[oldNgray]

I can't wait to bring my little girl home! I'm so excited that I had to start a thread for her even before she's officially a part of my family.

Her name is Bodie. I named her after the ghost town near Yosemite.
Like her mama, Bodie is a smooth-coat border collie.

Mama Loola is such a sweet, friendly dog. I hope her daughter's temperament is just as sweet.

Loola and her brood on Day 2. My pup is on the far right with the little skunk line down the back of her head.

2 weeks old, eyes open

4 weeks old. She has nose "freckles" like her daddy.
Here she is ready for a nap after eating a big-girl meal.

 

[DaySleepers]

What a cutie! Can't wait to see more pictures

 

[Wet Beards]

She's really cute!
Waiting is so hard.

 

[NadiaK]

Such a sweet pup.

 

[oldNgray]

We brought home our little Bodie girl yesterday. She is just 6 weeks old. Yes, I know, the ideal age is 8 to 9 weeks, but considering the "it's a long story" circumstances, I'm not going to apologize for bringing her home so soon.

Here is a photo of Bodie with Sarah, her little stuffed triceratops named after Cera in the Land Before Time animated children's movie.

Bodie's first day went well, except for one episode in the crate around 11:30 p.m. She'd eaten two meals in the crate but did not like going in for bedtime. At 11:30 p.m, she turned into a cross between a wire-climbing monkey and screaming, howling banshee. I wanted to bail her out of puppy prison so she'd be quiet but I knew the best thing to do was ignore her pleas for help. After a few minutes, she settled in and slept. I woke her up at 1 a.m. to potty and again at 3 a.m. Then we both slept until 6 a.m. No potty in the crate. Yay! She's too young to hold her bladder long enough to be potty trained, so for now, I'm training myself to take her outside every 90 minutes, except when she's napping. For the most part, it works. We did have two piddles inside the x-pen, one almost immediately after going pee outside and the other because I missed a 90-minute deadline. All in all, it wasn't too bad.

Today was supposed to be a fun, relaxing day for our little girl. But it turned a bit stressful. We took her for a car ride for a quick-stop at the DMV but my car wouldn't start for the return trip. So, we waited an hour next to a very busy street for a tow-truck to arrive. The heavy chains on the tow truck scared her. Then she had to ride in the truck's cab to the auto repair shop. At the shop, she was greeted by another border collie owner and the shop's receptionist who gushed all over our little furball -- after nicely asking permission to do so. Bodie was exhausted by the time our Lyft ride arrived so I zipped her into my hoodie where she slept like a baby joey. She was so tired that I had to hold her limp head all the way home and for awhile I worried that our outing made her ill. Thankfully not. We arrived home just in time for her 5 p.m. kibble. Afterward, she went potty, took a nap then woke with a fireball of energy. She played a wild 'n crazy game of rope tug, jumped around her pen attacking the bars and her blanket like some kind of wild animal then promptly fell asleep again with her head on Sarah's neck. That was an hour ago and she's still sleeping. I have a feeling I won't be getting much sleep again tonight.

 

[oldNgray]

Day 2 (Monday) was stressful for my little girl (and me), what with the car breaking down and all the excitement involved. But it was made worse for me when my little girl's stools took on a "soft serve" consistency later that night.

Her breeder weaned the pups onto rice & chicken with a bit of potato and carrot and sent a small container of it home with us when we picked up our girl. I fed her a mix of 3/4 rice mix and 1/4 kibble her first day. Day 2, I increased the kibble to a half & half mix for her first two meals. The evening meal, she had cooked chicken and kibble -- no rice. My car broke down before we could make a grocery store trip. That night, she started with the "soft serve" poo. Maybe the soft stool was a result of the over-excitement from earlier in the day. Maybe it was too much kibble, too soon. Or, perhaps it was both. I was awake most of the night worrying about her as she napped, played and pooed until the wee hours of Day 3.

Day 3, Bodie was wiped out. She spent most of the much of the morning sleeping on my tummy:

While I was relieved that the soft stools had stopped, I started to worry because she'd not pooed all morning. In fact, it wasn't until the afternoon that she had another bowel movement. She seemed to sleep more than her first two days but she also played more rambunctiously than when she first arrived. The night of Day 3, she slept a full 2.5 hours before crying to get out. She went potty, played a bit, snuggled a but and then went back into her crate with only the slightest little whine. After that, she and I both slept 3 full hours! Still no crate accidents.

Aren't those nose freckles adorable?

Today (Day 4) my little girl is starting to act like an authentic border collie! Now, after each potty, the "Wild Thing" (as I've started calling her) romps like a rabbit, runs around my feet and snaps at my ankles. Sometimes, she does that instead of going potty. *Sigh* No poo immediately after each meal. Tonight I'll get my car back from the shop and will be picking up some rice. Maybe that will help regulate her little bowel movements. For now, I'm trying not to worry since she was so darned frisky today. It was another day of new experiences. She played tug of war with a weed, ate a spider web, attacked the bristle end of a push broom and barked at a sawed-off tree limb. Then she happily followed me inside (first time not being carried back to the house) and took a long nap in her crate.

