tigerlily46514
Honored Member
Hi All! I'm so glad to find a site like this!! Wow, i'm really impressed and can't wait to teach my new dog, Buddy, some of these tricks!
We just got Buddy, a purebred Border Collie, (Buddy is our only dog, but is our third Border Collie) from a dog pound.
Tried going through 'rescues' , i admire those groups very much, but the BC rescue (maybe this is common with all breed rescues, i don't know) had a director that was really difficult to work with, very snotty and rude, long story. All the volunteers, the fosters, etc, that we dealt with were fabulous, but the director was one rude person!! We persisted, were nothing but polite, but were always treated as if we were a nuisance or something...we didn't understand.
PLus, we were so naive, we did not realize we would not be allowed to pick out our own dog! AFTER We filled out a 4 page form, went through a two hour in home interview, and all this took months and months, as they rarely replied to any emails...only to find out we would not be allowed to even meet the BC we had picked out. I DO understand they want to make good matches happen, but the foster says this 3 year old dog was not hyper, was well behaved, and was spending all day alone, even the foster said she didn't have time for him, we pointed out, we did-we have someone home 24/7 here!!! but they wouldn't let us even meet the dog!! so, We moved on.
Border Collies up this way (Indiana/MIchigan state line) are kinda hard to get, most get snapped up into rescues, and we weren't going through THAT again!!! (my sweetie wanted a 'real' BC, not a lab with a white spot, even though those ARE fabulous dogs too!). We wanted an adult male about 1-3 years old. A BC puppy, pretty easy to get, but we wanted an adult dog.
turns out, Tenn and KY are chock full of BCs, and so are the shelters!!!
We got Buddy from Tennesse dog pound, he was on death row. We drove 6 hours south, and they drove Buddy 2 hours north, we met and took our Buddy home!! Was kinda taking a chance, we only had their opinions and some photos to go on, but we felt we could probably even if we do end up with a 'whack' dog, that we could help rehabilitate him into being a happy and busy, contented and loved dog.
When we got Buddy, your eyes woulda teared up to see him, he was thin, malnourished, covered in cocklespurs, and wounds. Dog bites all over him, many were fresh. NO history on him whatsoever.
We fell in love with him, he is the best ever. What a sweetie. Even though everyone warned us it takes about 3 weeks til your dog "is himself" in his new home, it was like watching a flower bloom. He opened up more and more each day. Buddy makes us laugh every single day!!!
He had a funny lil look in his eye, a 'tough guy' look, but now his eyes have softened into a much sweeter expression. He obviously has had some hard times, i smile and say he is my lil gangsta dog. He is a character, an adorable mix of dignified, and goofy. Over time, we exposed him to things, and found out, he is friendly to people, children and most other dogs. Probably once we get him neutered, that will increase to almost every dog.
Buddy is very well behaved, if he gets enough play time and excercize. He isn't pushy about asking for it, either, how lucky are we? He is smart and learns things very quickly.
Here is the part that fascinates us: Even though Buddy is plenty clever, and learns new words fairly readily, BUDDY KNEW NOT ONE WORD when we got him.
Even after he'd been here a while, it wasn't just nerves at being new, Buddy truly did not know any word at all.
There are many clues that lead me to believe Buddy has never been a pet before. He was not housebroken, really, but maybe he was, or maybe he just picked that up pretty quickly. I realize, lotsa dogs have accidents when new to a home, but we aren't sure if we trained Buddy or if he was/wasn't....
(he is 3 to 5 years old).
Almost EVERY PET knows ONE of these phrases: "sit" or "down" or "shake" or the ever popular "go bye bye" or "Go for a walk?" or "go outside" or "go for a ride?" or ANY word, nope, Buddy did not know ONE word!!! We even learned a few in spainish and tried that, in case that was it. Nope.
Even after we'd taught him a few basic things, only took 3 days each thing....and Buddy was doing these words fine, but he still did not react to other common dog words, so it wasn't he was being shy. He truly knew zero words.!!!????
