Question 7: When is the right time to get another dog?
One or two – which is easiest?
I think there are a number of factors to consider when thinking about a second dog.
Positives:
Much nicer for the first dog to have a companion. Unless they are like my first one and don’t really like other dogs, most will much prefer to have another dog to interact with regularly.
Less separation anxiety. Usually, multiple dogs won’t mind being left and are less likely to be destructive. However, sometimes one dog will teach another the bad behaviour :-/
Easier to train. The second dog does learn from the first and will therefore come back more easily, or learn basic commands. However, there can be problems with this as well…
Negatives:
I would never sell two puppies to one home. They play together all day long and are very ‘self-contained’. This means that it is really hard to get their focus and to have a bond with them as individuals. You absolutely have to take them out separately, every day and train them up to have any hope of controlling them and even then, they will easily ‘gang up’ and run off. Similarly, two dogs close in age can be a challenge, which needs careful management.
As I’ve said, not all dogs get on. When bringing a puppy home, the first dog can be jealous and grumpy, snapping at the puppy when it tries to play. This needs to be carefully managed and sometimes the older dog never gets over it. Many people give up after a while and return the puppy, because they realise that it is just making the other dog miserable.
Two dogs is twice as much work – at least. Twice the hair, twice the poo, twice the mud, twice the chewing etc. If you have more dogs, you need to cope with a dirty house or really love cleaning!
Build it up slowly..
Start with one dog. Most people do, anyway. I started with a ‘rescue’ of sorts, as she was re-homed by my mum, aged 8. When she was 11 years old, I got a puppy. Rue wasn’t that impressed, she was too old and set in her ways. She didn’t want to play, or mother him and she had preferred being an only dog.
Buzz was fine on his own for a few years – I liked having just one dog again. Easy to transport, less to worry about, not so expensive etc. When he was 8 years old, I got Sunny. He was thrilled! Bless him, he adored her. Such a contrast to Rue. Sunny was never that fussed about him, but of course she never knew any different.
When Sunny was three years old, I kept Luna. Now I had three dogs – aged 11, 3 and a pup. However, by that stage I was used to working around dogs and family life. I was my own boss and could manage myself and my dogs pretty well. I remember when Luna was a few months old they caught a rabbit between them – Luna flushed it, Sunny chased it and Buzz caught it. He was a great rat-catcher too. That was when I started to realise that three dogs is a pack. Harder to transport and manage, more work all round.
I had always planned to keep a pup from Luna’s litter, which meant that two years later I suddenly found I had FOUR dogs – oops! Sadly, this was for a short time only, as by this stage Buzz was riddled with arthritis and in constant pain, despite strong medication. Within a few months I was back down to three – much more manageable. By this stage I was a ‘breeder’ and knew that I would end up with more dogs eventually. Now I have FIVE and I LOVE IT!
How many is too many?
I once rejected a home for a puppy because they had ten dogs already, in a small house and garden. I know that many people probably think that five is far too many, but over the last few years I have become friends with many ‘dog people’ and I now know lots of people with lots of dogs! In fact in my book group, which has nine members, we own 23 dogs (and two people don’t have any 😉 )
Personally, I think it comes down to space, money and time. You need at least two of these, in my opinion, to cope with lots of dogs. I also feel that having plenty of dogs is absolutely fine, as long as they are all in with you, not kept in runs in the garden. However, most breeders end up with dogs piled up in crates or out in runs for some of the time.
You need the right number of dogs for your life. I know that now. Now that my sons are grown up, my dogs are my life and therefore I need quite a few. Lucky me.
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When I recently asked for topics to write about on this site, someone suggested I talk about caring for a pregnant bitch. Good idea, except that when I initially thought about what to write, I felt that I don’t really do anything to take care of my dogs when they are pregnant.
After further consideration though, I realised that of course I do a great deal to care for them. First of all, they must be fit and healthy. The Kennel club provides some great information for you to download, including Breeding from your dog. This is a handy summary, including the following points:
Responsible breeders believe that each new litter they breed should be an improvement on the parents and the breed
Responsible breeders give careful consideration to health issues, temperament and the look of the dog
Responsible breeders plan ahead of each mating to ensure that each puppy produced will be bred in the best possible environment
Responsible breeders accept responsibility for a puppy which they have bred, and make themselves available to give advice, help and information to new owners.
