How active are Borders compared to a Working Cocker?
Look at the bottom pic above!
They are as active as you want them to be – they’re fine with 15 minutes walk if you are pushed for time, or will walk for hours. They sleep a fair bit.
Our Border Terrier Smudge is 12 yrs old now, lovely little dog, but she suffers from this http://www.canineepilepsy.co.uk/cecs.html
Daily tablets (side effect has now impacted phone her bladder control)
Will chase anything from cats to squirrels (typical Terrier) so care needed off the lead
You’ll have to make your garden better than Colditz.
They’re very active Jake has joined me on a few challenge walks, he’s done 42 miles in one go before. Or they will be happily sleep all day too especially if you have a log burner.
Here’s Margot at home after a day or two[url=https://flic.kr/p/Q1MRMM]IMG_1569[/url] by mark shepherd, on Flickr
Here she is with her favourite thing in the world[url=https://flic.kr/p/PQzaPa]IMG_3998[/url] by mark shepherd, on Flickr
And here she is today, massively in need of a stripping!![url=https://flic.kr/p/PXrhkL]IMG_5821[/url] by mark shepherd, on Flickr
She’ll go all day chasing the ball, or equally as said above she’ll lay infront of the fire and not move 😆
Great to have another addition to the STW border terrier club 8)
Sonic (and I had to shout that for ages to get “lost boy” back in the woods last week) is 2yrs old now. Black and Tan. They all start much darker and get lighter for the first 6months. They gradually get lighter as they get older so our two previous BT were light by the time they were 15.
Our Patter(devil)dale is much harder work in terms of exercise and training.
Had a couple of borders twenty years ago now… seeing this thread has made think of getting a couple more, lovely dogs, and as said they loved chasing all day and equally sitting in front of the fire all day… awesome dogs
This is our little guy Mort. He is a border terrier mix we think(rescue dog so we are not entirely sure) Mort instagram page
We have had him about two months now and he is around 18 months old as far as we know.
Crate trained, house broken and seems very smart. He also seems to hear us and follow commands when it suits him. We don’t have a garden but I can say Mort doesn’t like to be on a leash if other dogs are not, he also likes to sniff and get underneath bushes.
I haven’t been out for long bike trips with him yet but the short ones I have been on he seems to like.
He runs really fast but not sure on his endurance.
We’ve been really lucky with ours. Great recall. Doesn’t chase anything we don’t want him to. Loves his crate. Hasn’t got an aggressive bone in his body, some borders we meet out and about can be a little snappy. Not really cycled much since I got him but had him out with me tonight and his stamina is definitely getting much better since I last had him with me on bike around 3 weeks ago. He is totally obsessed with balls. I have to take two with me to the park as he won’t let go of one unless I throw the other.
So last week was pretty rubbish. After picking Elvis up, I had him booked in at the Vets for his first vaccine. On checking the puppy, and getting a second opinion from another vet, he dropped the bombshell that he the poor little fella had a heart defect. 99% sure it was a PDA defect. The positive, it was fixable and if successful he would lead a normal life. The negative, it could cost anywhere from £2k to £6k. His four week insurance from his microchip wouldn’t cover birth defects and due to an admin error, his kennel club insurance wouldn’t cover it also. The breeder hadn’t sent the forms off in time for us to pick him up. I spent two days phoning around different practices to find the most reasonable and spoke to many different insurances companies to try an get cover before and after the surgery. Nobody interested in the animals welfare. I simply didn’t have the money for his treatment and whats worse, I’ve been told if I was on benefits, his treatment would have been paid for. So I took the difficult decision to make the five hour round trip and return him to the breeder, who gave us a full refund. She took him to a practice where they confirmed the heart defect but one of the vets has agreed to take him on and fix him up. Absolutely heart breaking but I’m glad he’s getting the treatment he needs.
If I’d have kept him I’d have been forced to have him put down, I couldn’t bare to see him suffer and lost the money I paid for him. I don’t have that kind of money to pay for the treatment which wasn’t a fixed price either. It would need £850 to determine the severity of the defect and then it could spiral up to £6k. There was a place in Swindon that would cap the cost at £2400. I got declined for a loan for that amount.
I’m confident I made the right decision as tough as it was due to getting so attached to him.
Yes I’m definitely going to get another.
The breeder has since contacted me and recommended me someone not far from where I live who has a litter that will be ready in the new year.