Jump to content
BC Boards

new member introduction


Recommended Posts

hey there! I've been lurking for quite some time and recently signed up- this website is wonderful, so much good advice!

 

My boyfriend and i recently adopted an eight month old border collie mix. most people think she has some husky- but she's only 30 lbs and it might just be her blue eyes- here's a link to her photo- i'm not sure how to paste a photo.

 

callie!

 

- any thoughts about her origins? i'll post some more once i find the camera cord

 

Her name is Callie and she's an absolute love. She comes from New Hampshire via San Antonio. According to the shelter staff, she used to cross a highway everyday to beg for food from folks waiting for entry into the Alamodome. Consequently, she thinks all humans are her personal treat dispensers and she has a healthy respect for traffic patterns, looks both ways before we cross the street.

 

Callie is my first dog, well the first dog i've had living on my own. I grew up with Molly, a border collie/golden retriever mix and Honeybear, a german shepherd/yellow lab mix. Callie is different, in a good way- far more observant, [maybe "biddable"is the right word]and spirited [we're working on a 'nothing in life is free' program per the advice of the dog trainer]

 

She's on a grain free diet, had some eye discharge that has since cleared up, but she has been scratching and biting herself more than seems to be normal and rubbing her mouth on the carpet. It doesn't seem to be an obsessive behavior, [but maybe it is- what do i know?] We're taking her to the vet tomorrow, hopefully they can give some insight into what's going on

 

We're attending a basic obedience class and it seems to take only a few tries for her to learn a command...but consistently obeying when she's in the 'real world' is a different story. She came to us house and crate trained and knowing "sit" [she spent three weeks being fostered before coming up north, but was a stray before that] We're working on leash walking with the easy walk harness, she's pretty good until she sees another dog and then she pulls and pulls and pulls! I'm hoping to eventually get her canine good citizen and maybe do agility once she's older and more trained...but we've got a long way to go!

 

one question/concern...she likes to watch cars from inside our apartment- should i be discouraging this behavior? she'll stand on her hind legs and rest her front paws on the window sill, does it for maybe one minute at a time and then moves on to something else. When we're outside she doesn't seem to be focused on them and in fact shies away from the cars when they pass.

 

thanks!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome aboard! Callie is a real cutie. The boards are a great resource for border collie information and advice. And for posting pictures!! (hint, hint).

 

Maybe your Callie's a mix, maybe not. She looks a lot like my Juno and her littermate, Calli, who are 100% ABCA-registered border collies. Here's a picture of Juno at 7 months for comparison:

 

100_2291.jpg

 

And here, a bit younger, with Calli (no E) whose ears are both reliably up, like your Callie's:

 

PICT0009_Juno__Calli.jpg

 

I've taken the liberty of posting Callie's shelter picture:

 

Callie-e1310037345332-M.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a cute pup! I personally don't see any Husky in her, but then again it may just be the angle of the picture.

About the scratching and biting, and going to the vets office...Your vet might recommend that you switch to a different food than you're currently on. But be careful, because a lot of the time they just promote what will make them money, such as Science Diet. If it's allergies, I'd go with something like Blue Buffalo or raw meat. My girl used to scratch a lot, but I put her on a diet of Blue Wilderness and raw meat, and the scratching is practically gone.

Just a little warning/advice, because I've had vets recommend I feed my dog their brand of food, which is full of grain, corn, soy, you name it..all that stuff that's not good for them.

 

About how she acts with the cars; I wouldn't be overly concerned, since you say she shies away from them out on the street. But I also might try and get her attention on something else if she starts staring at them.

Has she shown any herding instinct? (:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome! Callie could certainly be a purebred border collie. There's no real way to know, but I wouldn't look askance at you--at least from that one picture--if you told me she was a border collie. Blue eyes (one or two) are common enough in border collies, if that's the thought behind the husky comments.

 

As for the itchiness, don't rule out fleas (unless you've truly ruled them out by treating her and your premises). If she's allergic to flea bites, just one bite could set her off.

 

Also, all kibble is not created equal. If she's itchy on one type of grain-free kibble, she might do better on another. You could try a raw diet. Even if you wouldn't want to do it forever, it would give you an idea of what she can tolerate if she's really got a food allergy. Some dogs are actually allergic to certain protein sources, but before I would go to a restricted protein diet (there are only so many protein sources, so you don't want to limit yourself early on by feeding her on of the "rarer" proteins before establishing if the protein source is the problem), I would try to figure out if one protein or another (beef, lamb, fish, chicken) makes her more or less itchy.

