Rescued Farm dog questions

[RescuedPups]

Hi guys have only jsut signed up, and the reason might be given away by the name!

 

(skip the middle rant if you just wanna answer the questions )

 

in the middle of october me and my partner were shopping at tescos and found a pretty mangy, very underweight but very bloated (pups or worms we assumed) gorgeous border collie who proceeded to follow us home.

 

As we neared our house (about 2 mile walk) we figured we couldnt just close our door on her, so took her in. We took her to the vets the next day who said she was healthy bar being malnutritioned. She quickly seemed to adopt to us as owners and we quickly grew attatched (naming her gypsy) which was just as well as she had pups 3 days later. A week after the pups were born a farmer claimed us. He is a 'traditional' sheep farmer, who speaks only welsh, and is 86. He hadnt been aware of the pregnancy and didnt want the pups, offering to drown them for us. We convinced him to take them with him, allowing gypsy access to them at least at night (he wanted her working straight away) and we promised to look after them.

 

They are now just over 4 weeks old, and seem healthy, but they are constantly wet and dirty (farmer puts wet food in their basket with them, and gypsy keeps coming home from working in the rain soaked we assume.) We are also not allowed to access the pups before 9am and after 4pm - which is difficult with both of us working (he doesnt want us upsetting gypsy and his relationship).

When we go up we change bedding and give them warm lactol and leave a new stock of puppy food, i was just curious:

 

At what age are the benefits of still being with mum outweighed by being wet and cold in an open fronted stone shed, (they are out of any direct rain or wind when in the basket) which they are now attempting to scamper around... i.e when should we take them??

 

Secondly we are planning on keeping one, me and my partner are very active and both run at least once a day (me in morning and her at night due to preference and shifts) so pup/dog will be well exercised, and will get plenty of attention due to overlapping shifts.

and we were wondering what sort of traits you can spot in a collie, if any at a young age. And i have heard that a collies intelligence can be seen from how dark the roof of its mouth is??? (I am keen to train it in frisbee/flyball etc if possible) have always owned at least one dog up until last year but never a BC.

 

Any feed back is much appreciated.

 

 

Cheers Jason and Nadia

[stockdogranch]

One possibility: if the farmer didn't know she was bred, then no one knows who (or WHAT) she was bred to. You might have some real crossbred whatevers there, so as far as BC behaviors--??

Anna

[RescuedPups]

they are definatley with another working dog...... well so we have been told, although if you can tell from these photos??

 

 

 

what are thoughts? the farmers seem to think it would have been one of the other farm dogs... they are quite a way from normally walked areas.

 

cheers

[cattledog5]

What's the deal with some farm type people? It seems like every now and then I come across one who seems completly unaware of the special gift that is the bond you can develop with a dog. Granted he may consider his dogs to be essentially farm "tools" but I don't see why that means they need to be treated with neglect. No farmer I know would leave a high quality tractor in the rain day after day. Anyway, those pups certainly look a lot like BC's to me.

Matt.

[Liz P]

That is weird, isn't it? Maybe the same farmers who don't take care of their machines also don't take care of their dogs. Seems stupid to invest time and money into a dog and not take care that is stays healthy and able to work.