GentleLake

I'm so very sorry for your loss. Some rescues are more difficult to work with than others. I've volunteered for a couple of border collie specific rescues. One's pretty great to work with, though people who don't meet our guidelines will complain if they don't get approved. (E.g. we require that all adopted dogs will have to live in the house and not be housed outdoors.) The other one could be good but was also subject to the whims of the founder, who has sole discretion on who she accepts as an adopter and could just as easily dismiss an applicant for something she misinterpreted as for anything actually wrong with the app. I spent a couple years recently looking for a dog and had nearly as many rejections as approvals from a variety of rescues. Most don't tell you why they make the decisions they do. Although it's time consuming, I'd apply to as many breed specific rescues that will adopt into your area and any other rescues that seem to get border collies in as you can. Unless they're all denying your application -- in which case I'd take an open minded and honest look at your situation to see if you can understand why -- I'd just follow the ones that approved you and forget about the others. It's hard not to understand why an app has been denied, but sometimes it has as much about the peculiarities of the particular rescue as it has to do with you specifically. Kudos to you for avoiding the ACK bred dogs if you end up purchasing. But please remember that no registry, including ABCA, is a guarantee of quality. It's just a record keeping organization that maintains a studbook and maintains a record of new litters' parentage. There are plenty of ABCA breeders who are no more concerned about selecting for working ability than the guy down the road who has a Lab bitch he breeds to the first person he finds on Craiglist who'll breed his intact male to it. The first can't guarantee an open trial dog or one who can manage a range flock any more than the second can guarantee s show champion. You've got to do your homework to find the kind of breeder who produces the kind of dogs you want. And some of the best working dogs are aloof and not particularly affectionate, while others are the opposite. Neither characteristic is genetically linked to working ability. And some pups from stellar working parents don't seem to get much of their parents' working ability. Sometimes it's the luck of the draw. Again, my sincere sympathies on the loss of Koda Bear. I hope you can find another dog who'll help fill the empty space in your heart.

IME dogs rarely hold grudges and as much as we underestimate what they do and do not understand, I really don't think they'd understand that we were the cause of their desexing and/or be angry with us about it. I do, however, believe that they know when they've been rescued and show their appreciation for it.

I don't think anyone here's ever going to fault you or anyone else for taking a dog from a situation like that! Buying from a So-called "breeder" if that ilk's another story. Thank you for giving Clyde a loving home. Neutering's up to you. More and more science is recognizing that hormones are important to a dog's health and some people are choosing either to leave their dogs intact or opt for vasectomies and ovary-sparing spays when they can find vets who offer them. If you feel you can keep him from contributing to any oops litters, then by all means leave him intact. If it ends up becoming an issue then my preference would be for a vasectomy over a castration if you can find someone to do it. OTOH, he's already 4 so if you do have to go with castration, he's done with his growth and maturation so it wouldn't be as big a deal as if it'd been done earlier. I've had intact dogs of both sexes and had no problems preventing unwanted pregnancies. Some people find it more difficult. Use your best judgement here.

You can use a few ball throws as a reward, but playing fetch is not a job. A job involves brainwork and there's none involved in playing fetch, which is a mindless repetitive and often obsessive physical activity. And, yeah, there's the risk of joint or paw pad damage if overdone.

As I commented above, feed to the dog's condition. The amount of food individual dogs need varies depending on their metabolisms and activity levels.

Are you sure he's actually underweight? Puppies should be lean, and you should be able to feel his ribs easily. If you can't see his backbone he's probably OK. Have you asked your vet? You can also do a search here for a chart to score body condition that's been linked several times. As a long time raw feeder I have to ask why you're feeding rice. Dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrates and really aren't doing your puppy any good. Spending on your approach to feeding raw, some low starch veggies may be OK in small quantities, but certainly not much and only if lightly steamed or pureed. And by "dog biscuits" are you referring to what we here in the US call kibble or dry dog food? If so, again I have to wonder why you're not just feeding raw. ETA: Although not much of his torso's showing in the photo you posted in your other thread, he doesn't look like he's starving to me. Maybe you could post some other pics that show his body condition.