 

I don't think I'd let her spend a lot of time watching cars, but that will require you to be able to distract her with other things (play, a chew toy or bone, etc.).

 

Thank you for rescuing.

 

J.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About the scratching and biting, and going to the vets office...Your vet might recommend that you switch to a different food than you're currently on. But be careful, because a lot of the time they just promote what will make them money, such as Science Diet.

 

Just a little warning/advice, because I've had vets recommend I feed my dog their brand of food, which is full of grain, corn, soy, you name it..all that stuff that's not good for them.

YES!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

YES!!

 

Just thought I'd put it out there. It's ridiculous, honestly.

Here's the ingrediants for "Adult Active - Dry" Science Diet.

Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Soybean Oil, Dried Egg Product, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Vitamin E Supplement, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

 

Compared to what I feed, Blue Wildreness...Ingrediants listed on the page.

http://bluebuffalo.com/dog-food/wilderness-salmon

 

I mean, really? Corn as the first ingrediant? Come on...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see an ounce of husky in her. A lot of shelters guess that when the dog is blue eyed. Add a smoothie (which many shelters also mis-label), and there ya go! :lol: My Alex has been called a husky mix, too, all 30 lbs of him (full grown), but there is no way...Anyway, I'd feel comfortable calling her a border collie!

 

I agree with what the others have said. The car watching doesn't sound like a big issue and overall she sounds like a great little dog. Thanks for rescuing and feel free to post some pics. You can either attach to your post, or use image tags and link to them from another hosting site. I'd love to see more of her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is Hestia, our first foster. Link to Hesti's adoption profile

 

Her adopter was a research geneticist and she just couldn't resist running a cheek swab. Hesti turned out to be 70% Husky and the rest dalmation and other Heinze 57 breeds. Not a lick of BC. I also got the March 2011 Alaska Magazine and Lo and Behold, the cover shot was of a sprint sled dog that looked esactly like Hesti.

 

YMMV

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll second the "are you sure theres not a flea" comment" as I have had 2 dogs who had a flea allergy and who would itch crazily. On many occasions I never saw a single flea on any of the dogs, but Ross was scratching like crazy so I would give the gang Frontline and the scratching would stop. I guess he was getting bitten by a flea in the yard somewhere and that one bite was enough to start the cycle.

 

Shes very cute, and could defiantly be all Border Collie. Its often easier to tell by watching her move as opposed to a still picture, so maybe you can share some video with us one of these days.

 

Lucky her, lucky you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

sorry, its taken me so long to respond- things got a litttle crazy with the hurricane- this area wasn't hit too bad, but we found out the porch roof leaks...

 

sooo you all were right, callie's got fleas- the vet seems to think that they will clear up after we apply her frontline. I'm surprised since she's already on it and i checked her for them before. but i saw the darn things with my own eyes...during the appointment, one jumped right onto the vet [maybe that's why they wear white jackets, lol] lot's of vaccuming and laundry to do

 

I'm not sure if we should switch to a different food, since it doesn't seem to be a grain allergy [she's eating Natural Balance Potato and Fish] The Blue Buffalo kibble looks good, maybe we'll transition her onto that. It's scary how many chemicals and crap unethical companies try to pass off as 'healthy' dog food. We give Callie Pet'n Shape brand treats- [http://www.petnshape.com/] just three ingredients- chicken liver, sweet potato and broccoli.

 

Shoresdog- thanks for your help posting the pic- your dogs are gorgeous- how old was Juno when his ear got floppy?

 

I've been redirecting Callie when she goes to look at traffic, getting out her tug and playing with that instead and we can also draw the shades if it gets to be too much. [ My boyfriend and I are both students with pretty flexible schedules and can be around most of the day during the summer]

 

BorderlineCrazy, she has shown some border collie herding instinct, which we've discouraged. She's given Henry, our 12 year old chinchilla the "eye" and follows his movements closely- generally when they interact she does the play bow and he's responded by holding a stick out and i would swear he's trying to poke her. She sometimes naps next to his cage. Henry will jump from the the top of his cage and drop down about three feel, making a loud noise and startling her.

