Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A Night In The Life Of Brew And Fusion


Hi aren't we so cute just laying on the dog bed. We love to cuddle.


Help I fear my life and I am only 4 months old.




Hey, those are the family jewels you are touching.

I may be 4 months old, but I am EVIL!!

Paybacks are a BITCH!

UNCLE....YOU WIN

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Abbey and Ale

Here are some videos of Abbey and Ale doing restrained recalls and tugging. They are 8 1/2 weeks old and are still looking for performance homes.
See their information on our website, under Rumor x Singe, www.hillcrestbordercollies.com



Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Brew aka Brewster Rooster

Here are some recent pictures of Brew. He is the boy I kept from my Skarlet x Rock litter. I absolutely adore this boy. He totally gets it when it comes to dog language and manners. This allows him to hang out with the group. He has potty trained himself. When he is running loose in the house, he will take himself out the doggie door and into the backyard if he needs to go potty and then back in he comes. He is only 4 months old.
Brew was doing good on his recalls until today. I think he has hit the adolescent stage and now is dragging a long line when out in the field.
I can not wait to see what he is like on sheep. I am hoping that he will be ready to train next year and I can maybe think about running him in Nursery. Time will tell though.






Friday, November 6, 2009

The Gang

I have read on some blogs and have heard from others how they do not let their dogs run together. I have had dogs for who knows how long and Border Collies for 15 years. All of my dogs run together from the time they are about 3 months old. Before that age I let limited time with the big dogs just due to size. I feel that my puppies learn the best dog/social skills this way. I do have to say that I have some of the best dog social/mannered dogs that I have seen. My dogs and puppies totally know how to read dogs and their signals they give off. I do not have dogs that grovel, but my dogs know when to submit to an elder. My dogs do not run up and throw themselves at other dogs. Why???? Because my pack has told them that it is inappropriate to do that. My puppies do NOT bother the older dogs nor do they run into any dogs while running in the field or dog yard. My puppies learn to "hang out" and not constantly be playing while in the dog yard.
I do crate and x-pen my puppies in the house. This happens when I can not keep an eye on them 100% of the time. My puppies learn to use the doggie door as early as 3 months old, so I do not have accidents in the house.
Some may say that raising a puppy/dog this way may cause a dog to be doggie. I would say no because my dogs know who the pack leader is. I can recall my 3 month old puppy out of a pack of dogs running in the field. When we go on long walks I let my baby dogs drag a long line so that I can prevent them getting in with horses, cows, sheep and the occasional not coming back while running. My puppies and dogs are rewarded with praise and food reward while doing recalls and I can't honestly tell you how many recalls that each dog gets while on a walk. What I can tell you is that they never know when they will get called back to me.
I can take 2 to 3 dogs out with me to go train agility. Each dog is put into a "settle" while I work the other dog. I don't care if they shift positions, get up and move locations slightly. My dogs all know to wait their turns. I do not do the Control Unleashed stuff. I just raise my dogs as dogs and they all learn self control and manners.
My dogs are raised on a ranch where we have sheep, horses and alpacas. They do not go help themselves to "work" when they want to. They are all taught to do chores with us and not work the livestock unless called in. I do NOT have to command "stay" or "wait" to my dogs while going and feeding animals. They just know the boundaries, rules and limitations of life. My dogs are given a lot of freedom in life, but what I expect of them I expect 100% and they know that.

Here is a video of my dogs running together. My oldest is 11 1/2 years old and my youngest is 3 months old. You will see no slamming of bodies, no fighting, no groveling, no rude behavior. What you will see is dogs responding to me and having a great time. If you want to see dogs doing recalls in a group setting, go search my You Tube page for that.


Love Thy Pack Leader

Monday, October 12, 2009

Rumor X Singe Puppies @ almost 4 weeks

I know, I know I have not blogged, but I have been so busy with dogs and family stuff. Plus the puppies were at that not so cute stage. At least for taking pictures.
The puppies are really starting to come alive. They are playing with toys and learning how to use the potty box. They had a very short trip outside to take pictures. It was not the warmest day today and a tad bit of wind.
I got some great video of the puppies today, so instead of updating my website tonight I will go edit video.

It is quiet around here tonight as Skarlet has gone to stay with Karen Child for a bit. This way she will get EVERYDAY work and training. Skarlet has really become part of our family and both Murray and I miss her tonight. We know she is in great hands and will love working everyday. Our sheep were eaten by coyotes and we are still looking for replacement sheep.

