We’ve not had dogs before (well, the wife had 2 whippets when she was a kid) and we currently have one cat who is fairly chilled and would probably cope just fine with dogs around
Erm.
It quite possibly wouldn't.
I wouldn't want to find out 8 hours later.
I think the thing is, if you have to ask if a pair of puppies of the highest energy breed dogs around is a good idea for a first time dog owner, then you currently are just not in the right place for those dogs.
I wouldn't touch collies with a bargepole, nor would my wife, she's had dogs all her life, I'm a newcomer with only 12 years on the clock. They need a full time job and we couldn't give them one.
anyone got an Australian Kelpie
They can bark. A lot. Loudly.
Aside from the fact a dog should never be left for 8/9 hours a day (although employing a good dog walker could help with that), two pups for company doesn't always work as intended. I've got a dog and a bitch (same breed/different breeders) and at times they can be friends. Other times they barely tolerate each other, and occasionally just avoid each other. It's never a given that they will get on.
I've no experience of Collies, but my ex has just got a Collie/lab rescue pup and its energy levels are off the scale.
Given all of the above, will one Collie be o.k home alone for 8- 9 hrs 5 days a week?
No dog should be left alone for that time, it’s cruel. Collies especially need loads of exercise but it would be cruel for any dog.
You ought to think of a dog as a bit like a toddler. Whenever you are thinking of doing something, think of whether you’d do it if you had one of them instead of the dog.
A dog shouldn’t be something that fits in with your life, you have to fit in with its requirements. If you can’t do that you’re not in a position to own one.
Probably the wisest thing said about dog ownership.
We've got a Colliewobble.
It's made out of a Border Collie and a Standard Poodle.
It's a mentalist.
I wouldn't leave a fish for 9 hours never mind a dog.
Oh yeah the digging forgot about that too.
Will happily make a dog cave under anything and would sleep in it if my wife let her.
I wonder if this thread is turning out how the OP expected? They've been awfully quiet since.
My ex pushed for years for a kitten. I resisted, much as I love cats, because it'd be home on its own all day and it wouldn't be fair. That's an animal which is nominally less self-sufficient than a goldfish. Dogs are inherently needy, and collies tend towards the top of the "high maintenance" scale of dogs.
Read the thread.... agree with everything other than the single "go for it" comment!
Only two things I'll add:
My family have been around dogs our entire lives and never had an issue with other dogs other than one time that my daughter was bitten by a dog whilst it was on a lead in public - it was a collie.
To those thinking of getting two dogs from the same litter - my sister did this and all that happens is that one will try it impose dominance over the other and you'll eventually end up with two old dogs.
Better to have a few years between them.
OP.... sorry, don't do it - but you know that by now!
I think the OP asked a genuine question in all innocence and it turned out to be like one of those times you were having a routine appointment at the GP and said, "Oh, the OH said I should ask you about this..." and a week later, you're still in hospital and haven't been home since the words left your mouth and there are stitches and a bucket load of drugs...
And they got sensible answers.
Possibly not the answer they wanted though.
re: the two dogs thing, we took our second dog for a week long test drive to make sure she got on with the incumbent. Turned out fine - but could easily have gone the other way.
I like the sound of a collie. Not necessarily to own/live with though. If they were human they would be your manic mate with a crazy Facebook feed of daring do and that was always getting you into trouble.
I do fancy a dog but I know my life is not right at the moment to do a proper job of giving it a good life. Someone needs to invent a better game than fetch a ball/stick though - that looks like it could get very old very fast as the human launch operator.
I'll just add a no. Just in case the op hasn't got the message. 😉
Never leave any dog 8 or 9 hours.
Especially not a Collie.
I've had dogs 18 years and had a springer from a pup who's now 6. Puppies are massive amount more work than any rescue we've had.
Collies are working dogs.
Don't do it.
stripeysocks
I think the OP asked a genuine question in all innocence
Could be he knew what the response needed to be, needed some back up and wrote it with an innocent voice so he couldn't be accused of leading people responding.
I wish I could bring myself to get a collie. I grew up with one who was bought to work on the farm but instantly became part of the family by being the friendliest dog I have ever met. She was perfectly fine being left all day (normally in a stable) on summer days when dad was away harvesting, but equally the rest of the time she had plenty of engagement by being an actual sheep dog, so maybe that provided the balance a lot of them miss.
That being said she was at least 6 before she would stand still long enough to be petted and that was even with a few hours a day of chasing a quad bike followed by me and my brother playing with her inside all night.
If anyone can suggest a dog that replicates the collie experience but is compatible with life in a town I am all ears!
Someone needs to invent a better game than fetch a ball/stick though – that looks like it could get very old very fast as the human launch operator.
I stayed at a hut in the mountains a few years ago, the owners had a retired avalanche rescue dog . They introduced him saying "Feel free to throw him a stick, but be aware you'll be entering into a contract, so you'd better not have any other plans!"
