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My dad has always kept dogs. At the moment he has two: Charlie, a Chocolate Labrador and Roger, an Old English Sheepdog, before them there was Jasper, a King Charles Spaniel, Magic a Border Collie and Cassie a German Shepherd. If you take all the pets we had growing up throughout our childhood we could easily have run a farm!

Personally I think that Border Collies are one of the most beautiful dogs available and so I loved Magic from the moment I saw him.

~*~ History ~*~

The Border Collie breed comes from the Borders between England and Scotland (hence the name!) "Collie" means useful in Gaelic and Border Collies were a shepherd's dog. They were used on farms to help shepherds with their sheep.

~*~ Buying ~*~

Before even considering a Border Collie you must consider the time, exercise and effort you will need to put into this breed of dog. Remember they were bred to work on farms. Therefore they would spend most (if not all) their time with the shepherds and run miles around fields with the sheep and they will nee a similar level of exercise and time from you.

That said there are a few things you should consider if you are still interested in getting a Border Collie.

Firstly NEVER buy from a pet shop. Pet shop puppies can be very difficult to house train as they have not been encouraged with this as they grow up. They may develop behaviour problems as they grow up as this is not discouraged and they may have health problems.

We got Magic off a friend who didn't have the time she needed. She had bought her from a pet store and although her training had helped someway with her problems she would still occasionally nip and chew the furniture and everything else in sight! As I said training will help someway towards correcting this but if the puppy has grown up without having these problems corrected it will be very hard to correct this completely after your dog has grown up.

So, having said that how do you know which breeder to go for? There are a number of points to make here:

1. Breeders should have had both the mother and the father tested for genetic problems. This will not mean that their puppies will not have any health problems, as there are bound to be health problems with any pedigree dog, but it will go someway in helping to prevent them.

2. Breeders should only breed a dog if both parents have good temperaments. I.e. gentle, not timid, or aggressive

3. The parents of your puppy should not be closely related

4. The breeders should sell their dogs from their own home

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