Here are pictures of the Rumor x Singe puppies at almost 4 weeks of age.



Bock (male)



Porter (male)



Stout (male)



Ale (female)



Amber (female)



Abbey (female)


Transport from Cynosports to the NW

I am trying to arrange transport of a Border Collie for a couple of my friends. If there is anyone out there that is going to be coming back to the Northwest from Cynosports that would be willing to transport an almost 2 year old Border Collie, please contact me HillcrestBCs@gmail.com
The dog, Storm, will be right on site and the owners will help with gas money. The new owner would be willing to travel up to Washington to pick the dog up if needed.
This is a dog I bred and is coming back to Oregon to be a herding dog and live with his actual Grandma. :-)

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

AWESOME Puppy Picture

Rosa Rolon dud this awesome picture of Lava and Brew.
Double click on the picture to view in a larger format.

Monday, September 28, 2009

A Hiking We Will Go!!!!

I have been so busy that it has taken me until now to have time to write about our hike at Alder Springs. We had done 1/2 of the hike with Connor and the dogs before, but Murray and I wanted to do the entire 8 mile hike without worrying about a 4 year old. Murray took Monday off and dropped Connor off at daycare early in the morning. He came back and we packed the van up with 9 dogs and then headed to the store to get sandwiches and drinks. I had already packed water, but you have to have something special to drink at lunch on your hike. Mmmmm
The Forest road is about 20 minutes from our house and then you have to do a 5 mile drive on a narrow dirt road going uphill. The dogs in the top crate quickly learned to just lay down and not sit up as they were bouncing back and forth.


This is a map of our hike. The hike that we did before was to the first river crossing. This time we went all the way to the end and got to see where the Deschutes River came in and wow those are some rapids.

(Click on Images to Enlarge Them)


This is our view from the parking area. Our hike takes us tho the north end of the picture and down.

The dogs are patiently waiting to be released for their hike. As Murray let them out of the van, I laid they down. The one lady commented that our 9 dogs were better behaved than most people's one child. YEP!!!!


I loved this picture because if there wasn't a sign here you would not know where the trail went.

One of the many hills we hiked up.


It was right about this time that we "lost" Fusion. We called and called for her and finally she came back.............

The darn dog remembered where the entrance to the river was and took it upon herself to go WAY ahead of us and go for a swim. When she came running back to us she had a HUGE smile on her face and was very proud that she knew where to go swimming at.
My dogs can smell water. This is a good and not so good thing. There are times that we are hiking and it is very steep down the side of the mountains. You can not see the water, but they know it is down there and often try to sneak off.


Everyone pose before you get wet. Oh wait, Fusion is already wet. Little Sh**!
This is at the river crossing. We had lunch here on our last hike and then turned around after playing in the water with Connor and the dogs. This time we are crossing and going on.

Murray and the dogs heading across in a shallow area.

Once we are across I stop for a photo moment. There aren't many pictures with me in them as I am the one who is usually taking the pictures.

Onward we go. Our dogs are very good hikers. Skarlet loves to be the leader and Risk is always on my heels. It is like this whenever we hike.

Uhhhh can't you walk any faster? We are tired of waiting for you 2 legged creatures.

The nice thing about this hike is that there are many places that the dogs can go swimming along the way. It makes it easy as we don't have to bring water for them.
Skar cooling off and getting a drink during the hike.

Going up another hill. Havoc is already at the top and wondering what is taking so long.

We reached the end of the trail (side of a HUGE rock) and turned around as we saw a great place to eat lunch. At this time we had dogs on couplers because we were walking along the Deschutes River and if a dog decided to go swimming that would be the last we saw of them.
We put all of the dogs in a settle as we ate lunch and rested.

The dogs finally started to rest themselves.


Yah right, Risk sleep. That is funny! She and Singe were the only ones who did not take a nap.

Kate is 11 1/2 years old and what a great hiker she still is. She acted like she was 6 years old during this hike and the greatest thing is that she had a smile the entire time.

Skarlet fell fast asleep and did not budge the entire break. She was out cold.


Fusion (1 year old) finally took a nap.

We let all of the dogs play as we crossed the river again. Kate loves to fish for "rocks". I should tell you that this water is so cold that your legs are bright red by the time you get out. She had no problem dunking her head in the water over and over and keeping it there until she found a rock.






Lash is cheering Kate on.

Mick gets very excited as the dogs start to bark.

Skarlet looking at the crazy dogs in the river.

On our way back to the car. We are almost there.


Mick says we are at the end of the hike. Thank you for following along.