janeinthemtns

According to the link information, the family had the dogs for a month after the owner went into the hospital. Why would the ill owner immediately be condemned? Why didn't the family clean up the house or did they trash it? A lot of people think a BC not B/W with a rough coat is not a pure bred. Why were all the dogs in good condition? I am on a fairly remote ranch in New Mexico with my rescue BC and horses. Not a day goes by that I do not worry about what would happen to them if I dropped dead or was injured. It's interesting that transport is being requested from Texas to Arizona. There is a whole state in between - New Mexico.

Wonder why she hasn't been adopted. She is beautiful and looks interested. She is probably waiting for you.

Unless the dog food is labeled organic, it's going to be the same source of beef. I haven't fed anything but fish for over a year. Thanks for the info with the links.

Antonia has been eating beans, rice, coconut milk and tumeric for 2 days and is hopping around the house showing her teeth in a big smile. Also glancing hopefully at her bowl. I have not seen that before. Tumeric is the most effective antiinflamatory there is. I looked at some photos of hot spots on the internet and now I don't feel so bad. She has one on her hip, but the skin is not broken. Don't people check their dogs or what? It is a lot better now with goldenseal/calendula compresses. I am going to keep up with the beans and rice for a week, then start adding things in one at a time for a week to find all the problems. I met someone last year whose dog was allergic to an enzyme in meat. I might not be able to feed her meat, but will try egg, etc. Also giving her 1 gram of Eskimo 3 fish oil liquid and a probiotic pill.

When I was working construction and moving a lot, I asked motel owners and apartment owners where we stayed to write us letters of recommendation. Never had trouble after that ever. Never had anything stolen out of my room either.

Here's another story - When I was looking for Antonia, I kept seeing advertisements for BCs because people were buying houses and their insurance company wouldn't let them have certain breeds of dogs. WHAT? I would get rid of the house and the insurance company also. I also have 4 horses that would be dead now, turned out onto open hard pan dessert range if I had not loaded them up and brought them with me. The next year when I became disabled, those horses kept me alive. Still keeping me alive.

Do not leave your dog with anyone - especially a BC. 35 years ago I left my Siberian Husky with some family. They let their kid torment her until she bit him. Then they tied her up in the back yard and she jumped the fence with the chain barely long enough for her feet to touch the ground on the other side. Later, I left her with another family member and they chained her up, but it was freezing cold in Alaska and the snap didn't shut. She was hit by a car and died many hours later. I can still remember where I was standing 7,000 miles away when I knew she was dead. No one had to tell me. All that happened because I had to leave to have a baby. Nothing else could have dragged her away from me. I could have brought her with me, but I didn't have the airfare. I'd rather get hit by a bus.

I am back to read through the raw posts again and figure it out. Antonia did OK on Orijens fish, but she began to gain weight. I read that some people have trouble with weight and orijens. I got her Wellness Core fish. As soon as she was getting mostly Wellness Core when I was gradually switching, she started acting not right again. Scratching, etc. Not crying yet though. Today I was brushing her and noticed the hot spot is back and the flaky area is 3" now. I have clipped off all the hair and I am going to wash with a week betadine solution. I know betadine kills new cells. Just to clean up. Looks like it was not gone at all - just calmed down a little. Has anyone tried Schreiners Herbal antiseptic on these things? I use it on my horses. Also I use goldenseal compresses on sunburned horse noses and all other trouble. Works like magic and it's also anti fungal. I think I will grind up some goldenseal root with calendula flowers. They are both anti bacterial and anti fungal. I use Eskimo 3 fish oil for myself. It is never rancid and I have been giving Antonia 1t. divided between her 2 little meals. The Orijens has probiotics in it. I would like to be taking Seacure myself, but it is astronomically expensive. Maybe during summer when the horses are turned out. I also have Probiotic Pearls which are coated so they make it through stomach acid into the intestines. I don't know if dogs need the same probios that humans use. More research. Any opinions? I have never had skin trouble before with any of my dogs. How much meat by weight either on or off bones is recommended? Having worked in the cattle industry, I'm not very excited about feeding beef from supermarkets - full of hormones, grain fed, etc. If I knew how much by weight to feed, I would know if I could afford grass fed beef with different parts especially for dogs. There is an outfit in Missouri owned by a vet offering this. If I just go to the local market should I buy a pot roast and chop it up? I think they have some big knuckle bones also, but never have much meat on them. What about oxtails? Should I cut off all the fat? Maybe I will start with one thing and add to it some sweet potato? Thanks for all opinions. Jane in New Mexico.

