Couldn't agree more Gillian :smt023

ill second that, the main problem lies where people just dont understand collies, like you say they take them for long walks and they still might have a hyper dog, most people dont understand, its the brain that needs tiring out, not so much the body.

When I was 13/14yrs I had my very own dog, we'd had family dogs but not one to call my own. I saw a Border Collie ad in a papershop window, a bitch 6 months old. I can't remember why they were getting rid of her but I wanted that dog so badly. She was called Tina. When we got her she messed in the house till she was at least a year old, and she chewed lots of things, my mam was always threatening to get rid of her. Eventually she was kept in my bedroom when no one was in, funnily enough she never chewed again. That dog was my life, apart from school she never left my side, and she protected me with her life.
She did go through a stage of biting anyone who ran eg the milkboys, which at that age I stupidly thought it was funny. I moved to london when I was 17 she went with me, I move back to the North East when I was 21 and she came home with me. She wasn't over keen on small children, and quite honestly had nipped a few who tried to kiss round her. She was about 11yrs when my son was born (we also had a year old BullMasstiff by then) who was fantastic with kids. I did have a slight worry about how she would react around my child, but I needn't have, she was like a totally different dog, she adored him. It was the first time she allowed a child to really fuss round her, she obviously new he was part of me. I trusted her totally with him.
I trained her to do loads of tricks, I swear that dog new very word I said. She lived to please me. I had to take her to be put to sleep when she was 16 it totally broke my heart. I kept her alive longer than I should of really, I was selfish and didn't want to be without her. I vowed I would never have another Border Collie although I love the breed, I think I would of compared them to her all the time and there could never of been another like her. Family and friends of those times still bring her up in conversation such as remember that dead clever dog you used to have (how could I forget)
Sorry for rambling but when I get started on her I can't stop.
So to answer your question at last, I think in the right hands they can make fatastic pets.

Mitch

Hi Mitch,
You have wrote everything I wanted to say about Border Collies but hadn't the right words. they are very faithful - at times too faithful, I know of a man who lived alone, and one day he had a heart attack and died, a fortnight later someone realised and they went in the house to find him in a chair with a Border Collie layed across his lap, dead, the dog's food bowl was still full and plenty of water, he pined for his master.

As for keeping her longer than you should have, we did the same with our two, we were so selfish, but the bond seems so great between us, and yes you do compare your new dog to the ones we once loved.

Ian