 

no worries, this all takes place at a distance- Henry is caged and behind a gate, so Callie has no chance of getting to him. Henry is, for a lack of a better phrase, a "special needs chinchilla" he was abused by his previous owners and has aggression problems- when my boyfriend adopted him, he had to sign a contract swearing her would never allow Henry to share a cage with another chinchilla, due to safety concerns. Chins are pack animals, very social creatures and i hope he enjoys her company]

 

i'll try and take some video of callie, though i'm not so technologically adept. and aww, hestia is adorable!!!

 

i hope these pics work..

post-12572-007280000 1314738931_thumb.jpg

post-12572-088930500 1314738959_thumb.jpg

post-12572-071444700 1314738996_thumb.jpg

post-12572-097302300 1314739016_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

I'm not sure if we should switch to a different food, since it doesn't seem to be a grain allergy [she's eating Natural Balance Potato and Fish] The Blue Buffalo kibble looks good, maybe we'll transition her onto that. It's scary how many chemicals and crap unethical companies try to pass off as 'healthy' dog food. We give Callie Pet'n Shape brand treats- [http://www.petnshape.com/] just three ingredients- chicken liver, sweet potato and broccoli.

 

 

I wouldn't switch to a different food at this time. Based on what you describe, the cause of the itching is fleas. Do one change at a time. I would treat for fleas first to see if the itching goes away (most likely it will?). If you were to treat for fleas AND switch foods, you would never know for certain which 'treatment' cured the itching. (Although it probably will be the flea tx.)

 

FWIW - My experience with Natural Balance: I fed it to my sheltie mix about 7 years ago when I first started seriously feeding higher quality foods. After about 3 weeks, she didn't want to eat it anymore. I kept feeding it (she would eat, slowly, because she was so hungry -- poor girl.) After another 3 weeks of feeding Natural Balance, I had to throw in the towel because she just wouldn't eat AND I noticed that her coat was really, really dull. Switching her to another food (I forget which one.) resulted in her appetite returning within 1-2 days. The coat issue took longer.

 

I am not saying that Natural Balance is a bad food. In fact, my vet recommends it when she is trying to figure out if a client's dog has food allergies because it is a limited ingredient food. I am just putting forward my single experience with it. Like others have said, I believe that one single dog food is not tolerated by all dogs. One just has to experiment with what works best for your dog.

 

Jovi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure if we should switch to a different food, since it doesn't seem to be a grain allergy [she's eating Natural Balance Potato and Fish] The Blue Buffalo kibble looks good, maybe we'll transition her onto that.

 

..............

 

BorderlineCrazy, she has shown some border collie herding instinct, which we've discouraged. She's given Henry, our 12 year old chinchilla the "eye" and follows his movements closely- generally when they interact she does the play bow and he's responded by holding a stick out and i would swear he's trying to poke her. She sometimes naps next to his cage. Henry will jump from the the top of his cage and drop down about three feel, making a loud noise and startling her.

 

 

God, she's beautiful! I'm so jealous :)

If you do end up switching to a new food, the Blue Buffalo is great. Pardon me if I missed it before, but what food is she currently on?

 

Don't discourage her herding instinct! She'll just become confused and distressed. You will NEVER be able to get rid of the instinct, it's been bred into these dogs for hundreds of years. You just need to find a creative outlet for it, such as sheep herding, dock diving, agility, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

God, she's beautiful! I'm so jealous :)

If you do end up switching to a new food, the Blue Buffalo is great. Pardon me if I missed it before, but what food is she currently on?

 

Don't discourage her herding instinct! She'll just become confused and distressed. You will NEVER be able to get rid of the instinct, it's been bred into these dogs for hundreds of years. You just need to find a creative outlet for it, such as sheep herding, dock diving, agility, etc.

 

Callie's currently eating Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish Formula.

 

I guess "channel" would be a better word than "discourage" the herding instinct. For example, if Callie starts to focus on the chinchilla, encouraging her to play with a toy, get her "tug" or chew. I think you're right that she needs a outlet for it, something to keep her brain occupied. We go to basic obedience once a week and practice daily, I'm hoping to get her into agility once she's older. There's a dock diving even in September about an hour away. I might check it out. Callie does not feel any great affection towards the water [yet :)] I'd like to get into herding but the lessons are a bit too expensive at this point in time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...