Not sure why her tail is way up in one pic and way down in the other. The pics were taken less than five minutes apart.

I have not started any sort of training, as I had originally planned to do. She's had a hectic few days in her new home. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'm taking her with me to my parents' house, where she will spend most of the evening in the garage. We'll pack up her x-pen, blanket, Sarah (toy she sleeps with), tug rope and a chew toy but I imagine she will still feel a bit unnerved by the experience. We'll see how she feels Friday. If she's as frisky and settled in as she was today, she might learn her name and perhaps Saturday we can start working on "sit."

 

[blujacket]

Pretty girl

 

[oldNgray]

The last two weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster with this little girl. She can be the sweetest thing one day and the next she's quite the terror. Yesterday, she chomped my hand to the point of bleeding -- twice. Today, she's (so far) been an absolute angel.

She no longer throws angry temper fits when she has to leave the backyard. Instead of carrying her or tugging at her leash, I've started luring her into the house with kibble. This luring has given her a good start in loose leash walking. Unfortunately, she will sometimes throw a snarling, snapping fit if she doesn't want to go into her playpen. Yesterday she growled and snapped almost every time I tried to put her leash on or take it off. I tried to interest her in a chew toys but she nipped at my hands instead. She does well with a bully stick, which I let her chew on a couple times a day. She also has a whining, barking meltdown if I leave the room while she's in her playpen. She has not yet learned how to play with her toys (two balls and two chew toys) on her own and she's only marginally interested in them when we play together. The only exception is her flirt pole (stick with a tug rope attached). She begins her puppy class on Thursday. I hope the behaviorist/trainer can give me a few tips to help me deal with these issues.

On the positive side, she's doing well with "sit" & "down" and she's good about sitting before we play with her flirt pole and she's doing really well with her "out" (of the mouth) training. Girl loves her kibble and is good about giving up her tug rope for a quick snack.

Bodie has been to the vet twice already. Once for her shots and a second time a few days later for a urinary tract infection. She just finished up her antibiotics. I think they helped but it's hard to say for sure. She still squats two or three times during one potty trip but does not seem to be straining to go like she was before. My previous pooches (both male) would pee several times in the yard, marking their territory. I am not sure if two or three squats is normal for female puppies or not. I guess I'll find out when I take her back to the vet tomorrow.

 

[oldNgray]

Bodie turned 16 weeks on Monday. It made me realize how far I've fallen behind in taking photos of my girl, mostly due to a surgery I had a couple weeks ago. Bodie is slowly losing her puppy appearance (round head & body) and is starting to look like a big girl dog with a longer snout, and a long, trim body.

Here is my girl at 11 weeks. I love that adorable face and her cute nose freckles!

Here she's 12 weeks old, chillin' on mama's lap. I need to have my son take another lap photo. Now, at 16 weeks, she barely fits.
I relish these morning times because they are about the only ones where she is calm & quiet enough to cuddle. By the afternoon I can see her struggle to mouth instead of bite. When she's especially rowdy, which is often, she can't control the frequency and intensity of her nipping. OUCH! It's a problem we've been working on with a slow, progressive success. We've found redirecting to chew toys is hit & miss depending on the toy and her mood. She loves bully sticks but gets them sparingly because too much upsets her little tummy. When she does make contact with human skin, she gets a short time out. Three time outs and she's placed in her playpen for a longer cool-down time. She's smart. She'll figure it out in time. She just needs to mature and learn better self-control throughout the day.

In this pic, 12-week-old Bodie takes a car ride to her puppy socialization class. She does great on her car rides as long as she's not being held. She hates being constrained by her humans. Now, we need to decide if we want to get a partition to keep her in the back of the vehicle or if we should try a car safety harness. If fear with the latter that she'll try to chew her way out of the harness and "dig" at my car seats. If anyone has experience with a car harness I'd love to hear your opinions.

Also wanted to note that my girl is doing VERY WELL with potty training. She had one accident in her kennel and that was shortly after putting her in there her first day home at 6 weeks of age. Since then, no kennel accidents! Yay! She continued to have potty accidents in her playpen despite taking her outside every 1.5 to 2 hours. Accidents got fewer until about three weeks ago when they just stopped. Recently, we started allowing her short periods of supervised access to the hallway, living room and kitchen. We've had a couple of pee accidents but are confident that she will eventually consider those rooms to be part of her living area and therefore off limits for potty use as well.

One of the things I've found interesting in her time with us is how her personality is so different than her puppy classmates. She likes being around the other pups but is not interested in a lot of shared play. I don't think she's afraid of them. She seems to look forward to a short meet-n-greet session but after that she is mostly indifferent to the other pups. While the others wrestle and chase each other around the room during the structured "free time," she prefers to walk up and down the little puppy ramps or run through the play tunnel by herself. If other pups get in her way, she'll bark as if to say, "Hey, I'm playing here. You need to move."

