[allisonb0316]

HI EVERYONE!!!
My husband and I are seriously considering adding a rough collie to our little family! I grew up with one as a child and I have wanted one ever since! We currently live in an apartment, but are very active. We both work from home and love spending time out doors. Both of our families live close with big back yards and we have a dog park on our property! The only thing I'm worried about is that I've seen they can bark quite a bit! I was planning on getting different "puppy puzzles" to keep her entertained when we both have phone calls to make and she would be out with us the whole time (once potty trained). I was wondering if anyone else has had success with a rough collie in an apartment!

I should also add that we are looking at purchasing a house early to mid next year! So it would only be a year max!

Thank you all in advance

 

[pandora]

dogs are adaptable.. you say you both work from home ,you love being outside, there are open spaces available to you nearby.. I don't really think it should be a problem providing of course you are not expecting a young puppy to walk flights of stairs.

 

[LeoRose]

As mentioned, dogs are adaptable, and with enough physical and mental exercise, can live just about anywhere. I do have the suggestion of looking for a nice adult rescue or breeder rehome instead of a puppy, though.

 

[allisonb0316]

As mentioned, dogs are adaptable, and with enough physical and mental exercise, can live just about anywhere. I do have the suggestion of looking for a nice adult rescue or breeder rehome instead of a puppy, though.

We're actually looking at rehoming a 4 month old collie! My husband still wanted to experience some of the puppy stage lol xD
Thank you for your insight!

 

[allisonb0316]

dogs are adaptable.. you say you both work from home ,you love being outside, there are open spaces available to you nearby.. I don't really think it should be a problem providing of course you are not expecting a young puppy to walk flights of stairs.

absolutely! Thank you so much!

 

[LeoRose]

We're actually looking at rehoming a 4 month old collie! My husband still wanted to experience some of the puppy stage lol xD
Thank you for your insight!

Ha ha... and I'm not looking forward to the fact that my next dog will almost certainly need to be a baby puppy when I get it, as I have two adult dogs, four cats, and a bird that it will need to get along with. My late Rattie and I almost didn't survive his baby puppy period.

 

[storyist]

One of my Akitas was 4 months old when I got her. The breeder held two back that long in order to decide which she wanted to keep. It's a nice age to get one, and ought to give your husband the experience he wants without the extreme and all-consuming attention needs of the 8-week old.

 

[allisonb0316]

Ha ha... and I'm not looking forward to the fact that my next dog will almost certainly need to be a baby puppy when I get it, as I have two adult dogs, four cats, and a bird that it will need to get along with. My late Rattie and I almost didn't survive his baby puppy period.

Oh gosh!!! I was never around for my family's collie's "puppy stage" growing up! Luckily I love training dogs (for family and friends... debating on doing it part time) so it should be fine! Just have never tried to do it in an apartment setting haha

 

[allisonb0316]

One of my Akitas was 4 months old when I got her. The breeder held two back that long in order to decide which she wanted to keep. It's a nice age to get one, and ought to give your husband the experience he wants without the extreme and all-consuming attention needs of the 8-week old.

That's good to know!!

 

[Deacon.dog]

I work with, and spend a lot of time with rough collies (half of my family owns collies, the other half owns yorkies... very little other breeds in the mix.. its weird). They're super laid back, I call them the greyhounds of the herding breeds. They of course love to run, but they also love to chill all day. Perfect to go out to work with you, then take a jog afterwards.. I wouldn't say they are super vocal, maybe as puppies, but they can be trained out of it pretty easy, especially as a puppy.

 

[DaySleepers]

I'd rather see an active dog in an apartment with people who spend daily time engaging with them, training them, using enrichment like puzzle toys, and making sure they get out regularly to safe off-leash spaces and interesting leashed walks for exercises than any dog in a house with a yard they just get tossed out into whenever the owner doesn't want to deal with them.

The nice thing about an older puppy is that you might have a better idea of how vocal they'll be - might. Especially if you can also talk to the breeder (or better, meet the parents) and observe their behavior. There's always a chance this might change as they hit puberty, but being proactive about putting barking and hushing on cue and making sure the pup's mentally and physically stimulated will often help a lot.

