Advice please on buying a Border Collie puppy

[whatwouldrondo]

Our much loved 13 year old Border Collie died two weeks ago. I know I should consider an older rescue dog but we are heartbroken (DDs are 20 somethings) and we need a beginning after such a sad goodbye.

I am retired and grew up with Border collies and fully understand the demands, I can give one a good life with plenty of outdoors one to one, exercise, a big well fortified, he enjoyed a good escape project garden etc. I am an experienced owner.

My problem is that since we got him the breeding of Border Collies seem to have mushroomed and that is sending alarm bells ringing. Lots of puppies available, many of them seem possibly a bit designer, and bred for appearance and fashion? Smaller, lots of colours, a particular head shape. I may be wrong here and it is just that you did not have access to so much information about the puppies available 13 years ago but I am a bit cynical about what can happen to a breed when the focus is on looks.

It is also a question of perspective. All our dogs have been rescue dogs, rejects from farms, some older. He was a rescue puppy, rejected as a working dog. He was big (quite a few centimetres over the Breed standard and twice the size of "better" bred dogs we encountered), clumsy, scared of sheep and very loving. Compared to other family Collies he probably had a bit more love and a little less brains but a lot of character. I know we can't replace him and the dog we get will be a new personality who will have another space in the family.

However there do not seem to be any rescue puppies around anymore, the breed seems more popular. Any advice on what now seems a bit of an industry and how to find a good puppy for us amongst all the choice would be welcome.

Go on Facebook and search for Protecting Preloved Borde Collies. We got our rescue from them (not a puppy) but I know they do have puppies available once your have had a homecheck etc

Border Collie Trust in Staffordshire sometimes have puppies, not at the minute but they definitely do get them.

Thank you for the suggestions. Looking on the websites I realise we probably would not be a suitable home for an older rescue dog because few of them could live with our two old cats....

I will get in contact with them

It is worth keeping an eye for puppies in rescues, especially breed specific ones, as they do turn up fairly regularly. Wiccaweys currently have a couple in. There are loads of BC specific rescues and Agilitynet also keep a list of dogs for rehoming who may be suitable candidates for dog sports, unsurprisingly a very high proportion of them are BCs or BC types/crosses. Some are private rehomes (I would advise caution with those) and some are with rescues but a quick look at the current list shows quite a lot of puppies and young dogs.

If you want to buy then firstly you need to decide what type of BC you'd like as there's a huge amount of variation (both physically and in terms of temperament) within the breed. There are working bred dogs (who can themselves vary hugely depending on the area they're from and the sort of sheep/terrain they'd be working), show bred dogs (who tend to be smaller, more heavily coated and also less intense), sport bred dogs (BCs are very popular for obedience, agility, flyball, etc.), dogs bred for various non-herding jobs (assistance dogs, search and rescue, sniffer dogs, therapy dogs, etc.) and pet bred dogs plus all sorts of mixtures of the above.

Once you've got an idea of the sort of dog you'd like I'd recommend getting in touch with either the [http://www.bordercollieclub.com/index.html breed club]] (there are also a number of regional clubs [[http://www.bordercolliebreedcouncil.co.uk/breed_council_clubs.html
listed here]]) or the ISDS and see if they can help put you in touch with breeders who consistently produce the type of dog you're after. Champdogs isn't a bad starting point to look for breeders, you can narrow your search by type and whether the dogs are health tested plus it tends to have a better ratio of decent breeders compared to many other sites where litters are advertised. If you're interested in doing a particular sport/activity then approaching local clubs or going along to competitions and finding out where members got their dogs might be an option.

Regardless of type the breed does need fairly extensive health testing. As a minimum both parents should have had their hips scored (with results lower than the breed average: 11.9) and been DNA tested for (with at least one of them testing clear of) Collie Eye Anomaly, Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis, Trapped Neutrophil Syndrome, Imerslund-Grasbeck Syndrome and Multi-Drug Resistance (MDR1). Both should also have a current BVA eye test (these are repeated annually) and a current BVA gonioscopy (repeated every three years). Ideally they should also have had their elbows scored, plus DNA tests for Raine Syndrome and Sensory Neuropathy but these last two are only fairly recently available. The puppies themselves can also be checked for eye issues (via the BVA's litter screening scheme) and for deafness (BAER testing).

cornflake That is really useful. Thanks. Knew about the eye and hip testing but not the rest.

Heathlands Animal Sanctuary always have collies. They take a lot of dogs from Ireland where collies turn up in pounds in a daily basis :(
So many collie pups are born in rescue as well, you will definitely find one.

There was a beautiful border collie boy yesterday on Facebook , an Anne Dunwell , ( popped up as a share from a friend ) in Cornwall , not sure where you are

Border Collie Spot also have puppies in occasionally. They have a facebook page.

Where are you? Many tears rescue in wales had quite a lot of collie and collie crosses when I looked a couple of weeks ago