I am sad that my surgery caused her to miss out on training and trips outside our home during her 14th & and 15th week of life, since everything I've read says how important it is to expose her to many different people, smells, textures, sounds and experiences during weeks 8-16. She is a LOT of work! But every week I see small improvements in her behavior. I will admit that I'm a little nervous about her upcoming adolescent stage as I've read that it can be even more challenging than the first six months.

 

[Canyx]

Pretty normal puppy experience. I have never (strong word, but I mean it) met a BC pup in class who preferred playing with other puppies more than just hanging out with their people or exploring the environment. Very generally speaking, I've seen it turn into human-guarding, general resource guarding from other dogs, and reactivity in keeping dogs away. But all of those are normal BC behaviors (as they are SO devoted to their people and their work). I actually think most BC pups would benefit more from just meeting a bunch of socially appropriate adult dogs out and about; they don't seem to get much out of socialization classes that promote mingling, and can end up practicing defensive behaviors like warding other puppies away from their human's seat, etc.

 

[oldNgray]

Been some time since I posted photos of my girl, so I thought now would be a good time.

This pooch is, hands down, the most difficult pup I've raised. (She's my third, the other two were German shepherd mixes). She's bitey. She's stubborn. She will sometimes throw a temper tantrum when she doesn't want to go in her crate or give up something she shouldn't have in her mouth. And, like all teething pups, she's destructive. <sigh>

Here is Bodie at three months enjoying the new bed she received on Christmas. Day after day after day we had training sessions where I taught her the bed was to lay on, not chew:

And here is her bed three weeks later. All it took was for me to be out of the room long enough to take a shower:

Two weeks after shredding her bed, she tore up the linoleum I put under her playpen. She seemed quite pleased with her accomplishment. Inside her playpen were chew keys, a puppy Kong and a ball with an interesting nubby texture. So why, oh, why did she have to chew threw the linoleum?????

The playpen floor is now a piece of plywood with peel n stick tile. It's been four weeks and it's still intact. I hope it stays that way.

My girl has slowly earned longer periods of time outside her playpen but still needs to be watched every second. No matter how puppy-proofed I think a area is, she proves me wrong. I've put cardboard barriers in certain areas of the house to keep her away from craft supplies, electrical cords, books and other things she finds interesting. Now, she's made it her job to take down the cardboard and investigate what is on the other side. I have an electrical outlet in my office with a wooden cover that she sometimes tries to chew. Erring on the side of caution, I put child-safe plugs in the outlets. Bad idea. It took less than a day for her to discover them, pull them out and chew them. It's a wonder she didn't electrocute herself in the process.

Ah well. Despite her flaws, I love her dearly. I just hope she can see past my flaws and love me back.

Here is my girl now, at 5 months. She's becoming a real dog! Quite a change from that little apple-headed mole rat appearance at 1 week when I picked her out as the one I wanted for my future best friend!

 

[oldNgray]

Princess Bodie just finished up a rousing game of Fetch the Frisbee. She's an excellent fetcher! We played until her tongue was hanging out and her breathing was hard. Then we came inside for some "work": Puppy pushups. Leave it. And then a new job. It took two days of practice but I was able to get her to step into a box with all four feet (twice!). It was a short box about the same length as her body. Not "trick" worthy but for a hyper pooch and a novice trainer, I'd say we did O.K. at accomplishing something new.

Now, my little princess is so worn out that's she's just laying on the floor, with her head on her blankie. Looking at that sweet face staring back at me, it's hard to realize she was such a little brat last night.

Bedtime, last night:
Take her to her crate, remove the leash and then ... zoom, zoom, zoom! She's running through the house like a rabbit. She jumps up on the sofa with a look that says, "Catch me if you can!" I walk slowly toward her and she darts of the sofa and down the hall. It takes two of us finally corral her. My son grabs hold of her collar and she chomps on his arm. Not hard enough to break the skin but hard enough to hurt. It's not a mean bite, at least not from her point of view. She thinks she's playing. We get her in her crate and she whines and barks for the next 5 minutes as I put on my pajamas. I climb on my bed and say, "Night-night, my girl," as I do every night. Then she lays down in her crate and we both sleep -- for 3.5 hours. She wakes me to go potty. Back in crate. And 1 hour later she says she needs to go again. The same 1 hour after that. At 5 a.m, I put her in her playpen and ignored the few barks she sends my way. By 5:15 a.m. she was quiet. She didn't wake me again until 7:30 a.m.

I'd be a happy camper if I could get 3.5 hours of sleep followed by another 3.5 hours. Maybe one day we'll reach that point. I have to remind myself that it wasn't but a few months ago that I was taking her out every 90 minutes to ensure there were no accidents in her crate.

As I finish typing this, she's already up and getting into things. She knocked down a cardboard barrier and got a big spool of thread. And she just grabbed a pen off my desk and refused to drop it, even with an offered treat. I had to wrench it from her jaws, which made her unhappy so she put her jaws on me. Time for an official nap, a nap behind bars.