Other evidence, beyond the ZERO WORDS-- a leash meant nothing to Buddy, nope. :doghuh: Neither did a knock at the door, or a doorbell. :dogblink: No reaction whatsoever. He is NOW learning, "Oh, this noise means company will come in soon!" and is beginning to show interest in this noise.
Buddy also treats squirrels and bunnies as his lunch going by, :dogtongue2: but is quickly learning we do not want him to chase these things. The vet says he is very malnourished, but should bounce back nicely with good nutrition. The difference is already evident in Buddy, even his coat is already improving!!
He also spent the first few days 'watching TV" as if he'd never seen one before, and looking behind it to find the 'other dogs' or whatever. Buddy seemed confused about coming IN the house, too. Of course, that coulda been just cuz he was new to us... Hard to put into words all the signs Buddy was never anyone's pet. It took a few trips in a car for him to begin to understand when we come back out to the car, his sitting in the driver's seat is not gonna work.:msngiggle:
Buddy acted as if toys were a whole new concept, and it took much encouragement for him to understand it was okay to play with them. I actually rubbed cheese onto the toys. It was adorable when he finally did understand, you could see the light bulb go off in his eyes, "Oh, these are for ME?" kinda thing. He is a toy afficiendo now!! Just loves toys!!:dogtongue2:
So we figure Buddy either lived in the woods of Tennessee??, or got by on scraps off the street, or maybe he was a working farm dog (oh, he can HERD!!) that was not taken into the house as a pet???, or maybe he was a 'stud dog' at some point???(he is uneutered) and lived in a barn as some puppy mills do with dogs, we'll never know. But we feel pretty certain, we might be Buddy's first family!!
Anyway, Buddy is the most wonderful lil creature ever, AND BRINGS US SO MUCH JOY and we feel SO LUCKY to have him!! Thanx for letting me tell Buddy's amazing lil story!!! Probably no one actually will read this entire thing, :msnrolleyes: but it was fun reliving the story of Buddy!!! We are so proud of him!!!
~jean:msnblushing:
We just got Buddy, a purebred Border Collie, (Buddy is our only dog, but is our third Border Collie) from a dog pound.
Tried going through 'rescues' , i admire those groups very much, but the BC rescue (maybe this is common with all breed rescues, i don't know) had a director that was really difficult to work with, very snotty and rude, long story. All the volunteers, the fosters, etc, that we dealt with were fabulous, but the director was one rude person!! We persisted, were nothing but polite, but were always treated as if we were a nuisance or something...we didn't understand.
PLus, we were so naive, we did not realize we would not be allowed to pick out our own dog! AFTER We filled out a 4 page form, went through a two hour in home interview, and all this took months and months, as they rarely replied to any emails...only to find out we would not be allowed to even meet the BC we had picked out. I DO understand they want to make good matches happen, but the foster says this 3 year old dog was not hyper, was well behaved, and was spending all day alone, even the foster said she didn't have time for him, we pointed out, we did-we have someone home 24/7 here!!! but they wouldn't let us even meet the dog!! so, We moved on.
Border Collies up this way (Indiana/MIchigan state line) are kinda hard to get, most get snapped up into rescues, and we weren't going through THAT again!!! (my sweetie wanted a 'real' BC, not a lab with a white spot, even though those ARE fabulous dogs too!). We wanted an adult male about 1-3 years old. A BC puppy, pretty easy to get, but we wanted an adult dog.
turns out, Tenn and KY are chock full of BCs, and so are the shelters!!!
We got Buddy from Tennesse dog pound, he was on death row. We drove 6 hours south, and they drove Buddy 2 hours north, we met and took our Buddy home!! Was kinda taking a chance, we only had their opinions and some photos to go on, but we felt we could probably even if we do end up with a 'whack' dog, that we could help rehabilitate him into being a happy and busy, contented and loved dog.