Puppy Registration
In order to register your puppies with the Kennel Club, you need to meet the following criteria:
Have no more than four litters from any one dog
The dam to be no less than a year old at the time of mating
The dam to have not reached the age of 8 years at the time of whelping
The offspring must not be the result of any mating between father and daughter, mother and son, or brother and sister
The dam not to have already had two litters by caesarean section.
Health during pregnancy
As I’ve said, I don’t really do much differently for my pregnant bitches – but that is because I already take extremely good care of my dogs! I am with them almost all day every day, so I am always aware of any slight health issues. I pay attention to what they are eating and drinking and I manage their diets pretty carefully. They are fed top quality food.
One of the hilarious things I have found with all my girls during pregnancy, is that they get to about five weeks into pregnancy and I suddenly find them at my elbow at lunchtime, asking for ‘perhaps a little smackeral of something?’ It is quite clear that they need a bit more food than normal. Little and often is the key – there’s no point me feeding them bigger meals when they are full of puppies!
Worming
From day 40 of the pregnancy, you should worm your dog with a small dose of wormer, such as Panacur, which you can obtain from your vet. It’s a liquid and dogs don’t really mind it too much, so you can just add to their food. This will help to ensure that the pups are born worm free. Of course you still need to follow a worming regime for the pups, which is usually at two, five and eight weeks. Thankfully I have never seen any evidence of worms in any of my pups.
As we get towards the end of the 63 day pregnancy, I try to ensure that I keep the bitch with me at all times. They sleep in the bedroom and are rarely out of my sight. I find myself ‘nesting’ – preparing the whelping box and making sure I have all the equipment I will need to hand. It’s an exciting time.
Exercise
I carry on walking my dogs as normal, right up until they give birth. After all, I worked until a week before I had my first son, and was wallpapering ten days after my second was due to arrive! They clearly go at their own pace, with Fatty-boo-boo (Luna) not exactly racing around, bless her! I usually find that they stay with the pups for the first day, but want to come out as normal on the second day after the birth. Again, I was up and about the day I gave birth to Jamie, so that’s fine with me. As always, I am guided by the bitch and what they tell me they want to do.
When the bitch goes into labour, I know straight away. We then drop everything and sit quietly, waiting, sometimes for 24 hours! But that’s a story for another day…
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Question 6: What can I do to help my dog cope with fireworks?
If you have ever had a dog who is terrified of loud bangs, you will know how agonising it can be. They pant, drool and whine. They are restless and fidgety. They refuse to be placated and can even be quite aggressive. They might hide under furniture or in corners. Or they might scrabble at doors or carpets, trying to escape the terrifying monster.
It’s really hard to know what to do. We want to reassure them, but they don’t really want to hear it.
When I first went to training classes with Sunny, I remember being told very clearly “Don’t make a fuss if something scares your dog. If you cuddle them and fuss them, you are drawing attention to their fear and ‘rewarding them’ for wanting your attention. Just ignore them and they will realise there is nothing to be afraid of.”
I do understand where this advice is coming from. If you are anxious about your dog being anxious, they will become more anxious, because they are feeding off your anxiety! I see this most often when we are out walking and we walk past someone whose dog is ‘nervous of other dogs’. They have the dog on the lead and are gripping hold of it. Or they might even be clutching the dog to them – I’ll protect you! Even if they are just holding the lead though, the owner’s anxiety is being transmitted down that lead to the dog.
It’s a vicious circle; the dog is afraid so you become afraid, so the dog thinks “there must be something to be afraid of” so becomes afraid. This ‘transmission of emotion’ also happens with horses, as anyone who has been nervous about riding a horse will tell you! Another example is when you are faced with a dog you don’t know and aren’t sure about – you know that they can ‘smell your fear’. In fact it is true; dogs (and horses) can smell fear and will react accordingly.
