Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We recently bought a Border Collie (7 weeks old). We don't live on a farm but we live in a rural area. The dog will live inside the house and will be exercised daily (2 to 3 times)and will be played with everyday. We just want to know if this would be a good house pet because we keep reading that they are only good for farms. We find this hard to beleive since all Border Collies we've seen are so well behaved and intelligent. Please comment.

>>We recently bought a Border Collie (7 weeks old). We don't live on a farm but we live in a rural area. The dog will live inside the house and will be exercised daily (2 to 3 times)and will be played with everyday. We just want to know if this would be a good house pet because we keep reading that they are only good for farms. We find this hard to beleive since all Border Collies we've seen are so well behaved and intelligent. Please comment.

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The breed needs a full-time job. Could work fine as a housedog if someone is home almost all the time and keeps the dog by his or her side. Dog needs to be able to move around most of the time--not spend much if any time in a crate--and have a serious purpose in life. Otherwise the dog will find a purpose, and you will almost certainly not agree that it's a good one!
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

You are right... Border Collies are very intelligent and also very active. Left to their own devices you may not get the results you are looking for. You might find the 2 or 3 times excercise may not be enough. A tired dog is a happy dog. I also agree with KDD about finding the dog a job to perform as part of his daily routine.
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Bob

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.