Video:Pet Profile: Border Collies

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Transcript:Pet Profile: Border Collies

Hi, I'm Heidi Laskowski and I'm here with about.com just talking with you a little about the border collie breed today. I'm from Michigan and I breed and own border collies.

Best Border Collie Owners

Border collies are a breed that's a lot of fun to own and have. It takes somebody that has a little bit of ambition and people who are willing to spend time and walk their dogs everyday. They really need a job to do. They really enjoy Frisbees, tennis balls - of course what they're breed to do, herding sheep and cattle.

Border Collie Temperament

They're a great breed they can live in the city but you have to have the time to spend with them. You have to be able to walk them every day and keep them busy both mentally and physically. They're very, very smart, often too smart for some owners actually. They can get themselves into trouble.

But some of the good things about border collies are that -number one they're a great family dog. They are very, very loyal dogs. They can be a little protective sometimes because they are such loyal dogs. They love kids for the most part they're very good with other dogs. I've got nine border collies that live together.

Border Collie Health Concerns

Some of the issues that you have to watch when looking for a border collie is you want to make the parents come from a reputable breeder, that they have hip and eye certifications. There are a few things in the breed you want to watch for such as you know typical problems with a lot of breeds is epilepsy, the eyes, and the hips. Also elbows and things like that are clearances that they do for border collies also.

There're a lot of new great genetic tests out for the breed, that clear a lot of the parents of these diseases. You also want to check with the breeder to make sure the dog has been certified for those things also. When you're looking at the hips, its an x-ray that the vet does and its basically how that ball fits into the socket.

And a lot of breeds, especially large breeds, have issues with the hips. So that's something that's important with any breed and border collies because they are such a high energy breed that they have you know good hips and structure is important, so that they can do everything they want to do for performance.

Traits of a Border Collie

Their very popular for not only for confirmation but agility, fly ball, tracking, I mean they can do so many different things. And they're very versatile, herding, they can just do a lot. They make great Frisbee dogs and they're a breed that you can do anything with and get all kinds of certifications on, so, they're a lot of fun. I've also got a few that are Paws With a Cause dogs and service dogs. I know they also use them for sniffing out people. They're very good with the tracking and the scent stuff too. So they're a lot of fun you can do a lot with them.

Thanks for watching to learn a little more visit us on the Web at About.com.