HDC: Sheena, where does the love of Border Collie comes from?
Sheena: Where does it come from for me personally? Well, that’s hard to say … the breed has always appealed to me, and my first exposure to them was in my early teens – some neighbours had three of them and I spent a lot of time in the local park playing with them and learning about them from those neighbours.
They used to take their dogs out to the Valley for stock dog training once a week, and while I never went with them, I loved to hear about their experiences. I wasn’t allowed to have dogs when I was a kid, so when I got older and moved out, one of the first pets I acquired was a border collie puppy of my own. It was a steep learning curve, but very rewarding as the breed is intelligent, demanding, and tons of fun to work with.
Over the years I have done agility, flyball, stock dog work and dock diving with my dogs, as they are so versatile and love to learn new skills. Some of them have even been in movies and on television!
HDC:Let’s talk a little bit about the specific of the breed. There are a lot of myths around Border Collies and they are often misunderstood. Hyper, crazy dogs that need tons of exercise and so much more. Can you clear some of the myths?
Sheena:There are lots of myths about the border collie that I hear fairly often. Probably the most common myth is that they are hyper, out of control, crazy dogs who need a thousand hours of exercise every day on acreage to be happy. While it’s true that the breed is very energetic and driven to perform, they can actually be wonderful house pets, or even apartment pets, so long as their people provide them with structure, a reasonable amount of physical and mental activity, and firm rules about behavior.
A well balanced border collie is a dog who can play and work hard when needed, and then turn it off when the job or play is done. In my house, the dogs all learn right away that outside time is for being active and “wild” and indoor time is for relaxing. There are 7 dogs in my house right now as I type, and all of them are napping on dog beds quietly.
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