Are BCs that hard to live with? - the worst thing your dog ever done

[INU]

I just finished Jon Katz's Dog year. A friend gave me last x'mas because I have a lab and a bc and she thought that I could relate. It took a while to finish but I got side tracked by other books.

 

I was surprised how opposite it was in his book and in my world. In my house the lab was the nightmare and my BC is the angel. Not just Jon Katz but a lot of people warn people to think twice before getting a BC!!! I look back our last 3 years and I couldn't think of anything so horrible she had done compare to the lab.

 

She might be sound sensitive and there were things I had to work really hard on but I can't see any potential of becoming a helldog. I do wonder though, if I didn't exercise and give her a job to do, yeah she could have been a problem-dog.

 

So here I am wondering. What was the worst thing your BC has ever done? Can you see your BC becoming a helldog if he/she was given less exercise, discipline and love?

 

The only 'bad' thing Jazzy ever done was ripping the cover of 'the end of leash' when I had to leave her with my husband one night - for the first time.

[Allie+Tess&Kipp]

Tess and Kipp have never had the opportunity to be bad. We use crates. We train "lay down." We train "leave it."

 

My mother-in-law, however, has a Boston Terror (not a typo!) who dug up a blueberry bush, shredded her address book while in the car, shredded some other stuff in the house, PEED all over MY house (he is not allowed in here anymore), and other things I can list. My two are ANGELS compared to that monster.

 

My mom loves having my dogs visit. When my in-laws visit my parents and bring their dogs, my mom has to close every door and pick up everything to make sure the terror does not destroy things.

 

And my mother-in-law goes around saying how well-behaved he is!! :eek:

 

Allie + Tess & Kipp

http://weebordercollie.com

[Kat's Dogs]

Without training and exercise I think that Daz would go crazy.

 

The worst thing she ever did that I can think of was dig some holes in the loose dirt we had while "fixing" the yard. Because it was just a pile of dirt it didn't do any damage anyway. Another time she ran right through the screen door but that wasn't really her fault.

 

I really can't seem to think of any "bad dog" things that she has ever done - but without training she would be a basket case.

[sandra s.]

There's never a week that goes by without me feeling grateful to the shelter folks who acted as if Kessie was a DOG.

I came looking for a hiking companion and companion in general that would fill the gap left by a "borrowed" dog who's owners had moved away with her. They simply compared my life to the needs of the "dog" and found it a perfect match. The fact that "there must be some BC in her" never mattered.

She never objected to being considered a dog . She tries with all her soul to be the perfect dog for me, and she succeeds

 

I think she would be very unhappy if she was excluded in any way (as a backyard dog for example), although I don't know in what way she would express her unhappiness.

Their strong need for companionship is probably the part that makes them difficult for certain people, more than "energy" issues.

But it makes things easy too - she'll do anything (including riding the underground trains, and up and down escalators, as I found out yesterday) - anything it takes to come along wherever I'm going. It's all part of being a piece of velcro!

 

The worst thing she's done? No idea! Even if she did mess up the house a bit (which she doesn't), these things don't matter to me.

Maybe her snobbiness with other dogs. I really dislike that. So many play opportunities get wasted that way! But considering all the rest, I think I can live with that .

[Lunar]

Hard to say. Oreo's naughty phases were so long ago. She had a liking for my mother's dress shoes when she was a pup, that didn't win her any points.

 

Zoe chewed a corner off my passport, heh. And all four corners of my old purse as well. For some reason, that particular day, purse + contents looked yummy. (Every other day before and since she hasn't touched my purse.) She also ate my hubby's dress shoes.... err, one of them. And the one that really peeved me was chewing my internet cable on this computer and my laptop's power cord. Three times.

 

Zeeke is another whole matter. Purebred german shepherd (but adopted from a shelter), hubby had NO idea how big a responsibility that would be AND he was opposed to crating. That dog ripped apart a couch, crunched three tv remote controls, got into garbage more times than I can count (we had to become very inventive - he still can and will open garbage containers that have lids that close), ate many many pairs of my brand-new shoes, my good quilt... lord what else. Thank the light my husband realized one day what a good investment into OUR sanity and ZEEKE's health a crate would be, and now he's 3 so not so many things go missing. But hubby still doesn't really comprehend how nuts that dog goes in his own skin. *sigh*

[Deneen]

We stupidly tried to leave Sydney out of her crate before she was ready. We were going out of town for a weekend, needed a pet-sitter, and I was hoping she wouldn't have to be crated the whole time we were gone. While testing her out a few afternoons we lost a couple of pillows, all magazines in our house, and the bay window cushion I made. While in her crate she has destroyed two dog beds, one sheet, and one towel. During the dog-sitter weekend, we made the mistake of moving her crate into the living room, so she'd be by Sarah (who is out in the house). We lost a corner of our couch and a pillow that she managed to get from inside of her crate. The pet-sitter took a picture of the inside of Syd's crate.

