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Hi! Glad to finally be able to post, as I have been stalking the boards the last few days. I have been looking to adopt a border collie for some time, and was waiting on a BC to come through that might work for us from the AZ BC rescue (we are in NM). We have been looking for a dog that can help me herd sheep, as we have a small flock of babydoll southdown sheep starting, but no more than 4-5 adults at any given time (plus lambs occassionally). I also have young kids, two dogs (rhodesian ridgeback, an aussie--who is useless with herding btw, but when I picked her out we didnt have sheep and I wanted a dog to "play" doggie sports with--I got my wish in that respect but she is an absolute failure at herding, in particular, submissive to sheep as if they were woolie dogs LOL). So we want something with some herding instinct. As cool as trialing would be, I don't forsee me having the time to be competitive, I just want the dog to help me get them in pens, seperate if need be, load into a trailer if need be, stuff like that, since my husband is gone often and it's just me and a 5 year old LOL. I really preferred to rescue over buy, but gave myself a year of searching before seeking out a working bred pup. Anywho, my fellow rescue friends knew I was searching and found a little apparent border collie pup from a shelter down south. I was hesitant in some ways, as adopting a single puppy from a shelter with unknown breeding etc was a bit risky. I had the shelter do some testing (mainly for food aggression and friendliness etc.) Chances are high that she could very well be a purebred BC or mostly BC based on the location she came from---a very small farm & ranch town. Appearance wise there is nothing about her so far that strikes me as a mix of much other than BC, no pit, no beagle, lab, heeler, that sort of thing. Long story short, her 5 days were up and I decided to "foster to adopt." She is about 8 weeks old, drop eared for now, although one seems to be "rising" haha. Smooth coat. Those two things alone have resulted in a few "knowledgeable" dog people to tell me she must be a mix. Which I generally laugh at because I know anyone who truly knows border collies must know there is so much variation in coat, color, ear set, etc. At 8 weeks she already shows more promise than my aussie (woohoo!). Most noticeably, she crouches, eyes, stalks, (and even nips or heels) my aussie, Sydney when they play. It seems to be her go to move especially when I am throwing a ball for Sydney. It's not just occassionally, it's a majority of her play "style", unless of course I go to get the camera to record it--then she stops and just wrestles, or eats chicken poop, or sits by my side. I have one video that I managed to catch just some of this apparent herding. Now, she has seen the sheep and horse through the fence, but doesn't seem to mind them other than the barking she did at first. She watches them but so far rather watch me or eat a strand of hay or something. I have free range chickens and she doesn't seem to always want to herd them, but every so often one my run by it's lonesome, and she seeks to bring it back to the "flock", I've seen her take a few wide runs around them, and earlier today when i was feeding she gathered one in the group and ran a tight circle around them twice before going to wrestle Sydney. Most of it seems opportunistic, and she never seems to serious about it, in fact she will easily get distracted in the middle of trying to "work" the chickens. She shows the most intensity and better crouch eye combo when playing with my dog than she has shown with the chickens period. I of course, do not allow active chasing, or getting to close to the chickens as if trying to actually catch one, which she hasn't done yet. Mostly trying to observe her, hoping to see something that says, "aw yes, she has potential." I am a dog trainer, obedience, and have a ton of experience with foster puppy behaviors. So I know how to read a dog pretty well, timing for praise and corrections, and have read up on what not to do (like distract her instead of scold her for trying to herd stock so that i don't turn her off, keep her safe while she is young so she has no bad experience, yada yada). But, admitedly I am very green to sheep and even more so to herding dogs other than a few trials I've seen, videos I've watched, articles read etc. I'm trying to find a little insight. Does she sound like she has good potential? She does have a bit of fiestiness in her which I like, at least I know at the very least she wouldn't submit to my sheep LOL. Here is a video I took. STILL trying to get video of her in her "eye crouch stalk" mode, but here at least you can see her do her thing while being a little puppy ADD (sniffing, distracted by banana peels, my dog, more sniffing, me, etc etc) with not as much crouch eye going on as she gives my dog. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100617206375387&l=6673591963760853204