I posted a thread back in November asking for help with what breed our second dog should be, and lots of people said BCs. I'm really drawn to them, and DP is warming to them too, but we really want to know everything before we set our minds to it.
So, DP is a farmer (arable, no livestock) and I stay home. We don't have children. We have GinDog who is a lab/patt cross aged 4yrs, and an old rescue cat.
GinDog is a pretty flexible dog and can either run for a whole day, or stay home with me and have a long walk and then bits of garden play/interaction inside and lots of cuddling. He's very good at switching off and lazing about, but getting up and ready to go whenever you need him to. He is very good at 'protecting' me/our land/house with barking, but has the terrible terrier trait of disappearing on a walk/if a gate is left open. I'm trying to fix this. He is, however, excellent at recognising the different engine noises of farm vehicles, and is very good around them (i.e. runs along one side of it, never behind/in front etc)
For our second dog we are looking for a similar sort of thing really. We would most likely both take a dog so there would always be one at home and one on the farm. I would like to have the option to be able to keep both home for walks though. I would like a more intelligent dog (sorry GinDog!) that I would like to train a bit firmer into more of a helper at home. (They don't have to help, but I'd like a dog who would enjoy the challenge of learning new commands/tricks etc. GD just looks at me like I'm a fool if I try, and DP is normally in the background sniggering!)
Two things I'm worried about with a BC:
- will it ever switch off and let me give it a cuddle/stroke? Or will it be wired constantly waiting for the next command?
- will it be okay around children? I'm an ex nanny, and occasionally have children to visit, plus family members with children. Someone mentioned BCs are prone to nipping with lively children around.
If you have one, or have had one, can you tell us the good, the bad and the ugly of owning a BC?
Although it's not popular, we would be looking at getting one from a pup. I really want to work hard on training from day dot, and not have to battle with old bad habits. We need to be able to trust it to behave well on the farm. DP has also had two bad experiences with rescue dogs, and is really wary of doing it again.