 

 

We've now had Sydney almost a year, and she has a much better understanding of house rules. For the last two weeks, I've been leaving her out of her crate for the afternoon (I go home at lunch, so I let her out). There has been no destruction so far. I am thankful that she is not completely wild right now because it's too hot to do much outside for any of us. We have another heat warning this weekend.

 

Oh, and I have to add that we adopted Sarah (mystery mix) as a pup, and she's never destroyed anything. However, Sydney was only 9 months old when we adopted her and had never had any training or been in a house before. She's doing so well now.

 

~Kelly

[nancy]

I think the point about thinking twice is not that border collies are bad dogs but that they are dogs that, by the nature of their purpose as dogs, thye need more mental and physical exercise and stimulation that many other breeds.

 

We had a lab-shepherd who was happy to spend the day in the fenced back yard and wait for the kids to get home from school for playtime. A border colle would become a bored collie. And a bored collie looks for interesting things to do. And they may not be things of which you approve.

[BustopherJones]

I don't have any real horror stories about Annie. I was not pleased when in the beginning she decided that the bed in her crate was a chew toy; but we got over that quickly with some creative "counseling." The worst time I had with her was not her fault, it was mine. BC's are so intense that they can push themselves beyond the physical limits that their bodies will allow. Due to my failure to recognize this, I pushed her too hard one time when she was a puppy, causing a separation in a growth plate. It was a traumatic lesson (for both of us), and I went through extensive (and expensive) rehabilitation and hydrotherapy with her; fortunately, the problem was eventually cured. But the experience does lead me to speculate as to how many BC behavior-related problems may be attributable to new owners' understanding of the breed (as in my case) or poor training/discipline on the part of the owner.

[MrSnappy]

My first BC, Abi, chewed a hole through the wall to get into the storage cupboard where some tennis balls were being stored. Abi taught me the value of an XPEN when I was not present to supervise!

 

My three dogs (Abi, Red Dog as a pup, and my ex partner's pitbull X Lab) destroyed several very old and beautiful ceiling height houseplants when we were out one day. I came home to eviscerated plants, and dirt ... oh the dirt! It was ground into the carpet, it was on the ceiling fan, it was smushed into the sofas ... and they had played in the water dishes and came back for more dirt, which made it mud. Only one plant survived - it has been 9 years and it's still only 5 feet tall and has never been the same since. Traumatized.

 

Red Dog used to get into the garbage, so I started putting the garbage in the bathroom. He got in there one day to get the garbage, and accidentally locked himself in the bathroom. In a panic, he demolished the bathroom including the door.

 

One of my foster puppies ate her way halfway through the leg of an antique desk that my ex partner's deceased mother had given us. He was not pleased.

 

My youngest dog is now 4, so these things never happen anymore. In a way I am sad because I realize my dogs are not puppies and I kind of miss how they terrorized my life back in the day.

 

RDM

[Sky92x]

The worst thing my Rezso does is eat cardboard and hump the australian shepherd, but she doesn't seem to mind.

 

I'm pretty happy with him.

[r b m]

Besides going through 4 pairs for flipflops and 2 pairs of tennis shoes, chewing up papers in my waste basket and destroying her first(and only) crate pad, my little red hellian(1.5) has been an angel. She'll throw her little temper tantrums every now and then... nothing a little disipline won't fix.

[bc friend]

The first year with Sara was a challenge because I was used to more laid back dogs. She was a very active, intelligent puppy who could open refrigerators and tupperware to get to food, ate/chewed clothing, shoes, books, videotapes, fruit left to ripen, etc., would jump a 6' fence and tour the neighborhood, etc. However, I attribute most of this to my learning curve on dealing with such an active dog because she has been great the last 13 years and none of my other bc's have given me nearly as many problems.

[Lenajo]

Pup learned how to move the xpen to where he wanted to go and ate mouse size holes out of the couch through the wire....

 

I don't think BCs are the worst to live with unless you are John Q Public (dog lives in the yard with no exercise or training) or idiots like Jon Katz.

