Brody- Border Collie Mix

[brody_smom]

I've been on the forum for a while now, and am finally introducing my pup, Brody. He is a Border Collie mix, 10 months old now. We adopted him from the local SPCA on February 15, 2013. He had been surrendered along with his littermate sister when their owner became too ill to care for them. He had been assessed as "barrier aggressive", but we found upon bringing him home that he is more shy/reactive. He was house trained by his previous owner and knew "sit". He had few other manners taught him, and was very mouthy and jumped up a lot, nipping me on the upper arms quite a bit on walks, or just generally if he got excited, like when I was folding blankets (go figure!). He is an avid couter-surfer, so we have had to learn to put food away if we aren't going to watch it (one incident of Brody eating the toppings off of 3 pieces of pepperoni pizza taught the teenagers this lesson pretty quickly!), and rinse any dishes that may be left on the counter.

Over the 2 1/2 months we've had him, he has settled down quite a bit. He doesn't jump up or nip nearly as much, and he is learning some impulse control. He will go "get your tuggie" when I am folding laundry or making beds, so that saves my arms and the blankets. Some tricks/commands we are working on are:

sit
down
stay
sit-stay
down-stay
go to your spot
shake/paw
spin
sit pretty
paws up
roll over
play dead
figure 8s
touch
ring bells to go out
get your tuggie/ball
get it/fetch (I know, not really a command, but it's what we work the hardest on, other than basic commands)

We had a few ideas on what he was mixed with. He has webbed feet, so some kind of water dog. His ears are fully down, so maybe a golden or labrador, but the hairs on them are long and get all crimpy when they get wet. His tail curls around and touches his back so that it looks like a slice of pineapple. He is a tri-color, but his sister was more of a golden red and white. I was watching some videos of a duck toller screaming, and I remembered Brody doing something very similar to this when he wanted to get to a dog behind a fence and I kept him away. This is not his normal bark, but the further I pulled him from this dog the more excited he got, and the higher pitched his bark became. So now I wonder if his daddy might have been a toller. His sister definitely has that coloring, with a black nose and white blaze on the face. He is currently 54 lbs. and 24 inches at the shoulder, so already bigger than most toller males. Who knows, but it sure is fun to guess.

 

[Mutt]

Brody is gorgious!
You guys are doing well with the tricks!
Border collies can have floppy ears to and all dogs have webbed feet (it's just a skinfold)
Looks to me like a BC with aussie (australian shepherd) and/or may some retriever).
But hey who cares what breed he is, he seems like a nice dog.

 

[brody_smom]

Brody is gorgious!
You guys are doing well with the tricks!
Border collies can have floppy ears to and all dogs have webbed feet (it's just a skinfold)
Looks to me like a BC with aussie (australian shepherd) and/or may some retriever).
But hey who cares what breed he is, he seems like a nice dog.

Thanks for the nice comments, Mutt. I've never seen a picture of a purebred BC with ears like Brody's. They are more like a lab, but with long hair. The closest I've seen in photos was a toller. When he puts them back you almost can't see them at all from the front.

I was wondering about the webbed feet too, but I looked it up on various websites, and they all listed only a few breeds with webbing, these being the akita, the hunting breeds (hounds, pointers and retrievers) and those bred for water, such as Labradors and Newfoundlanders and the Portuguese and Spanish Water Dogs. The griffons are also listed, but I think it is considered a defect and not breed standard if they have webbing.

 

[Mutt]

Some breeds have more obvious webbed feet, but in the end all dogs have them

 

[Gordykins]

What a handsome dude! Looks like you're working on a lot already. SPCA dogs have a special place in my heart, my boyfriend and I foster for our local SPCA Thanks for adopting, and giving such good care to Brody!!

 

[MaryK]

Brody is adorable, such a cuddly looking boy and, as we've said before in another post, looks so much like my boy Ra Kismet they could be bros!!! He may have retriever, that's one of the 'guesses' with Ra Kismet. It's fun guessing isn't it, that's one of the many pleasures of having a 'mutt-i-gree' breed

He's doing so well with his tricks, so glad you found a way to save yourself and the laundry, now he has his own 'job' to do while you're doing your chores Yep one way to teach people to be tidy, own a boisterous counter surfer, works like a charm! My partner now very carefully puts away, socks and jocks, after having quite a few used, unofficially, as doggy tug toys!