Breeding Blog
A section for notes and challenges in raising puppies and dogs …esp. in a large group.
Dogs in the House (and in the Bed)
The Sunday Times today (27-Oct-2024) has a piece on Floss the working border collie and her journey inside and into the bed.
When I sell dogs and pups, I don’t preach rights and wrongs about inside v. outside. These are personal matters. Working dogs inside is fine in my view …if you are prepared for the mess (and wear and tear). And again in my view, if you are prepared to give up your life to their intensity, which multiplies non-linearly with the number of dogs.
Having dogs living in the house alters the relationship (and the dog) for sure, which may be what people want. And the dynamics change with dog numbers (as they do with children).
My personal choice is keep some distance between my dogs’ lives and mine. Days together. Nighttime is my time …in my space. And there is nothing unethical about that. After all, parents are happy for children’s time away at school and time spent in their rooms and with their peers. My dogs actually prefer I spend time with them ‘in their space’ rather than inviting them into my space.
As dogs get older (the Times article), I make accommodations for them in their space. I simply can’t be walking through stools and puddles in the house as the Times author does. Personal choice.
“Trick Dogs”
Working border collies are specialists. They are bred for their herding instinct. They can make good agility dogs or even ‘trick dogs’, but that is less likely than with border collie lines bred for those specialties.
I had a trick dog trainer drive 14 hours one-way today to see one of my dogs only to be disappointed. He was looking for a specialist dog that could easily navigate an urban environment off-lead and learn to do impressive tricks. He had very strong views on what a puppy had to display to be ‘right’ for his purposes. Unsurprisingly, my herding specialists did not pass his test(s).
If I had known he was truly looking for a ‘trick dog’ and the temperament and conformation had to be exact, I would have discouraged him. Sometimes the true purposes / requirements do not come through in conversations.
Because working collies are specialists in herding, they are not bred for extroverted temperaments. In fact, that is generally a disadvantage.
Working collies follow motion and want to bring it to rest or steer it. Balls and frisbees can be objects of motion for working collies, but not always. Working collies tend to look for things moving along the ground, not in the air.
Some working collies understand agility courses. Some don’t. I am not a treat and clicker trainer, so that whole model of training is foreign to me. Training working collies focuses on a limited set of commands to work stock, with each situation being slightly different. Tricks and balls are not something working collie handlers know anything about.
Most working collies also make good pets, but not all. Some are simply too intense and focused on the work for which they are bred. Much of the reason I keep my pups for 16 weeks or more is to truly see which pups are dedicated working dogs, which are purely pets, and which can go either way. Across litters, the pup distribution is roughly:
- 25% specialist working dog
- 50% working dog / pet mix
- 25% pet only
I’m not sure where ‘trick dogs‘ fit into that distribution. I try to get people looking for agility and trick dogs to look at other breeding lines known for those specialities. Working collies are generally not a good fit.