Border Collies

Hello,

I done a lot of research about Border Collie but one thing that bother me the most is Border Collie's herding instict. Border Collie is good for family but do BC bite, bark,growl, or snap when BC do herding to my kids, 4yrs old daughter and 8yrs old son? That what I try to find an answer about children and neighbor safety. Can anyone tell me BC is safety dog than a pitbull?

IMHO pit is a safer dog around young kids. Herding instinct keeps the dog that has some busy, and she will look for a herd to work with. She will surely ask for Master's command, and what if one of your kids will deside to be the one?

I have a border collie myself and herding is not a problem. Sometimes she likes to herd my cats a little thats all. She is great with kids never once has she ever tried to herd or harm them in anyway. If you ask me the border collie is one of the sweetest breeds out there.

Be very careful, My BC was a great herder. While he was very good with small children , I stayed very aware of all his moves. At a lake with nobody around and he was running free. A grandmother showed up with 5 little ones. I called Buddy over. We were the only people on 1000' of beach and the children pretty far down the beach. The kids played down to us over the next half hour. All the while Buddy sat still even though it was driving him nuts. Grammy gave the nod of approval. Buddy saw this and gave me his best pleading look. GREEN LIGHTED ! Playtime is in full swing. On they went for hours. In the water and out over and over. All was good. Then , the little tykes went further from shore until they were neck deep. Well, Buddy became worried and tried to get the group closer to shore (shallow water) the only way he knows. Herding. He swam round and round until he had them in a tight little group. Poking each child with his nose to move them closer until they were hugging each other in a tight little group. He tried to move them closer to shore but they wouldn't budge. Laughing/yelling all the while. Buddy is used to herding cattle. He's in uncharted waters , literally. With cattle, he 's picks out the boss cow (alpha female) and cuts her from the herd. This is done by nipping at the animals hind legs. When the cow spins to confront the dog Buddy goes airborne. The cow has no clue what happens next. Buddy clamps down on the animals nose , then lets go. He repeats this until the cow has enough and tries to flee. Then he can move the cow anywhere he is ordered (or to a gate) just by nipping the back of the legs.After that he can move the cow just using body english and the famous border collie stare. The herd will follow. Back to the tykes. My fault . I should have caught on to where he was with his herding but didn't. Frustrated because he couldn't move the little ones he nipped. No broken skin, not even a mark. Some yelling, Grammie is not amused,Buddy's confused and I feel terrible about my lapse in judgement. J.R.

I have 3 border collies, 2 of which are excellent herding dogs. I run an in home daycare and I have NEVER had the slightest problem with them herding any of the children. They absolutely love running and playing with the kids but have never nipped, growled, or tryed to herd them. I have children in my daycare ranging in age from 5 months to 11 years old and all of my border collies are extremely gentle with them. Im not a professional dog trainer or anything of the such just a responsible dog owner but if herding had became a problem it would have been correted but we never seen the slightest urge from the dogs to want to herd the children. Before we made our big decision to get our first Border Collie I did LOTS of research and was very nervous about what I was reading. Everything I had read said that border collies were not good dogs for children under the age of 7 and that they needed a ton of exercise. Now that I have owned border collies myself I am very disappointed at all the things I had read. In my opinion Border Collies are one of the BEST family dogs anyone could ask for and as far as their energy our border collie entertain themselves a lot(they are not destrustive either). Im not saying that we dont spend time with them because we do, we go on daily walk/hikes and play frisbee. I guess what im trying to say is dont listen to everything you read about them. If you would like a border collie go to a reputable breeder and just hang out for a while to get a feel of what the dogs are like and bring your kids along.