Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[NH homesteader]

Agreed. BC's are really awful house dogs lol. I bet it's cool to see all those dogs work!

 

[babsbag]

BC's are really awful house dogs lol.

My girls would be offended by that. They are always in the house and wouldn't have a clue what to do with a goat or sheep; they only herd cats. They don't even do agility anymore as we are all too old, but it was sure fun.

 

[NH homesteader]

Rephrase, BC's are really awful house pets if you don't do something with them when they're young and bonkers. Agility is awesome! I want my DH to build me a course for his psycho dog to get some extra exercise.

 

[Mike CHS]

Our Border Collie lives inside and when (not if) we get another it will live inside also. They are crated at night but they stay with us until it's time for bed.

We have a large circle of friends that have multiple herding dogs and I don't know but a few that keep their dogs in Kennels. Where we trained in SC our friends had 7 Border Collies and they all lived inside.

I haven't met more than a few people who have only one dog.

 

[babsbag]

When my girls were pups we lived in the city and had a plum tree in our backyard. They used to run around that tree chasing each other and then they would stop, look at each other, and change directions. It was if they were saying, 'now you be the sheep'. They wore a deep groove in the ground around that tree. If you are familiar with the old story of 'Little Black Sambo' and the tigers chasing each other around the tree, that is what it reminded us of. We called it 'making butter'.

I always wished that their herding instincts had been encouraged as there are time that I could sure use them with the goats. But they have never even been in the goat field and I don't think that my LGDs would take to kindly to their presence so we will have to just keeping wishing I had a herding dog. I certainly don't have the time or the facilities to start training one now, it is big commitment. So my girls are just that, "my girls", and they have dominion over the house and backyard. They are pretty good about being low keyed chill dogs, I got lucky. I don't think that I will ever take a chance on owning BCs again, but I will miss their level of intelligence and intuition. They are SMART, they have me welled trained.

 

[NH homesteader]

Yeah I didn't mean they shouldn't live in the house, I meant they aren't good for people who want a dog to lounge around.

 

[babsbag]

@NH homesteader I built some of my own equipment out of PVC, it was pretty easy. There are plans on the Internet. The hardest thing for my girls to learn were the weaves, they never really did master them. I had to quit or do another knee surgery so they had to take an early retirement. The rest of the equipment was a snap for them. But I did have to work hard on the teeter as they wouldn't go slow and it would drop out from under them and they were the flying dogs. It was funny, but certainly not safe. I used to make them stop before they mounted it just to slow them down.

 

[Mike CHS]

Our sheep are happier today. We picked up a new Cub Cadet mower to replace the one the tornado destroyed. We ordered the grass catcher last week and waited until it came in to pick up the mower. We didn't give them very much because it is pretty lush for winter grass and they have been mainly on hay along with hay and feed.

We want them used to the grass before we put them on the new pasture hopefully next week.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Now you'll be their new "Bestess" Friend.... ....they probably think ya Finally got what they were "Reminding" ya of too.

 

[Mike CHS]

Never heard a sound out of them till about 4:30 this afternoon. They seem to know when that time comes around since that is when they get their grain.