Just to add my two penn'orth, as a lifetime dog owner I am in complete agreement with everything written above. To wit, puppies need a huge amount of attention and care, 2 x puppies even more so. And by puppies I'm referring to dogs up to 2 years of age.
In addition Collies require even more attention and care, as written above they are wonderful dogs but are extremely high maintenance.
Your idea sounds like a recipe for disaster and if you were to approach a responsible dog breeder with your idea, they would reject you out of hand. I should add that a dog breeder of any breed - let alone collies - would reject you for even a single puppy, let alone for two.
I suggest you think again
getting litter siblings is a mistake even for experienced owners, you really have to know what you are doing. Getting a collie as a first time dog isnt a great idea. Getting a collie and leaving it for 8 hours a day really is a bad idea. Getting two collies, alone for 8 hours a day, first time owners is a recipe for disaster. for the sake of the dogs please don't. if you really want a dog, get a rescue greyhound as all my mates one wants to do is sleep upside down on his bed.
if you really want a dog, get a rescue greyhound as all my mates one wants to do is sleep upside down on his bed.
This
Sight hounds (greyhounds, whippets, lurcher etc) make much better laid back pets. 45mins of exercise twice a day and they'll pretty much sleep for the rest of the day. Still wouldn't want to get one from puppy, but an older rescue would make a bit more sense (caveat, not if you have kids, especially younger ones, as running dogs can be a bit nervous and jumpy)
If anyone can suggest a dog that replicates the collie experience but is compatible with life in a town I am all ears!
Mmmm, OK for town living, bites a lot. Errr, hamster?
45mins of exercise twice a day and they’ll pretty much sleep for the rest of the day.
OT but I wonder what proportion of owners actually exercise their dogs enough? Or even at all, through a wet winter?
I do. Whatever the weather, day I've had, illness or what, my dogs go out twice a day. Whether they want to our not! I have a massive pile of stinky muddy towels at the end of each week at the moment.
if you really want a dog, get a rescue greyhound as all my mates one wants to do is sleep upside down on his bed.
This.
We have two longdogs (Grey x Saluki, Grey x Whippet). Make brilliant pets.
Need a LOT of recall training though. Chasing after one that's seen a rabbit, is, how to put it, a frivolous exercise. In all other ways they're very easy pets to own.
The older one (she's six) CBA after just one walk, doubly so if she's run off lead for five minutes. The other will go out a couple of times quite happily.
OT but I wonder what proportion of owners actually exercise their dogs enough? Or even at all, through a wet winter?
Don't get me started.
Most dog owners should have bought a cat.
Too many many nay sayers here for me.
Most dog owners should have bought a cat.
anyone want mine? he's only awake about 45 mins a day and still manages to be a **** in that time?
Our collie lab currently sleeps for about 6 -8 hours of each day, still enjoys two walks everyday although she trundles around lagging behind, she is nearly 15, take her to the woods let her off and she is still like a much younger dog, even after a cruciate rebuild. Rewind to when she was a puppy, nuts absolutely nuts, then from about 2-10 years old she would run alongside the MTB for 16-20 km, get home sleep until anyone picked up the lead and happily go out again, whether the time gap was minutes or hours. Enjoys mind games, finding things etc. 2xcollie pups I'm not sure there is enough waking hours in a day to do them justice.
If your stepmum knew anything about collies, she wouldn’t even dream about selling/giving one or two to you in your situation.
You may want to suggest that she has her bitch spayed and that she ceases all breeding until, at the very least, she has a decent knowledge of dogs and collies in particular, but preferably forever.
That's a bit harsh - we don't even know that stepmum knows about crazy idea... if she was thinking about giving away two pups at the moment she's a very generous stepmum! I'm looking forward to part 2 - where he's stuck in a fight between step mum and wife - either because SM wants £5k from them or SM refuses to sell them a pup!
Just because noone has said it yet:
OP should go ahead and get the dogs. But he should also get a hill farm and a couple of hundred sheep so he can work the dogs in the way they require to keep them mentally and physically fit.
@ poly
That's true, we don't know.
Bit odd though, I mean if OP has a good enough relationship/is in enough contact with his SM to know her bitch has had pups, surely he could ask her advice on the question he posted on here.
I agree with whoever said he is trying to get opinions to make the gf see sense (or words to that effect).
Doesn't make sense otherwise.
No OP. Bad boy!
Also No-one has picked up on 'should have moved to a 2 acre property by the time pups are ready' so no guarantee they will even have the lovely big garden if move falls through.
Maybe the whole thing was just a weird humblebrag about his massive new garden?
If ever there was a screaming NO to any question asked on here, this is it.
Please re-consider taking on even 1 collie, or any dog at all actually given your circumstances, let alone 2 of the most high-performance and demanding breed on the planet.
Maybe the whole thing was just a weird humblebrag about his massive new garden?
Or awesome troll.
/ goes off to check Snowheads for threads about huge chalet gardens....
what proportion of owners actually exercise their dogs enough? Or even at all, through a wet winter?