Getting back to the fireworks then, how should we tackle it? If we completely ignore it, we are not helping the dog to cope with it, we are just being mean! What we need then, is a strategy to positively develop coping behaviour for the dog. There are a number of ways we can tackle this:
Physical or Practical Solutions
Thundershirt
Provide alternative noise to counteract the bangs, such as a loud radio playing
Give the dog medication, obtained from your vet, or buy some calming tablets
The Training Solution
Distraction is a crucial factor in persuading your dog that there is nothing to worry about. It’s not about ignoring them when they are afraid, as about ignoring their fear – making light of it. If you can clearly project to them that you are perfectly fine with whatever is going on, in fact you think it’s time to have a game, then the dog may be able to move past it with you. You need to be convincing! But if you can get their attention on you and persuade them to play fetch, or do tricks, or even just a bit of rough and tumble, then they are less likely to be thinking about ‘that scary thing’.
This works if you are out and another dog goes past. Thinking to yourself “that’s not an interesting dog, playing with you is much more fun” will help to encourage your dog to ignore other dogs. They won’t feel the need to protect you. This also works for bangs and loud noises.
This is all a bit boring
Not just fireworks
It is useful to enable your dog to cope with loud bangs, not just for when the fireworks are around, but for all sorts of other things. Thunderstorms are an obvious one, but also bird scarers, gunshots, hot air balloons, cars backfiring, starter pistols etc. In fact if you want your dog to become a Pets As Therapy volunteer, they will need to cope with someone dropping something loud beside them.
Eventually, we want a dog who is secure and confident enough to find loud bangs and flashes a bit boring. Don’t think that you cannot cuddle your dog if they are scared, just make sure that you are not afraid of their fear!
Please note: I am not a qualified dog behaviourist or trainer. I have owned border collies for many years and raised a number of puppies, so I am an experienced dog owner, that is all. Information provided here represents my opinion, based on my experience.
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Why does it matter? Well it doesn’t, not really. But in an ideal world, your dog should be able to distinguish between different commands and act on your voice alone. This can be useful, such as when you are out of sight, or have your hands full, or just when you want to show off how clever your puppy is! Mainly we do this as a test, to demonstrate that they are listening to us and focused on what we want.
The video demonstrates clearly that Ounce has heard me command her into a ‘down’, thought about it and decided to do it. Good girl! I then go on to demonstrate some commands that she is not quite so sure about, ‘twist’ and ’round’. With both of these I need to reinforce the voice command with a gesture. That’s fine, we’ll continue to work on these. You can see when I go to give her the ‘twist’ command that I give her a chance to do it without the physical prompt. She ‘offers’ me something, (lying down) which I ignore. This is called ‘shaping behaviour’ – we wait for the puppy to offer something, hold out till they get it right, then give a big reward.
Target Training
I started this today with Ounce (just a few minutes before we took this video). Hold out the lid, wait for her to touch it with her nose, ‘click’ or say ‘yes’ and reward. Repeat. And repeat, moving the target once she has done it a few times. Clever eh?
Yes, but what’s the point? Again, this is shaping training. Waiting for her to do something, to offer a behaviour, then rewarding it so that it is reinforced. The reason we do this is so that I can move the target to somewhere and she will go over to it. This could be used for all sorts of things.
A target doesn’t have to be a lid, it can be anything. You can do it by holding out one hand flat, making sure you reward from the other hand. Or you can use the end of a stick. This is how people train dogs and other animals to follow them, or go in a circle around them. All kinds of tricks start off this way.
For Ounce, I am already thinking about agility. If she is used to touching the target, I can place it at the bottom of a piece of contact equipment and she will run down the ramp, or the seesaw and touch it with her nose. This will help me to teach her to go to the bottom and not jump off halfway down.
I am fortunate to know the brilliant Smurf and his owner Sarah, so have been getting some tricks training tips from them. Smurf is a Guiness World Record holder for the most tricks in one minute, so they really know what they are doing! You can watch Smurf’s World Record yourself.
A couple of other bits of training progress
If we were going to do competitive obedience, this would be one of the exercises. It’s good to be able to turn your back on your dog and be confident that they will carry on waiting. Again, this will be used in agility, when I put her on the start line and try to get a head start. I go back to her and reward her, so that she doesn’t anticipate the recall. And yes, if you do obedience, she is a bit crooked as she comes in this time (not usually). I would also train her to come around to the ‘heel’ position for obedience, but I don’t need to do that. I’m not especially keen to do competitive obedience as in my opinion it is a bit boring for the dog and the heelwork is such a forced position.