He's not confusing the 2 cats. He knows as well as you do -- and probably better, by smell -- which cat's which. Really, I think just about the only thing you can do is to watch him constantly and distract and/or correct him if he even looks at the cat he's targeting. if you can't watch him, make sure he doesn't have access to the cat, just as you'd limit a puppy's opportunity to make a soiling mistake when you can't supervise. He needs to learn that the cat's off limits just like anything else he's not permitted to have.

@SS Cressa, most of what I've read about CBD added to treats is that it's very questionable and probably unlikely that the CBD remains viable through whatever heat process is used to make them. AFAIK they're not cheap, so you're probably better off spending the money on good quality CBD oil and increasing the dose a bit. Very happy to see that you seem to be having some good results with Val! That's so encouraging.

@Mely, one thing I'd do is to feed him every meal in his crate. Leave the door open, just put the food dish in and walk away. You may have to put it right inside the door at first so he doesn't actually have to go in to eat, then gradually further back as he becomes more comfortable. If he doesn't eat at first, don't cave and feed him outside the crate. Make sure he sees you set the bowl just inside the crate door, then walk away quietly. Let him approach in his own time. A healthy dog won't starve itself, so when he gets hungry enough he'll put his nose in to eat. This isn't a matter of intelligence but of fear overriding his desire for whatever's inside the crate. It'll take time, maybe a long time, for that to abate. In general, with the amount of anxiety the dog has, I'd be talking to the vet about some sort of calming supplement or even medication that might help ease his anxiety enough that he can be comfortable enough in his own skin to make some progress. There are a number of calming treats on the market with different ingredients, and pheromone products. Some dogs tend to respond better to some and not at all to others, so you might have to try several. One of my dogs does well with melatonin for his noise phobia though I've heard that others don't respond at all. My anxious, reactive girl is on CBD oil and fluoxetine. There are other meds for more severe cases. Clomicalm (sp?) is another to ask about. Good luck.

That's about the age it usually develops in my experience, and I doubt it had anything to do with neutering. My absolute worst thunder/fireworks/gunshot phobic border collie was intact all his life. And it started when he was about 2 years old (sorry, more precise memory doesn't extend that far back for me, but I do know it was was the summer of his 2nd year, born in Feb.).

@guitardude, Please check your adoption agreement. Many rescues require that dogs adopted from them be returned to them if for any reason the adopter can't keep them and don't permit private rehoming without their permission.

Awww. Happy birthday, Cressa. Such a wonderful occasion to be able to share with her. I hope that's a meatloaf cake. (One of my foster dogs went to a woman who celebrated his birthday every year with a lovely homemade meatloaf cake frosted with mashed potatoes and decorated with green peas.)

I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions for your main issues but have 2 observations. I do not believe a truly noise phobic dog -- the kind that seem to have a genetic origin as in many of our border collies -- can be desensitized. These are the dogs who can tell the difference between the sound artificially created and the real thing. If it were me I wouldn't bother continuing on that route and look into other ways to mitigate it, such as meds or other calming mechanisms depending on the efficacy. You've mentioned that he only acts this way re: the crate at home, but not at your sister's. It makes me wonder how he'll do kenneled at the Airbnb. It might be worth it to try to go somewhere away from home for a weekend or even just an overnight for a test run to see if it'll even be an issue. That's a whole lot of weird behavioral change over the past year and a half. Best of luck to you.

Here's a blog on the subject published by the Whole Dog Journal yesterday.

First of all, this particular forum is "for those engaged in training their border collies for livestock operations and ISDS-style trials." That's why you haven't received many replies. It would be better reposted in the General Border Collie Discussion for greater readership. That said, I'll add to the answers anyway. While crating is often recommended to make house training go more smoothly and quickly, IMO and many others' a dog's ability to be happily left in her crate is a very useful skill to have. You never know when you might have to crate your dog -- for traveling, if someone else has to watch the dog in your absence and would need to be crated, and most importantly in the event of an accident or illness. There's no reason on earth that a dog who's sick or hurt and has to spend time at the vet's or at home on crate rest should be exposed to the additional trauma of being put into a crate when she's not accustomed to spending time comfortably in one. Besides that, many of them love their crates and choose to spend time in them. I currently have 3 dogs with 2 open crates (i.e. doors left open) available for their use. There's almost always at least one dog in a crate, often one in each of them and sometimes 3 dogs in 2 crates. . . . by their choice.