You'll know the house even without the dog using the traditional muzzle to crotch greeting. There will be a stack of muddy footwear by the front door. Coats may also be drying on radiators and the smell of damp dog will permeate the place.
Ours likes to swim in the deep puddles on the nearby reclaimed landfill rec. Even if it's -5C he likes a swim, keeping his weight up is proving difficult as a result!
EDIT @rsl1 Dalmatian, ours is like the batteries have been taken out after 2 hours of daytime walks (13 month puppy). We're town based with reasonable access to parks and countryside too.
As people have pointed out the breed is important if having a dog that is being left alone for any time. I have 2 chihuahua's and they pretty much sleep whenever they are not eating bar a mad couple of hours around 18:00. They literally sleep from 20:00 to 07:00, have some food at 07:00 and back to sleep until lunchtime.
They are also not overly bothered about walking when it is 0 degrees or soaking wet outside so only want a short walk. The whole experience is not that different to the 4 cats we own although the dogs at least pretend to give a shit about you!
Thanks all, some really useful comments in there.
Unfortunately working from home will probably never be an option for either of us - the wife works in a hospital, hands on with patients every day and work might not agree to me moving their 9 tonne CNC mill into my workshop, as much as I'd love to.
I probably wrote the original post in a bit of a rush and missed one or two details.
I was sceptical of the idea of getting a dog of any kind, even less so of a collie. And 2, well, that idea came from the wife's experience when she was younger. They had 2 whippets, from same litter. I wasn't around but apparently this worked o.k.
My only experience of dogs is as a kid growing up on a farm. Mum and dad never had dogs, but granddad had a collie (old, a bit fat and lazy is all I remember) and another one, not sure what it was but it was a bit more energetic. Both of them just hung out in the garden at my grandparents place on the other side of the field and were never any bother, they didn't get taken for walks that I can remember but always seemed happy enough and would run up to greet me and have a bit of fuss then lie back down again.
I guess they were probably quite old by this point - I think they'd both passed by the time I was 13/14 years old and I'm 41 now so don't remember all that well.
Either way, I guess this is partly why I wondered if the space and freedom to run around whenever they fancied was what made the difference. The 2 grandad had and others that I saw on other farms I'd visited with dad seemed to get on fine even though I don't think they were working, or even trained to. Granddad's certainly weren't working - the sheep only ever got rounded up by quad bike. I suppose all of this got me thinking it might be possible, even though I strongly suspected it wasn't deemed the right thing to do.
I wonder if some of it is down to what the dog is accustomed to. If say, it spent it's first 5 years in a house with no garden, adults that rarely left it's side and was taken for 3x 1hr walks every day then it would obviously be unthinkable to start leaving it on it's own for 8 hours during the day.
But would that same dog find being left on its own for 8 hours much more manageable if it was all it had ever known?
Either way, consider the unanimous verdict understood. I expect our cat will be happier with that decision as well.
But would that same dog find being left on its own for 8 hours much more manageable if it was all it had ever known?
If I'd kept you locked you in a room every day since you were born you'd probably find it more 'manageable' than if I stated doing it later in your life. Probably not something you'd want me to be doing either way though.
I have 2 chihuahua’s
OK, but this conversation is about dog ownership.
But would that same dog find being left on its own for 8 hours much more manageable if it was all it had ever known?
If I’d kept you locked you in a room every day since you were born you’d probably find it more ‘manageable’ than if I stated doing it later in your life. Probably not something you’d want me to be doing either way though.
It's not really what I'm asking - when I said 'left on its own for 8 hours' I didn't mean 'locked in a room' I meant the scenario I was asking about in the original post - I.E shelter available, and a large area to run around, this could include some woodland too, in our case.
OK, but this conversation is about dog ownership.
Harsh but fair!
OK, but this conversation is about dog ownership.
🙂
shelter available, and a large area to run around, this could include some woodland too, in our case.
We've had 4 {proper} working cockers in the 19 years we've been at this house.
Although they're outside a lot in anything better than reasonable weather, I can count on one hand the number of times they've been out in the 6 acres on their own.... They just sit on the drive waiting.
Don't forget that they are pack animals and you are the head of that pack.... If you leave them alone they will stress regardless of the surroundings.
Having space is not an excuse to leave dogs alone all day.
I work from home and my wife works part time, so ours are rarely left for long.
It’s not really what I’m asking – when I said ‘left on its own for 8 hours’ I didn’t mean ‘locked in a room’ I meant the scenario I was asking about in the original post – I.E shelter available, and a large area to run around, this could include some woodland too, in our case.
You can substitute anything you want for "locked in a room", in fact my first draft was "punched in the face every day". My point was if you are doing something horrific to some one/thing, then doing it from an early age versus an older age doesn't really make it right on any level.
OT but I wonder what proportion of owners actually exercise their dogs enough? Or even at all, through a wet winter?
Bert’s mileage goes up in winter months - he’s a double coated Karelian Bear Dog so summer walks are shorter with more swimming whereas winter walks are longer as the worse and colder the weather the happier he is!