 

If that breeder Katz's raves about had any integrity she would have *never* sold him any Border Collie. The fact that she sold him 3 speaks volumes....

[prosperia]

The worst thing Jen ever did was eat ds's Big Bunny.

But B.B. got sewed up, and now looks like African Bunny, but thats ok. Just more stories to tell someday down the road.

Buddy (my assie mix) on the other hand has chewed every piece of furniture I own.

All four corners of the coffee table.

Every kitchen chair leg and seat, and spindle. .

All the feet on my kitchen table.

The "dog couch" is completely destroyed thanks to him.

The back door, and surrounding woodwork.

Ah, there must be more.

Thankfully, he's grown out of it for the most part. I still catch him chewing on chair legs every once in a while though.

[jay7347]

The worst thing...

 

Well, Derry, my 16month old red and white who looks alot like Sienna above hasn't been a chewer, too many chew toys and bones for that. She loves her crate and seems calm in the face of thunderstorms, passing baloons and whatever loud noises I make remodeling. Her issue is recall. Inside she comes immediately. Outside has always been an issue, (luckily we are on a five acre ranch.)

 

But the worst thing that Derry ever did was when I went to Denver to pick up my wife from a biz trip at DIA. While getting out of the car at "Arriving Flights" to open the rear for my wife Derry bolted from the back seat out the door before I could even put two feet on the ground. Off she went, past policemen, laughing baggage attendents, and gawking incoming passengers with me in hot pursuit trying to step on her leash or stop her any way I could.

 

Unfortunately I wasn't as fast as I was running track in college. Unfortunately, then at fourteen months her training was not that regular because of her double hip surgery and rehab. Unfortunately, I thought she wouldn't be that active ten weeks after surgery... I was wrong.

 

As she sprinted down the ramp with the same reckless abandon that she showed before undergoing the knife in her agility class I found myself losing ground to her as she boldly ran straight at the incoming automobiles arriving to pick passengers up. Another hundred yards ahead 767's throatily droaned their way to their gates. My dog's short life flashed before my eyes as a primal scream built up in my throat.

 

Luckily, a driver swerved across both lanes stopping incoming traffic. He got out and waved his arms at Derry who then decided to follow my command and return to me. Wherever that driver is today, I wish I could buy you a beer or give you a hug... you saved my BC's life.

 

Since then training a dependable return has been an obsession. She's much better but still a headstrong teenager and other than that moment, the smartest BC I ever had. Her owner just needs a lot more training!

-jay

[PSmitty]

Other than the need for extra exercise, my bc (mix) was an easier puppy to raise than my lab mix. Waaaay easier.

 

Now that they're both "grown up", Jack listens better and has less attitude than Lilly (gotta love her, though!) in general. And other than de-stuffing the occasional pillow, he's never been destructive, unlike Lilly.

 

So, my bc isn't hard to live with at all.

[Maralynn]

Missy is a sensitive dog. If I scold her for something the first time she does it, it rarely happens again. I scolded her once for going down to the basement, and ever since she lays at the top of the stairs and waits for me (or the cat).

 

I think the "worst" thing she ever did was grab a cooked roast off the counter. It was soon after I got her, and she was still learning how to live in a house. Anyway, she grabbed the roast, my mom saw her and and yelled at her to drop it. Miss droped it, spun around and bolted back for her crate - nearly knocking my little sister off her chair in the process. To this day she leaves food sitting on tables alone. I have reletives that can hardly believe that she will walk past food sitting on a low table, and not glance at it.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Ben had a short-lived penchant for bathrugs. HE was so sneaky about getting to them that I flavored the edges with Cayenne pepper in desperation. He ate every bit of the flavored part, then dragged it in the kitchen and dropped it at my feet and sat and stared at me. His look clearly said, Why didn't you season the whole thing?

 

He also would lay under my chairs and quietly gnaw the wood until I noticed. I don't have great hearing so he'd have to get going pretty hard at it before I noticed. Rocky now does the same thing, and I have to make myself be mad since I'm so busy reliving Ben's puppyhood.

 

The worst thing any Border collie here has ever done has to be Jen's tendency to tear outdoor faucets off the wall. She discovered that if she does this, she'll be rewarded with a stream of water to chase until someone discovers her. We lost three faucets this way. Honest, it's not like she was out there for hours - she'd do this in a matter of seconds.