Just a word to be a bit cautious about dog parks. Like any place with a lot of dog traffic, they should be 100% off-limits until your pup's completed all their puppy vaccines anyway (which is usually around the 16-18 week mark), but they can also be risky socially, especially if they're like most dog parks and are just a relatively small and bare fenced-in space intended mostly for dogs to have dog-dog interactions off-leash. These are called 'Thunderdome' style parks for a reason - there's very little space or visual barriers that allow dogs to distance from each other if someone's being overwhelming or an outright bully. There's very little to do except interact with the other dogs, too, so things can get intense, fast. I do like to use them in off-hours as a space to do some free-running or off-leash training, or when there's only 1-2 other dogs there that I know my dog gets along with, but otherwise we don't use them anymore. At best, dogs can learn very rude dog-social behavior there, and at worse fights happen way too often, in my experience. Especially concerning for young, impressionable puppies, even if the fight doesn't end in any vet trips.

Instead, I prefer co-walking as my go-to activity with a group of strange dogs these days, or small, controlled play sessions with dogs who get along well. With puppies especially it's important that as much of their interaction with other dogs as possible is with same-age puppies or adults who are known to be good with puppies and have great dog-social manners, so that their experiences can be positive, educational, and low risk.

Sorry for the ramble, haha. My older dog does have behavioral issues with other dogs in a large part thanks to my own inexperience, which included using dog parks and similar types of social interactions to 'socialize' him as a puppy. He now finds interacting with other dogs overwhelming and stressful to the point where he's the one who'll start fights because he's so worked up.

 

[allisonb0316]

I'd rather see an active dog in an apartment with people who spend daily time engaging with them, training them, using enrichment like puzzle toys, and making sure they get out regularly to safe off-leash spaces and interesting leashed walks for exercises than any dog in a house with a yard they just get tossed out into whenever the owner doesn't want to deal with them.

The nice thing about an older puppy is that you might have a better idea of how vocal they'll be - might. Especially if you can also talk to the breeder (or better, meet the parents) and observe their behavior. There's always a chance this might change as they hit puberty, but being proactive about putting barking and hushing on cue and making sure the pup's mentally and physically stimulated will often help a lot.

Just a word to be a bit cautious about dog parks. Like any place with a lot of dog traffic, they should be 100% off-limits until your pup's completed all their puppy vaccines anyway (which is usually around the 16-18 week mark), but they can also be risky socially, especially if they're like most dog parks and are just a relatively small and bare fenced-in space intended mostly for dogs to have dog-dog interactions off-leash. These are called 'Thunderdome' style parks for a reason - there's very little space or visual barriers that allow dogs to distance from each other if someone's being overwhelming or an outright bully. There's very little to do except interact with the other dogs, too, so things can get intense, fast. I do like to use them in off-hours as a space to do some free-running or off-leash training, or when there's only 1-2 other dogs there that I know my dog gets along with, but otherwise we don't use them anymore. At best, dogs can learn very rude dog-social behavior there, and at worse fights happen way too often, in my experience. Especially concerning for young, impressionable puppies, even if the fight doesn't end in any vet trips.

Instead, I prefer co-walking as my go-to activity with a group of strange dogs these days, or small, controlled play sessions with dogs who get along well. With puppies especially it's important that as much of their interaction with other dogs as possible is with same-age puppies or adults who are known to be good with puppies and have great dog-social manners, so that their experiences can be positive, educational, and low risk.

Sorry for the ramble, haha. My older dog does have behavioral issues with other dogs in a large part thanks to my own inexperience, which included using dog parks and similar types of social interactions to 'socialize' him as a puppy. He now finds interacting with other dogs overwhelming and stressful to the point where he's the one who'll start fights because he's so worked up.

Thank you so much for your insight! It's so appreciated! We met the sweet girl and she didn't bark once (we were there over an hour!) I did know about the dog parks pre-vaccine! Luckily both of our families live close by and have very clean fenced in yards we can take her to socialize in! I'm going to walk with some friends that have dogs to so she gets lots of interaction! We got so many puzzle toys for her, especially since she's a herding breed! xD Oh poor baby! I have a friend's dog that's like that! She's such a sweet heart with humans, but gets stressed out with other dogs!