Jump to content
BC Boards

Hello everyone


Recommended Posts

Hi all! I just joined the board and am looking forward to talking to other bc lovers!

 

I'm 22 and have always had a border collie. My current boy is Cash, a 2 year old b/w roughcoat. Named after Johnny of course :D He's just a doll. I swear, I've never had a dog like this. He just melts when you touch him and will cuddle with you every moment of every day if you let him. He throws little doggy tantrums too if I don't take him with me when I go riding on the horses. He rolls on his back howling! :rolleyes:

CashField.jpg

 

Cash the Easter dog!

BunnyCashSchafer2.jpg

 

Playin' in the snow

000_0023-1.jpg

 

I of course must mention the reason for my devotion to border collies; Molly. My wonderful girl, whom I lost in 2006 at 8 years old, the victim of a dog attack. I miss her everyday. We laid her to rest along the fence line where she used to stand and watch the horses.

mollyball.jpg

 

Molly doing her trademark "what'd you say?" head tilt as a pup.

mollychairtilt.jpg

 

I look forward to talking to you! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the boards! So sorry to hear about Molly's untimely death. It seems as if vicious dog on dog attacks are becoming more and more frequent. Cash is a beauty! Had to laugh when I saw your screen name though. LUVMYCASH. Thought you meant money! LOL. Hopefully you don't love your "cash" too much--it's amazing how much money you can go through raising a dog and keeping him happy and healthy. :D When we first got Scooter as a puppy, we considered keeping a log of how much we spent on his care. Didn't take us long to decide, we really didn't want to know!! :rolleyes: He's priceless anyway!

 

Looking forward to reading your posts and seeing more pics!

Pam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the Board; I am a fairly new member myself and have learned a lot. Cash is such a handsome chap. I can imagine how much you miss Molly. Is 'Lexie' your doggy too? Look forward to reading your posts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the warm welcome :rolleyes: bc4ever, I know what you mean. I choose to be ignorant as to how much I spend on them.

Yes Lexie is my other dog. Rude of me not to mention her lol. She's a 3 year old Black Lab mix I adopted from the humane society. Her and Cash are like peas in a pod, they love each other so much. I leave them at the pet resort where I work when I'm gone and my boss says they're hilarious. She says they lay together with their noses and paws touching and it looks like they're telling secrets.

000_0083.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lexi is a terrific looking fellow; how great they are such good pals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome aboard! Cash and Lexi are beautiful dogs, and it sounds like they have a lot of fun with you. I like your motto about adopting black dogs; makes me sad to know that they are so much less likely to get homes if they are in a shelter. My neighbor just got a black lab puppy and it is the sleekest, plumpest, bounciest little darling. These days so many labs are yellow or almost white, it makes me wonder what happened to all the good old black ones that used to be the great majority?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like your motto about adopting black dogs; makes me sad to know that they are so much less likely to get homes if they are in a shelter.

 

Yes, it's a sad thing. I am quite active in rescue and had a foster dog this year who has been adopted. :D It's terrible to see dogs overlooked for any reason, but when they have a wonderful personality and people don't want them because they are too "plain" it's just sad. I'm trying to get into college, so I won't be as active in rescue as I would like to be, but in the long run I hope I can help more. I'm trying to get started on the road to vet school.

 

As for the black labs, I don't know either. The blacks are still very much the majority in the field trials I think. My boss has several field trial labs, all black. I get to go out and throw birds for them, which is fun. It's cool being around some pretty top notch champions. The consensus seems to be that blacks are the best working dogs, you can get a good yellow one, and the chocolates are just plain nuts. :D Which I happen to agree with. I've met enough labs to see where they are coming from. And of course breeding makes a big difference. I've met maybe 2 quality shepherds and can count the quality labs on one hand that I've met out of hundreds. (pet dogs) Backyard breeding takes such a huge toll on the breed. Sure, most of them are good pets and very nice dogs, but we all know the other end of a world with too many unwanted dogs caused by these breeders. And don't get me started on goldens.

 

One of the greatest things about the border, I think, is that most are still bred for work, not looks. We aren't seeing so many of the trends and fads that go along with other breeds. Going back to the labs, I'm noticing that now there are less of the taller, longer legged, and longer nosed labs. Everyone wants those shorter, stockier, blocky headed labs that are more like the English type. Even in advertising in magazines and catalogs I've seen these new type labs. They are greatly different from the labs that we used to know, and now it seems like people don't want the older type. They want a trendy stocky dog. It's just a shame. And maybe more worriedly, these types seem to pack on the pounds much easier. Or maybe it's just the owners, I'm not sure. But I'm seeing this influx of extremely obese labs. And the owners think they are supposed to look like this because they are the stockier type! I call this the big dog syndrome. (I have a thing I call little dog syndrome too :rolleyes: ) They think it's a big dog, they want a big dog, so they feed it like a big dog. I've seen people give these dogs 4 and 5 cups a day! Most of these stocky labs only need 2 cups and 3 at the most.

 

Ok, getting off my soapbox. :D I have a major pet peeve about obese pets and another big one against backyard breeders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is interesting. Maybe breeding for "stocky" brings a tendency to pack on pounds. I sure see a lot of way too heavy labs around here. Maybe "chocolate" (which I never heard of until maybe 10 years ago) is a color that they breed specifically for? Anyhow, give me one of the old school black labs. And one wishes border collies were only bred for ability, but no, there is conformation and color breeding too, sadly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, shores, unfortunately there is conformation breeding in border collies, but not nearly to the extent of the more popular breeds I don't think.

Chocolate labs back in the day were usually culled. It was thought that they were a bad genetic mutation. Once they discovered that there is no difference between them and the blacks and yellows, they started to be allowed to live and breed. Some people even bred for the color which I think is how it came about. Whenever you breed for anything other than soundness and working ability you're bound to have problems, including behavioral ones. Which is why I think the field guys mostly don't want anything to do with them. Some of them have been so inbred to produce this color, their behavior has changed, and I agree. Most chocolates I've met are very friendly, (some are not) but a lot of them are just plain strange.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are two descent examples:

 

New show type:

Note short thick muzzle and roundess of head. Very stout and thick dog.

Kind of looks brainless doesn't he?

IMG_1831.jpg

 

Field Type:

Looks leaner overall, a very intelligent face.

zoom_1.jpg

 

More field dogs:

I personally worked with the dog that's laying down, Click, what a doll he was. But you can see how different these dogs are. The one in the middle is Surge, Click's son. Click was a national champion.

emmasurgeclickpic.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome! Lexi and Cash are very pretty :rolleyes: I have 2 BCs myself, and a Retreiver(Duck Toller) and 4 muttlies :D

 

 

 

As for the black labs, I don't know either. The blacks are still very much the majority in the field trials I think. My boss has several field trial labs, all black. I get to go out and throw birds for them, which is fun. It's cool being around some pretty top notch champions. The consensus seems to be that blacks are the best working dogs, you can get a good yellow one, and the chocolates are just plain nuts.

 

Blacks are the orginal Lab thats why, Yellow came about when breeding for show came about, before that there was black black and black lol. Yellows have been around a while however and when bred for the field can be perfectly capable, however Blacks are still prefered for the feild, where as Yellow is more common in the show ring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...