When we got Buddy, your eyes woulda teared up to see him, he was thin, malnourished, covered in cocklespurs, and wounds. Dog bites all over him, many were fresh. NO history on him whatsoever.
We fell in love with him, he is the best ever. What a sweetie. Even though everyone warned us it takes about 3 weeks til your dog "is himself" in his new home, it was like watching a flower bloom. He opened up more and more each day. Buddy makes us laugh every single day!!!
He had a funny lil look in his eye, a 'tough guy' look, but now his eyes have softened into a much sweeter expression. He obviously has had some hard times, i smile and say he is my lil gangsta dog. He is a character, an adorable mix of dignified, and goofy. Over time, we exposed him to things, and found out, he is friendly to people, children and most other dogs. Probably once we get him neutered, that will increase to almost every dog.
Buddy is very well behaved, if he gets enough play time and excercize. He isn't pushy about asking for it, either, how lucky are we? He is smart and learns things very quickly.
Here is the part that fascinates us: Even though Buddy is plenty clever, and learns new words fairly readily, BUDDY KNEW NOT ONE WORD when we got him.
Even after he'd been here a while, it wasn't just nerves at being new, Buddy truly did not know any word at all.
There are many clues that lead me to believe Buddy has never been a pet before. He was not housebroken, really, but maybe he was, or maybe he just picked that up pretty quickly. I realize, lotsa dogs have accidents when new to a home, but we aren't sure if we trained Buddy or if he was/wasn't....
(he is 3 to 5 years old).
Almost EVERY PET knows ONE of these phrases: "sit" or "down" or "shake" or the ever popular "go bye bye" or "Go for a walk?" or "go outside" or "go for a ride?" or ANY word, nope, Buddy did not know ONE word!!! We even learned a few in spainish and tried that, in case that was it. Nope.
Even after we'd taught him a few basic things, only took 3 days each thing....and Buddy was doing these words fine, but he still did not react to other common dog words, so it wasn't he was being shy. He truly knew zero words.!!!????
Other evidence, beyond the ZERO WORDS-- a leash meant nothing to Buddy, nope. :doghuh: Neither did a knock at the door, or a doorbell. :dogblink: No reaction whatsoever. He is NOW learning, "Oh, this noise means company will come in soon!" and is beginning to show interest in this noise.
Buddy also treats squirrels and bunnies as his lunch going by, :dogtongue2: but is quickly learning we do not want him to chase these things. The vet says he is very malnourished, but should bounce back nicely with good nutrition. The difference is already evident in Buddy, even his coat is already improving!!
He also spent the first few days 'watching TV" as if he'd never seen one before, and looking behind it to find the 'other dogs' or whatever. Buddy seemed confused about coming IN the house, too. Of course, that coulda been just cuz he was new to us... Hard to put into words all the signs Buddy was never anyone's pet. It took a few trips in a car for him to begin to understand when we come back out to the car, his sitting in the driver's seat is not gonna work.:msngiggle:
Buddy acted as if toys were a whole new concept, and it took much encouragement for him to understand it was okay to play with them. I actually rubbed cheese onto the toys. It was adorable when he finally did understand, you could see the light bulb go off in his eyes, "Oh, these are for ME?" kinda thing. He is a toy afficiendo now!! Just loves toys!!:dogtongue2:
So we figure Buddy either lived in the woods of Tennessee??, or got by on scraps off the street, or maybe he was a working farm dog (oh, he can HERD!!) that was not taken into the house as a pet???, or maybe he was a 'stud dog' at some point???(he is uneutered) and lived in a barn as some puppy mills do with dogs, we'll never know. But we feel pretty certain, we might be Buddy's first family!!
Anyway, Buddy is the most wonderful lil creature ever, AND BRINGS US SO MUCH JOY and we feel SO LUCKY to have him!! Thanx for letting me tell Buddy's amazing lil story!!! Probably no one actually will read this entire thing, :msnrolleyes: but it was fun reliving the story of Buddy!!! We are so proud of him!!!
~jean:msnblushing: