Border collie:
I knew all the stuff they warn you about and was prepared. Yup. had a job for the pup to do. Yup, I'd already raised a pup that was an elemental destructive force of nature. What I wasn't prepared for -
Reactivity. Yes, I ended up giving up a dog on this point. I wouldn't now but I wouldn't be happy about having to manage it - I try to stay away from the exteme reactive bloodlines now. Reactivity means that if you aren't paying attention, the dog will decide to do something about movement/something scary/something interesting. Almost certainly you won't like what it decides to do and smiliar to xerxes' description of the Pharoah hound,
you won't be able to stop it. The time to stop reactive behavior is when the dog is
thinking about. Hard to see. and harder to then react to yourself - approprately. Once a reactive behavior is set in (may take all of one or two reps, see below), it's paddling upstream to get rid of it and it's seldom you can say for sure, "It's gone." You may see all the signs, extinction burst, etc, and then it will pop up again because some BCs find it almost impossible to generalize (see third item below).
BCs make
associative connections at lightning speed. Two reps are normal, one is not exeptional. This means it takes, often only
one time of letting a BC do something you don't want them to, to fix a behavior. A pet owner unwilling to use corrections needs to see very far ahead and use a whole lot of prevention. This is another one that made me rehome two dogs. Part of the reason was that they had both been allowed to develop bad habits on stock and faced the stress of undoing that every time. Stock is basically all I offer here - even time in the house is limited due to farm work. They were highly reactive and couldn't just walk around doing chores like I do with the rest of my dogs, and their time on stock was terribly stressful both for them, and for the sheep increasingly. I had the chance to give them homes doing what they liked to do and they are in hog heaven now.
BCs define associations very tightly. This means it's hard for them to generalize - some find it impossible. They will work well with a highly consisent trainer who presents the association exactly the same way every time, but blow up with someone more wishy washy, though it may seem that there's no difference in what is being required. I rehomed a dog, a very nice dog, over this one. He was one that was both of the above to the top extremes, which I'd learned to deal with, but he also had this "feature" to an extreme. I'm struggling with this issue in my training style - my communication was not clear enough for this dog at all. Kablooey. He stopped working for me entirely. I traded him to my trainer for a dog that needed someone more patient.
The last one was a surprise but it's been a delightful one.
BCs offer a
huge variety within the breed, of learning styles, temperaments, potential, physical looks and personalities. The variation is so strong that even a newcomer like me (I've only been "in" the breed for twelve years or so) can spot family similiarities and make predictions about important things like the above characteristics. It makes me twitch to hear an "outsider" say "All (or even most) BCs do/are X." It's almost certainly not true. The closest thing we have to homogeny within the breed lies in characteristics such as I've described above - it's in the potental to work stock in a certain way and be trained up to a certain level. The newcomer to the breed has to take care, however, because the fact that personalities and learning styles are so different can get a companion owner in trouble, even one ready for the high energy level, blah, blah.
Chinese crested:
Clingy/touchy. I think I would have steeled my heart against Zhi if I had known how important touching is to her. I have to actually budget in time in my busy schedule for snuggling. I thought it would just be OK if she went everywhere with me, which has worked out fine. It's OK - I've learned to invite her up anytime I come in for a landing. I'm sitting on my bed watching sheep graze right now and she's next to me. Well, Cord is too, but we talked above about the variety in BCs - Cord is a 46 pound lap dog.
Health. I was prepared for all this stuff but in my heart of hearts poo-poohed the warnings about not letting them get sunburnt, etc. I now keep 45 SPF suncreen in my pocket when we are out and about because indeed, even on cloudy days Zhi burns like a fair skinned person, even through suncreen. And she has summer outfits now as well as winter, to block the sun. When she gets burned her skin breaks out, becomes susceptible to infections, generally gets icky. I'm also not used to the fragility of a small dog - it's hit home again today since Zhi was horsing around with the big dogs and one of them pushed her right into a freshly cut bush. She wouldn't have damaged herself running into the cutoff branch, but the weight of teh other dog ran the branch edge right up her glutus maximus. She'll be OK - couple of stiches and a few days of bed rest but now I hesitate about letting the little tomboy play with the big dogs. Physical delicacy is NOT a hill I would have died on though and I'd get another CC in a heartbeat if I were forced into a different lifestyle. I'm already wondering whether it would be awful if I inflicted another crestie on this family as company for Zhi, but then I pause at all the grooming, clothes, yikes times two. Nah. [
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I gave up a
Jack Russell because he was NOT like a JRT. But I suspect like other working breeds, the JRT has a wide enough variety in the breed that I was taken by surprise that way. Ketch was unhappy with the big dogs, he was far from spunky, being timid and unwilling to try new things. He was clingy and soft - and when a chance came to rehome him with someone who wanted a JRT as a buddy for her female JRT, I jumped at it. His new mom found his "terrier" button and used it to work him in flyball and agility. He now has more titles than his housemate who was well bred from working lines (Ketch was a rescue from a cattle farm).