Thank you for your post. I know a lot of dogs and other critters are mistreated on ranches, but some of us are still living the life and care more for our animals than ourselves really. When I was working on ranches I used to see the most awful things. Maybe if the people in charge of deciding who qualified for consideration for a rescue BC could evaluate the condition of stock on ranches, they could get comfortable. That is why I always included information and photos of my horses - they all look like giant sheared beavers due to $$$ diet and constant care. That said, a working ranch is probably not going to have time or energy to rehabilitate a BC who has ended up in a shelter because of a problem. Arielle at the BC rescue in Santa Fe was considering doing some training in this area. Don't know what happened to that plan - no time! I remember especially a dog who was much less than a year old who had been dumped at a shelter in Colorado because she "wouldn't work." This is what happened to Antonia. Working cattle is a speedy, scary thing to a baby dog that involves running for miles every hour of the day sometimes without water in summer heat. Then they are required to face down mad cattle in pens for hours. I have seen that a lot of times. Often times I would pull up and go back to look for a new dog and get in trouble for doing it. Sometimes a few words of encouragement was all it took for the pup to keep on keeping on. It was interesting that some of these dogs and standoffish horses, too, would be greeting me and visiting while ignoring everyone else. What a cooincidence. I got in trouble for that, too. If you give a horse or dog a handful of water when they are pooped, they never forget it.

What happened????

Nor brooms, shovels, rakes, blenders or coffee grinders. It's hard to get to the blenders and coffee grinders, so it's best to keep running in circles near the noise until they show their faces.

Thanks for your nice post. I wanted to tell you that somehow I read through your For Love of Pete page on dogster in June, 2009, when my BC cross died. I was so distraught that I thought I was going to go right with her. I could not believe it when I saw For the Love of Pete here. There are thousands of dogs over there at dogster. That is the last time I am going to have only one dog. I was going to buy a BC puppy, but then I found all the homeless BCs stuck in shelters. Looking at them was almost worse than loosing my dog! But no one would let me have one. I gave the rescue people the local vet as a reference and a woman I know who has a rescue operation near here. Still wouldn't consider me. It was like they thought a Border Collie shouldn't be on a ranch! After 3 months of trying, I went up to San Luis Valley and found Antonia in a private shelter. Next summer when the weather gets warm, I am going to start looking for a BC pup in a shelter. I would like to have a pup, but will probably come home with the first one I see no matter what age. I wish I could bring them all home. At least it's better to bring home dogs than horses. I do that too.

Antonia was a beserk ball of energy today from before day break. Throwing her toys all around in a happy state. She ran and ran in 6" of snow until I worried about her. She ran off into the meadows by herself (a little unusual) and bounced around until I went out there with her. She chased off a couple of escaped cows that were tearing into the hay and almost gripped! She kept looking at me to be sure she was doing the right thing. Of course, I was standing there clapping which made her spring around even more, then get right down to business. I think a lot of her timidity is due to feeling bad. It is possible she will become sensitized to any food I give her within a couple of months. That's what happens to me. In two months without problems, I am going to gradually switch brands of food. Or I might try to introduce some raw food. I don't have a big freezer so that might be tough. I don't live within a 100 miles of a place to buy decent raw food. I need to figure out if the raw red meat was a problem for her or just pork and chicken. Whatever I do, I'm going to do it before any trouble starts. Otherwise I won't know what's going on again. I'm going to watch her carefully tomorrow for signs of worse stiffness. She's really pooped right now. Thank you for all your great comments and suggestions! Jane and Antonia