This is where we have got to with our stay training. I mentioned in a post almost a month ago about training progress that there are all sorts of ways to ‘strengthen’ the waits and this is me demonstrating (rather comically) one of the aspects we have worked on. What do you think? She doesn’t look very impressed, does she? If I persist with her training, she should be able to wait while I throw the toy I am waving about…
I am so loving this puppy. Ounce is incredibly sweet-natured and easy going. I am really proud of the way that she walks along with me, then rushes to say hello to everyone, but will stop and turn back if I’m quick enough to call her. Or she does go up to people, but usually now stops herself from jumping up. She is polite with dogs she meets and so far, comes back brilliantly. Lots to work on, but lots of progress made.
Question 5: What should I be aware of when letting my puppy play with young children?
Pixie’s mum, Sarah got in touch with me yesterday to tell me about a little ‘incident’ with some children. This has led us to reflect on the challenge of allowing young children to spend time around young dogs in particular, but actually any dog. What do we need to think about and be aware of when doing this?
Here’s Sarah’s description of what happened: “We had a little incident with our neighbour’s young girls (aged 5 & 3) who adore Pixie. They pop round often and love to play with her. Their mum is a dog lover and always talks about the way to approach dogs.
“They popped round to say hello. As it happened we were about to go out and so I said they could just say a quick hello (in the hall). The girls are a bit competitive for Pixie’s attention and crowded and cuddled her. Both mum and I asked the girls to be gentle, but Pixie let them know she wasn’t happy by gently nipping one of them on the nose. The little girl was a bit shocked and there were a few tears. Mum was sorry the girls had caused Pixie to behave that way and of course I felt bad for both the little girl and poor Pixie for not stepping in sooner.
“My message would be, that it is our responsibility and duty to protect our dogs from being put in a situation where they have no choice but to nip, it can happen so quickly. I’m sure the girls will continue to come and play, as Pixie loves to see them as much as they do her. I will teach them not just how to play with Pixie so everyone enjoys it, but I’ll also teach them the smaller signs a dog gives that they aren’t happy and need to have a break.
“This happened even when both my neighbour and I have been careful to watch how the girls play with Pixie. I can easily see how accidents happen.”
This is a great example of how easily things can go wrong. As Sarah says, it wasn’t the dogs fault, nor the child’s. We need to be mindful of what dogs can and cannot tolerate. I have written about this on the information page Dogs and Children but I will just summarise again here.
Calming Signals
Watch for these three really easy to see calming signals in your dog. All of them indicate you should intervene and separate the child and dog:
Yawning outside the context of waking up
Half-moon eye – this means you can see the whites on the outer edges of your dog’s eyes.
Lip licking outside the context of eating food
In this photo of Aura with my niece, none of these signals are there. Even so, I wouldn’t say that she is loving Bella cuddling up to her. Here’s another picture of the pair of them:
This is much better. I would describe this as a great example of a dog interacting with a child on their terms. In other words, Aura has had the chance to come over to Bella. Bella is sitting down, so no chasing or grabbing. Aura can get up and move away, at any time. She is therefore loving the attention. Good job Bella!
My simple rule, to say to children is this:
“Don’t grab, don’t chase, don’t get in their face.”
After all, you wouldn’t like someone to do it to you, would you? Top tip: I sometimes demonstrate to children what it is like for the dog, by crowding into them and being noisy – they may cry! It’s a great way to make them understand though.
Please note: I am not a qualified dog behaviourist or trainer. I have owned border collies for many years and raised a number of puppies, so I am an experienced dog owner, that is all. Information provided here represents my opinion, based on my experience.
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It’s such a tricky process. Do I advertise that there is a litter due? Do I tell everyone I know? Or do I keep it a secret, in case they are all born dead? Should I take everyone onto the waiting list and hope that some drop off or change their minds later? Or should I limit the list to the number of pups I think may arrive?