 

Inside, she was obsessed with the basement door in our old house. She attacked it at the bottom, gradually wearing a huge hole in it (this was an old solid wood door). We never encouraged this and never could stop it (though we tried the old "put a command to it" to no avail, just made it worse). It was where the cat lived, but she transferred her obsession quickly to the door itself - so if she saw a cat next to her, she'd simply go attack the door. It was truly weird.

 

A girl with two Border collies rented this house before us, and the dogs have left some dramatic scars on the house. They seem to have been rather bored and out of control - they destroyed two windows and the bottoms of two irreplaceable five-panel craftsman doors. If you are an old house fan you'll know these are the Holy Grail of period doors - I cringed when I saw the damage, and promised on my firstborn that my dogs wouldn't do anything like that (Jen never transferred her door violence here).

 

Doug the Dog is so awful he can't be trusted loose in the house. If he were an only dog and I were not constantly distracted, I suppose I could break him of tearing apart cabinets, boxes, and trash receptacles. I think the reason he does this is he's looking for food, but I can't imagine his doggy senses are telling him there's food in the DVD box, for instance. Or the bookcase, or the garden chemical cabinet. He can break any lock or chew through any woodwork or plastic, so it's really quite dangerous. The pet poison control hotline is getting ready to name a wing after Doug, I think.

 

Maggie was my worst dog for overall damge, however. She may be part Border collie, I don't know. She ate part of every rug, piece of furniture, any clothing that was on the floor, roach bait, lightbulbs, an antique snowglobe (yes, almost all of it). We recall her puppyhood by her "periods," like an artist. The Upholstery Period, the Kitchen Appliance Period, the Glass Period, the Seatbelt Period, the Rubber Period, etc. Most dogs eat the leather off shoes. Maggie would eat the soles, or a good bit of them, and do it quietly in the closet and then turn them back over, so you wouldn't realize it until you slipped them on and felt "uneven".

 

I think the difference between Border collies and other dogs is the sheer potential for outlandish destruction, and the reasons they do it. The stories I hear about Border collies are about dogs who go way out of their way to perform feats of destruction that curl people's hair. Why chew on a convenient doorframe when you can rip the cover off a jacuzzi (which was behind a locked door)? Any old dog can dig holes in dirt - Border collies seem to have something to prove when they dig through concrete, wood, drywall, asphalt, or metal - not to get out but usually to get in or to something.

 

Remember, just because many Border collies are well-adjusted and don't do these things, the potential is always there. That's what I tell all my adoptive families - you must have a "Plan B" ready if it seems your dog needs just a little more something to meet his mental needs in the suburban or urban lifestyle.

[Odin's Momma]

The worse thing Odin has done is destroy the stuffing out of my matress and eat socks and underwear, things that were completely my fault >.

[Beth G]

My two never really done anything too bad but we confine both whenever we go out. We don't really allow them to be "bad".

 

I really believe that with enough attention and excercise and making sure you crate when you leave you can avoid alot of that.

 

However we did get a free, small, leftover piece of Berber carper from our landlord, after she had re-carpeted the apt next door, to put in front of our stove and Poppy just had to taste it. That's about the worst he has ever done.

 

And he did that in front of us..lol. I think it was because he was teething and I had just hrown away his Nylabone an hour before, as he had totally chewed the knobs off of one end.

[painted_ponies]

Violet, my BC, is absolutely the easiest dog I've ever had. Not destructive, not hyper, cooperative, willing, and intuitive.

 

But I think "easy" for me is a measure of how well a dog fits into my lifestyle, so I don't have to go out of my way to accomodate her.

 

Violet's a great fit for me. I'd be walking two miles in the mornings whether she was with me or not (although I might give it a miss during downpours instead of slogging ahead as we do now). I'd spend hours out in my fields whether she was bounding along with me or not. And because most of my friends are horsey and don't mind one more hairy critter, I can take her visiting with me without any problem.

 

The only special effort I made for her was to buy her a Great Dane-sized crate to be in while I'm away. I mostly got it after reading some horror stories on this board about tunneling through sheetrock, etc. But Violet enjoys it because it means the Lhasa Apso can't get her while I'm not around for protection.

 

Violet's only requirements really seem to be getting enough exercise and not being left out of too much. Other than that, she's pretty undemanding.

 

But if she lived the life of some dogs, couch potatoes who never get to go anywhere? Hmmm - I dunno what she'd be like but I don't plan to find out!

