r/BorderCollie

My deaf 5YO border collie was gifted to me & my siblings as a Christmas gift back in 2020. She was a Covid puppy and became EXTREMELY attached to me. She was originally supposed to be the family dog, but when I moved out 2 years ago she became fully mine since I had become her #1 human.

I love her more than anything, but my parents had never owned a dog before and honestly didn’t do much training with her. Since she’s been with me, I’ve taught her some hand signals like sit, wait, and go away. Even though she’s deaf, she is INSANELY intelligent and picked up visual commands super quickly.

The issue is that aside from those few things, she’s lived a very free life. She’s allowed on furniture, isn’t crate trained, jumps on people, and aggressively licks everyone’s face which most people understandably don’t love 😭 She’s super sweet overall, but she’s also very anxiously attached to me and whines/barks whenever I leave her home alone (never more than 6/7 hours a day.. 😏67hahah). She also gets into the cat litter and cat food if I’m gone too long.

My boyfriend is moving in with me in July and for his comfort/mental wellbeing we really need to create more structure for her. We’re no longer allowing her upstairs because it’s carpeted, and she’ll mainly stay downstairs where there’s wood flooring. We also want to crate train her for when we’re away or when she needs downtime. No more furniture/couch/bed access either because the SHEDDING is absolutely unreal 😑 my clothes and entire upstairs are constantly covered in hair no matter how much I brush her weekly. Also don’t want her jumping on guests or obsessively licking people. (She LOVES people) Honestly a lot of these restrictions seemed harsh at first but dogs do thrive on routine & structure so I would like to put in the work for her mental stimulation as well as our comfort. Before anyone comes for me I walk her for an hour or more if I can everyday and she gets a ton of attention from me when I am home & that isn’t changing. She also travels with me and lives a very nice life for a dog haha.

I feel confident she can adapt because she’s honestly so smart, I just don’t know where to start. Has anyone here trained a deaf border collie later in life? Any advice on crate training, separation anxiety, jumping/licking, or managing the shedding? Also are shock/vibration collars considered okay or harmful for deaf dogs?

Dazzle and Amanda (bottle fed kitten)

Onyx is my soul dog and the love of my life. My husband and I are considering getting a puppy, because we know how it is supposed to extend the lives of older dogs. Onyx is 8. But, a couple things are stopping us:

a) Onyx is such a mommy’s boy and seems to enjoy being the center of my world.

b) he randomly has some dogs he doesn’t get along with. they are usually high energy dogs that don’t pick up on his social cues. He isn’t aggressive but he definitely isn’t nice to those dogs. 😂So, what do you guys think?

Success stories and horror stories all appreciated.

Its this guys 1st birthday today !! Post your silliest border collie photos to wish this goof a happy birthday !

Flint the Border Collie and Cooper the Goldendoodle. Cooper is my service dog, and when we got Flint as a puppy they immediately bonded.

I feel so lucky to live so close to such abundant nature.

Meet my new pup, Hugo. I think he is a mix of a BC and a GSD. I adopted him a month and a half ago, he is a year and 4 months old. He came to me with basic manners (sit, lie down) and we have made great progress with learning leash training, leave it, place (for his bed), house (for his crate), bring it and out (for fetch and drop), and come. Curious what other words/tricks you feel would be good to teach for utility or for fun. We just started working on “paw” yesterday. I want to keep his mind engaged, and also I value the bonding from training together!

Photos for tax! She's booked in for a spay just a week before her 6th birthday. She's pretty calm but she does want to be the boss around other dogs! I'm not expecting her to change after her spay but wanted to hear other people's experiences

Hi guys! Nash just came from outside. I try to make sure he’s getting enough exercise, so I will rotate throwing two balls back and forth and he runs for 30 mins straight.

He was panting worse than this prior to the video. I have all the fans on, his water is full, etc.

Am I doing anything wrong here or is this too bad of panting? Should I decrease the time or intensity?

Our sweet girl Luma was spayed today. She currently has a big cone on her head and is “sedated.” Though is still pretty alert and excited for a sedated dog! The vet said 2 full weeks in the crate apart from toilet breaks. No jumping/running/no getting wet/no taking the cone off/no dirt, it must stay clean.

Can you guys give me an indication of the healing stage, what you did/would do better for you girls who were spayed? I feel like 2 weeks crated is a lot. I know she cannot walk/exercise like we usually do, but I feel like letting her in our grass yard when I can keep an eye on her would be okay? We have nothing she can jump on/our other collie will be in her crate if Luma is out of hers so they do not run.

I will obviously spend time with her playing etc, not just leave her in the crate, I’m more referring to leaving her to wander and lay in the sun/sniff etc.

When did you remove the cone? When did yours heal enough to trust them in the yard? What was your routine?

Any help would be appreciated. I want to be cautious, but she loves her time laying in the sun/on our deck etc and I don’t want her depressed. At the same time, I want her to heal well.