From experience, it seems that no matter how long my list, I often have pups without homes a few weeks along. Sometimes it takes six weeks to sort out the right homes. People might seem really keen and then decide they don’t want what I have – even after they have been to have a cuddle! Or they want a particular puppy and I feel obliged to offer them a different one, as that one is also chosen by someone who contacted me earlier.
I always try and work on a ‘first come first served’ basis, but equally, I want to try and match homes to puppies. Sometimes a pup will seem more laid back, or more feisty and that will suit a particular type of home better, in my opinion. Often people come along with an expectation of wanting one thing, but when I meet them I feel they would be far better suited to something else. This is particularly the case over the sex of the dog. Most people come along with an idea that they want a dog or a bitch. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, if it is a single dog household and they are experienced dog owners.
When there are other dogs in the house, getting the dynamics right can be important, so the sex and nature of the puppy will matter. Again, people have ideas that if they have a bitch they cannot get another one (not true), or they have three dogs so ‘fancy a change’. Not sure that is such a great idea, but it depends on the level of experience of the owner.
If the home is a family with young children, I personally feel that a dog is more manageable than a bitch, but it does depend on the family. I think boys are slightly more ‘even-tempered’ than girls and therefore a bit more tolerant of being pulled around. I also believe that border collies bitches are much less sociable with other dogs, so when they are out and about a dog is easier to manage. This is helpful if you only have one dog, as you want one who is friendly, not snappy.
Of course I am sometimes persuaded to send a pup off to a home, despite my reservations. I know that every responsible breeder out there will tell you that they have done this, only to have the dog sent back as unsuitable. This happened to me for the first time last year. That makes the homing process even more difficult – how much do I trust my own judgement?
I am hoping that now this website is rammed with content, people will be able to see what my dogs are like and my beliefs and values as a breeder; they will be able to ‘self-select’ whether they are a good home. Maybe that will make the job easier! Here’s hoping…
Finally, I will say that if you are a friend, who is wondering whether now is the right time to have (another) one of my pups, PLEASE get in touch to tell me that? I would hate you to miss out because I have homes sorted the day they arrive, which is pretty likely this time 😉
Applying for a puppy
If you would like to be considered for a puppy, have a look at the FAQs. You can also fill in a Puppy application form.
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Play with your puppy – it’s a vital part of training
It’s lovely to see Ounce running around with her cousin Charlie, who is just over a year older than she is. They had a great time, getting on straight away. I love that she is able to interact so well with other dogs now – she was a bit anxious around other dogs to start with.
I have already talked about her playing with her family at home and again, it is lovely to see this. They play tag, and snap-snap and tuggy with a toy – great dog games.
What if you have an only dog though? How can you replace this interaction? Some of my puppies go to homes without other dogs and obviously it is important that they do not become bored and frustrated, because this is when problems occur. A bored collie will become extremely destructive, chewing up furniture and even the walls! They can also become obsessive, looking for lights to chase, or barking at anything and everything. Frustrated collies may also become snappy and aggressive, if they feel that they are being ignored.
Collies are not great at coping with challenging situations. If you start to get stressed or anxious, they will quickly start to freak out. If you are trying to get one dog in a room and another out of a room, for example, they will easily pick up on your annoyance, or urgency and stop listening to you. They will then just cower and/or try to get away, which of course is even more annoying! Play is the way to get around these issues. Stop trying to get them to do that thing and have a quick bit of play. You will then regain their attention and can ask again for the desired behaviour.
If you can meet up with friends with other dogs on a regular basis, so that they have the chance to run around together, then this will be really helpful in giving your dog a chance to interact.
If you struggle to do this, then playing is up to you! Tuggy games are an easy place to start; you hold one end and the dog holds the other. You can also play fetch, although watch out for your furniture and valuables if you do this indoors! You can also play a kind of tag, chasing your dog or running away from them. Or you can do a bit of rough and tumble, although be careful not to allow biting, even in play.
Whatever you do, the object is to engage your dog’s brain and get them thinking about something. Once you have their attention, you can intersperse bits of play with bits of training. Play, command, reward with play. Repeat.
This is also a great way of distracting your dog. I have used this with Ounce when I want her not to go chasing off after someone, especially runners and cyclists. Also when the dreaded fireworks started the other night, I had all the dogs doing a few tricks to help them realise that it was nothing to get excited about.