[silhouettestable]

Well I haven't "yet" had a purebred BC, but I haven't had any trouble with the mixes. By far one of the great danes we had was the most destructive dog I've ever owned. At the time we had 2 dane "puppies" (by about 8 months they had attained most of their adult height and had out grown borrowed crates that were 33"x45"x33"tall), plus a collie pup that was a couple of months younger. Since we no longer had crates to fit the danes, we would shut all 3 dogs in the hallway with a baby gate and close the bedroom and bathroom doors. They stripped off door frame moldings and chewed the wall corners, crushed the plastic doorknobs etc. When the plastic knobs were replaced with metal ones they left dents in them. I knew it was mainly the one dane (Pongo)who was the instigator so we took down the spare bed and my husband built a custom crate for him that measures 3'x5'x42"tall. When he was crated the other 2 dogs could be left loose in the house without incident. Outside, Pongo would stand up on the back door and rip the screen out (actually he also did that to the front door too), plus he liked to pull the knobs off the BBQ and chew them. He ate the starter button once as well. We started gating the dogs off the deck when they were outside and then the other dane Perdie would chew at the gate and try to unhook it (which she learned how to do and then the screens would get ripped out again). The hook was replaced with one that could be locked. They also loved to dig holes all over the yard. They finally grew up and grew out of those behaviours (mostly - they still did like digging though) and even Pongo was able to be left loose in the house. After living with Pongo through his puppy stages though I feel like I could take on anything!

[Anda]

jay7347, your story at DIA was terifying! I'm glad all ended up well.

 

Well, while so many people on this thread confessed that their BC has never done anything realy bad, I, on the other hand, think I can honestly list a dozen things Ouzo has done in the 7 months of co-habitation with us.

Let's see...

 

#1 Eating 20-50 aspirins - about $900 in vet bills. Absolutly no side efects for the junior. As someone said, at least he won't have to worry about headaches for the next 6 months...

 

- chewing two pairs (4 shoes) of slippers. Mine. After he ate the first pair, I went and replaced them with the same type - apparently they were very tasty so they had the same fate as the first pair

- chewing a 3 inch hole in the wall in front of the pattio door

- chewing and ripping the carpet in front of the above mentioned door - problem resolved when my husband nailed down a piece of wood from Home Depot above the said spot

- I'd estimate I lost about 6 pairs of panties, one bra, four PJ bottoms (huge holes, only one was recovered and sawn back)

- Toilet paper in the entire house - numerous times, until we learned our lesson and stopped puting TP on the roll, but instead on the bathroom counter

- Yesterday morning (fresh one!): got a hold of a Q-Tips box of 300....started shaking it and running with it in the house, trying to get me to chase him. Looked like Christmas in July

- Ate books (covers and certain pages)

- Ate my husband's plants from the pattio (he seems to enjoy parsley)

- Chewed off two extendable leashes - one was recovered and is currently in use

- Opens plastic bottles and spills content if not caught in time

- ripped under-lining of couch trying to get back the toys he, himself pushes under the couch and then gets agravated that they don't come rolling on the other side

- If he sees a plush toy out of reach (i.e. on top of a counter, book case, etc), he would do anything in his powers to get it. Still cannot figure out a few incidents where things got down from a bookcase as high as the ceiling without anything else being disturbed. And one from on top of the TV. Must have super powers.

- Remote control (that cost $70) suffered deep puncture wounds when he was teething. Still works, just doesn't look as pretty as before.

- Same treatment to the phone, which he took from its craddle - less marks

 

And these are just a dozen. Will contribute more in a while.

 

On the positive side, he's calming down much more as he's growing up. He's now 9 months and can reason with him - just about as with a 5 year old. You know he understands what you ask of him, you just can't trust him too much

[smileyzookie]

Riven is BC mix, but she's a total doll. She hasnt done anything destructive really except poo in the house a few times. She chewed up her brush once, but I think that was cause she doesnt like getting brushed.

 

She's so afraid of doing something wrong, and wants to please so much she just doesnt do anything bad. She reminds me a lot of Sandra's Kessie. Although Riven is a more versitile dog where she can sleep all day or run all day, she is the same dog either way. She's always willing to do whatever Im doing, walking, sleeping, or following me around the house making sure Im cleaning correctly.

[pearls pop]

the worst thing Pearl every did was to disappear for nine days, it turns out she "just moved in" with someone who had a geriatric shetland and lived about half mile away. other than that she is a perfect gem, of course i got her when she was a year old and i missed all the puppy badness.