, our pets are very people-oriented and wonderful family dogs. They are well players and perform activities like fly-ball, obedience, freestyle, obedience, and agility. They are working dogs on farms and help their master in their activities.
They thrive off plenty of exercises and need extensive activities to burn off their calories and keep themselves fit. We take them every day out for running or playing purpose.
Life Span:
The natural life span of Border Collies is between 12-15 years. There are many causes of death and one of the major reasons is cancer, old age, and cerebral vascular afflictions. Our collies’ age is 6 and 2 years, respectively. Our puppy will grow up so soon, we could never imagine.
Health and Diseases:
Collie Borders usually have eye anomaly and hip dysplasia as primary genetic diseases. A border collie is a healthy breed. Common genetic diseases are hip dysplasia, progressive retinal atrophy, lens luxation, and epilepsy. They are prone to bacterial and viral infection, so they need a lot of care. They get a vaccination for parvo, rabies, and distemper, etc.
Activities and Dog Sports:
We take our collies for a 90-minute exercise every day. Border Collies are highly energetic, so getting the right amount of exercise is essential for their health. They love playing with toys as their masters teach them how to catch a ball or toy as they are running. Border Collies also achieve the highest award in a range of dog agility, canine freestyle, obedience, canine sports working style, and Frisbee. They are good at reading subtle cues, noticing changes in their surroundings.
History:
They descended from landrace collies, a type that was found in the British Isles. This breed comes from the place of origin along the Anglo-Scottish Border. The name “Collie” was first known by the end of the 19th century. Dogs similar to today’s border collies used to work with farmers as far back as the 1st century B.C. So the first reference of Border collie was registered back in 1915. Border Collies had dominated as a sheepdog in New Zealand, and Australia, and later in Canada, and the USA in the years after the Civil War. At present, we know Border collie as a great family dog.
Price and Expense:
A Border collie can cost you $150 minimum a month. The average puppy Border collie price is between $1000 -$1500 and over $10,000 as a set-up cost for his lifetime. This includes puppy vaccines, neutering, and equipment, vet bills. There are some ongoing costs like preventive health care, food, pet insurance (vet bills), and accessories. Besides these, they are some other costs like training, boarding, and day-care.
Essentials:
We visited a nearby pet store to buy some essentials for our Border Collies. The breeder handed in a list, and we gathered some important information from the internet. We bought a large pack of dry food, a bed and cover, a blanket, shampoo, a hair comb, two toothbrushes, and a nail cutter, as this cost us around 60 pounds. We bathed them and combed their hair after drying them up, and trimmed their nails. The next day, we took our puppy Border collie to a Vet hospital for vaccination.
It has become our routine task to brush their coats, brush their teeth, and bathe them. As they shed hair seasonally, so it’s a good idea to brush them to prevent further shedding in a house. Brushing teeth is also essential, and this needs thrice a week to prevent any bacterial infection or any kind of tartar of teeth. You can bathe your Border collie as needed, but the ideal is once every three months or when he is really dirty or smells terrible. Trimming his nails once a week is equally important. We examine them for a weekly checkup if they have any rashes, sores, any sign of infection or inflammation in the mouth so that we could treat them.
How to choose a Border collie:
Dog lovers must have come to the answers to so many questions that what are Border Collies known for and why they should buy him.
- How to choose a border collie?
- What should you be looking for before buying a puppy border collie?
- What factors to consider?
- What color is best to choose?
Do your homework before you pick up your Border Collie as we did. Take an online survey to help you determine the type that is best for your lifestyle. You should know the purpose of owning; Family Pet, Work, Sport, or Protection, etc. Do you need a small or large Border collie?
Contact a reliable breeder who could genetically test for inheritance diseases. Check for a few litters and then buy, as this will help you go for a better size, color, age, and health condition. Puppies must be at least 8 months old before we separate them from their mother. You should get all the required information from the breeder like about vaccine, disease if any, health, feeding program, genetic test results, parents’ pedigree certificate, etc.
Take your puppy to a vet within the first week of being-home and live a happy life.