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I sometimes speak to people who tell me that they want to breed from their dog. “She’s so lovely, such a pretty girl, people often ask if I’m going to have puppies from her.” Or people who have a dog say “I get people who want to use him to have puppies, because he looks so nice”. So what should you do, if you want to get it right? How do you find the right stud dog?
It’s really challenging. In order to create puppies which are ‘fit for purpose’, we need to match dogs and bitches that both have the correct looks and temperament, with all the relevant health checks in place. Where do we start?
Finding a stud dog
The best place to start is through recommendations of friends. This is where being part of the ‘dog world’ is really helpful. If you show your dog, you will get to know many breeders that way. Most top breeders work hard to promote their dogs. either through showing or competition. If not, you will probably get to know about other breeders through talking to friends with dogs. Look for good examples of the breed and ask the owners what lines they are from. You will soon find that certain breeders crop up again and again.
There is a wealth of information available to us now, so it is easy to just search for ‘border collie breeders’. However, just because someone is popular, doesn’t mean they have nice dogs, or that they will be a good match for your dogs. I recommend looking at Champdogs as a good place to find quality, pedigree dogs. However, far more obvious is the Kennel Club.
Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme
I have put some details about what it means to be an Assured Breeder on this site, but if you want to find out more, go to the KC website itself and look at the Assured Breeders for Border Collie There are only a small number of us currently listed in the UK! The Kennel Club are doing a great deal to promote and develop the scheme – I am going to a seminar in January – so it will be interesting to see what changes are made to encourage more people to join.
The KC do not list stud dogs on there, so you would have to contact the breeders and ask their advice about appropriate stud dogs, but it is a good place to look, in my opinion.
Line Breeding and In-breeding
I am not an expert in this by any means, but I’ll try to give a quick overview.
Once you have a stud dog in mind, you need to establish how closely related he is to your bitch. A good way to do this is to go to the Border Collie database on Anadune and look up the dog. You can then check any health tests that he has had and make sure that everything that should be done has been done, including hip scores and eye tests.
Then look at his pedigree and see if there is anything on there that is the same as for your girl. You might then decide to use a stud dog with a common grandparent – this is called line breeding. You then know that they will bear similarities to your girl and that their pups will be of a particular ‘type’.
How close should you go?
You can put two dogs together who are more closely related than this and many breeders do this. I’ve just found this great summary of inbreeding; A beginners guide to COI which explains it all better than I can. Basically, the more common ancestry the pups have, the more likely you are to breed in health issues. This is particularly worrying for something that cannot be tested for, such as epilepsy. However, if you are confident that there is no epilepsy in a particular line, you might feel that using that line on both sides actually improves the chances of healthy pups.
It is therefore about getting the balance between characteristics you definitely want and increasing variety for better health. It’s complicated, and good judgement is needed.
The Workbook – A Year With Your Puppy is available to buy. It was written and designed to be a hands-on, interactive book for you. It will help you survive the first year with your puppy, but also act as a memento of that time and the journey you have been on. You can write notes and stick in pictures of your puppy throughout the year. Lovely!
I have worked hard to train Ounce by walking her on her own, but ultimately, she will be part of the pack. I have felt that she needs that time on her own to reinforce recall, wait and down. Also to try and ensure that she doesn’t rush up to everyone and jump up, that she is polite with other dogs and comes back to me, whatever the distraction.
However, that is not all she needs to do. Ounce also needs to learn to fit alongside the other dogs. With Busy I went from walking her on her own to taking her out with all the others. I ‘lost’ her then, as she forgot all about me and just focused on the other dogs. I then had to almost start again with her recall and I had quite a few frustrating and annoying walks, where I had no control over her.
This time, I have decided to mix things up a bit. I am doing several walks a week with Ounce on her own, but am also trying to include a walk with a friend and their dogs and a walk with one or more of my dogs. That way, Ounce gets used to a variety of different scenarios and hopefully, copes better with them all.
While we were out, I noticed just how alike the mother and daughter are looking now. This relates nicely to the post I wrote a couple of days ago about pedigree breeding. Not only do they look alike, Ounce clearly takes after her mum in her calm, easy-going nature.
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