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KatiBear — Portrait of a Border Collie
Published: 2010-06-19 15:18:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 1913; Favourites: 92; Downloads: 22
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Description
I thought I would upload this since I haven't had a chance to tell my watchers that I got a puppy
The story of Ollie, the Border Collie
For my birthday, my mum wanted to get me a puppy. She told me that I didn't have great teenage years and that I deserved one. This is probably the biggest present I have ever received, and boy did I not realise how much hard work would follow
Excited. I hunted around to try and find people who were selling puppies, Border Collies specifically, as I wanted a fluffy cute puppy, and my boyfriend wanted a manly energetic puppy, so we came to mid-ground and decided on this breed. I came across an advert about 40 minutes away from where I lived. The owners said the puppies were 7 weeks old, and that they were ready to go.
We visited the puppies, and I was in HEAVEN. There were about 10 puppies, all the bitches were running at my feet like crazy, I was in ultimate SQUEE mode. We wanted a boy in particular, but it was still very difficult to chose.
We chose the puppy we have now due to he was calm, and the freckles on his nose were ADORABLE. We took him home in the car, and he was as good as gold.
When he got to my house, he ran into the corner of the living room, and curled up in a ball, scared of course, but adorably cute.
I had never really dealt with a puppy as an adult before, and albeit we were slightly unprepared but I think we were/are good owners, we treat him well and love him lots.
We had trouble at first deciding on names, we went through several such as:
-Dante
-Akira
-Rupert and some more
We also thought of the name Ollie, I think it suited his cheeky little face - so we stuck with that. Only realising after we had decided that it kind of rhymes, 'Ollie the Border Collie', completely unintentional!
The day after we got him, we took him straight to the vets to get checked, and the vet had told us that he was actually 5 weeks old and far too young to be taken from his mum and siblings. I was shocked, and pretty upset - but we told the vet the kind of circumstances he was living in (He was farm reared, living in a barn in mud, and being fed poor food), she told us he was probably better off being taken away early. He was also very ill, he had an infection in his eyes, and he was completely riddled with worms.
Thankfully he repaired well after three days.
A few weeks went by, and we noticed he likes to chew ankles and hands e.t.c normal puppy things. But unfortunately now he's a lot worse. At this current moment of typing I am covered in dark bruises and scrams. Here is an example of an incident: sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a…
We are trying so hard with him and are saving up for puppy classes.
His positive points is that he is VERY CLEVER, he doesn't tear our house apart and he learns tricks in a matter of minutes, the tricks that he knows are:
-Sit
-Down
-Touch
-Lick
-Roll Over
-Play Dead
-Talk
-Turn
-Crawl
-Paw
-High Five
-Hello (waving)
-Stay
He likes long walks, and even a 6 hour walk will not take any wind out of his sails, and he is just only 6 months old!
I love his energetic nature, it's far more refreshing than my previous lap dog, although I adored him too! I hope in the future he cuts out his bad habits and he can make himself and us proud.
He is very hard work, and sometimes I feel like I can't cope - but he also brings happiness with his sillyness which makes it worth it. My mum has had three kids, and looked after Ollie for 3 days and said she couldn't cope any more, asked how the heck do I do it, and that he is worse than bringing up a baby/child. So you can see what the kind of level of difficulty I'm going through with him
I thoroughly enjoy taking photographs of him, I think he looks wise, clever and very mature in a single shot.
And that is why this particular shot of him means so much to me, I hope that he turns out exactly how he portrays himself in this photograph.
Thank you for reading, if you did at all.
Here are some links for you to oogle at:
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Phew, sorry... I couldn't really decide on my few favourite pics!
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/katibear
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Comments: 40
that border looks like mine!
Thats Funny! Some details a little bit different but the moste sighns are the same like by mine dog ^^
Sweet
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Oh, those eyes! Look just like my pup's. <3 This is love. c:
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Such cute puppy pictures!!
Sad to hear he got taken from his mom early and had all those medical problems :/ Just one of those things you have to be careful of when buying puppies from farm breeders.
My sister got her mini australian shepard from a barn, but she was in perfect health and all the puppies had their first shots already. So at least not all barn breeders are bad...
Glad he's ok now though! Reminds me of our aussie, she'll walk and play outside for hours and not be tired and not want to go inside, lol. Energectic dogs are a lot of work, especially border collies, they have no off switch x3
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Yeah you are definitely right about having no off switch! And I still get sad about losing him and having to give him up to this day - I still miss him as much as I missed him the first night I was without him - I would LOVE to have him back but I know he's in a better place now. He's become obediant, doesn't chase after cars and is okay with other dogs - so really it was the best thing giving him up but I can't help but be left sad. Oh well things happen! I hope to have another dog or cat some day! It's quite good your sisters dog turned out okay. I know where I got my pup from they weren't specifically breeding, it was an accident, so they didn't really care about the pups at all :/
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Adorable :3 Ollie the Collie!
Btw, grate portrait!
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thats sad how young he got taken away from is mother. i love the pic!
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Arrrrrr made me tearful seeing this dog, sooooo cute!
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Amazing photo!
Very interesting biography of him...That is quite typical in Border Collies...They like to nip. But if you take his muzzle in your hand and close it, say no, and then pretend nothing ever happened he may get better. Don't shout ouch, that will encourage him! Good luck, and say hi to him for me! Hi Ollie!
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aww what a sweet angelic face! Such lies!!! haha he's very handsome in this photo Kati 
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That' so cute:
I'm glad Ollie's fine now.
He looks very beautiful.
To be honest, it was familiar with my dog too. I get him for my birthday too. But the owner KNEW that he's had worms and FLEAS.
But my dog's learning tricks very fast too (in 15 minutes maximaly) but if I don't give him a yummy treat then he will never learn anything xD
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Congratulations!
The nipping is a normal part of puppyhood - it's probably as bad as it is because he was taken from Mum so early (puppies learn what's acceptable behaviour from their mothers.).. the solution is to pretend to be his mum, and act like she would
When he nips, yell "OW!" at him in as deep a voice as you can (think "barking"), then put him in a timeout for 10 minutes (a crate works wonderfully for this). It doesn't have to be super-loud, but loud enough that he hears it above any background noise, and low and deep.
Don't wait for obedience class - this sort of thing is best if corrected early (the longer you wait, the harder it will be.)
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Oh yeah nipping is normal, but he just clamps onto arms/hands/feet. And he wrinkles his nose when being told off (example [link] )
Yelling ow, in high or deep pitched voice only makes him more excited
But thank you for your suggestions
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Thank you 
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Haha I know right
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hahaha
hes a cute little fella.. 
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:/ lets hope he doesnt bite your leg off!
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Ollie the perv! yay! Sir humpalot is his nickname
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No sir, that is your nick name.
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How on earth can i be Sir Humpalot? I need to hump to earn that rep.
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only cos you refuse to make friends with kate beckinsale then set me up, so my self humping is therefore, your fault. What do you think of that?
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I think that you are very silly and setting your standards a little 'too' high
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My standards can never be too high. My mum told me i was special!
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You are special, in a 'special' kind of way...
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but he lovesss meee best - I get the lovin rather than the humpin'
aw wish I got to see him before I went, sooo cute wanted to steal him <3
Also this is really well taken hun - really crisp and love the detail in the eyes, who needs a 5d eh
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Haha aw man this message didn't show up in my inbox <3
Yeah he really liked you aye, curling up on you like that hehehe.
meeeee i need a 5d
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