Your Questions About Dog’s Life Rescue

Help controlling herding behavior in a border collie mix puppy?

I rescued a six-month-old border collie mix pup last week and she’s extremely bright. She starts in agility lessons and obedience training next week. She gets a LOT of exercise and stimulation but she’s been trying to herd my five-year-old daughter. While she hasn’t hurt my daughter and I understand that it is a natural behavior, it is something that I need to find ways to stop or redirect.

I know that border collies and mixes CAN be trained not to herd children, and I need advice on helping her redirect her intelligence and instinct into something more productive. I hope that agility lessons will help some, but any help for at-home training is much appreciated.

Last time I posted a question like this, I was attacked by people telling me that I shouldn’t have gotten a herding breed and expected it not to herd, so let me make one thing very clear: My puppy is a RESCUE dog. There are not enough working farms in the world to provide loving homes for all the mixed-shepherd breeds in the world. Besides that, working farms want purebred border collies, not mixed breeds like mine.

Are you saying that all of these animals are better off euthanized than in loving homes that do their best to care for them? I’m enrolling my pup in agility and obedience lessons and I take her for a five-mile walk every day, but I need to “grow a brain” for rescuing this poor baby’s life? Don’t judge me for adopting a dog that needed a home and has strong herding instincts. Blame the irresponsible jerks who didn’t spay and neuter their border collies to begin with. I will NOT be shamed for saving a dog’s life just because I don’t happen to have a herd of sheep for her to tend. We don’t shame beagle owners who don’t take their dogs hunting or Dalmatian owners who don’t give their dogs carriages to guide, so please don’t attack me for adopting a herding dog. I saved her life, I am a responsible owner, and I will not accept people accusing me of animal abuse just because I don’t own a freaking farm. (Sorry for how aggressive this sounds, but the answers I got last time were WAY out of line and inappropriate.)
Clockwork, what gave you the impression that I bought this dog? She was on the euth list at my local animal control because she was very sick. She had been found abandoned in an empty house, half-starved and sick with pneumonia. I footed her vet bills for her recovery and paid to spay, vaccinate, microchip, supplement, and medicate her. And you’re accusing me of being “delusional” for thinking I rescued her? You’re the one who needs to get your head checked.
And the reason that I have this dog (should I need to explain this) is because she’s a wonderful, brilliant, loving dog and because I adore her. I shouldn’t need to explain why I love my pet to people like you. Please just go away and keep your judgments to yourself. I dare you to go tell the millions of owners of non-working dogs that you think their animals are better off dead than in loving homes. Go to Hell.

How to convince my parents to get another dog?

On the 13th of May last year (which happened to be Mother’s Day) we had to unexpectedly put down our dog of nearly 11 years due to water on the lungs. I had had her since I was 5 and I was torn up over it for weeks and it is still unpleasant to the point of tears to think about today. We have recently moved house and in two weeks our lawn will be put in. I want to ask my parents if we could get another dog, as I really miss the company they give (I’m an only child who doesn’t like spending more time with people than I really need to). After my last dog died we did discuss briefly the idea of getting another dog once we were in our new house.

Unfortunately life isn’t going particularly well at the moment. About two months after Mali (my dog) died, my mother was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer that had spread to some lymph nodes. She underwent 4 rounds of chemotherapy and is now in her second last week of six weeks of radiation. She will be on hormone therapy for the next five years as the tumor was hormone receptive. This means that she will most probably have all the symptoms of menopause all over again for that period of time. So basically Mum is now staring to lean towards no dog. Dad is more open to the idea.

I’m not planning on asking for a new dog, I would much prefer to rescue on from the pound or similar welfare organisations in my area, reducing the cost somewhat. We still have my old dog’s bed and several kilograms of dog food (yes, it is still good) and I’ve obviously had previous experience in looking after a dog, and in light of recent event’s I feel a lot more mature than I was raising Mali from a puppy. I have two other pets, a python (most low maintenance pet ever!) and a horse about 5 minutes drive away whom I ride regularly and see twice a day every day, before and after school. Unfortunately, horses and snakes are not the most cuddly animals and I’ve been longing for a dog for a long time. A lot of my friends have dogs, and at the farm where I work every weekend there’s an old kelpie and a husky and when they come say hello and ask for cuddles, it makes my day.

Any advice on how t approach this matter would be highly appreciated.
@Dominator You sir, are an insensitive piece of humanity. And at 16, I have as much of a right to controlling my own life as anyone else. Go grow a heart.
@Dominator I’m not a nagging child. And who’s to say that “children” are incapable of thought and emotion. I’ve certainly met children with greater emotional and rational capacity than you seem to have.

Will a golden retriever bond more closely to me if I have it from being a puppy?

May seem like an obvious question, but I was just thinking, if I have the dog from it’s very early life, will it develop a bond with me that it could not get if I, say, rescued it from a pound? I know all dogs are different I’m just thinking in general terms. I really want my bond with the dog to be as strong as possible. Incidentally is there anything I can do to strengthen the dog’s bond to me other than just socialising with it? Thanks.