For the purebred-dog lover, there are no bad dogs, just bad breeders. And like every business, there are lots of imposters seeking to make a quick buck. Diana Gauthier runs B.C.’s Keen-Eye Stock Dog Training Centre on an Okanagan Valley ranch and breeds and trains Border Collies. Gauthier, who’s also worked as a dog wrangler for Disney Productions, owns eight of her own Border Collies. She’s also quick to tell you that it’s not a breed for everybody.
A Border Collie is a lot of work for the average dog owner, requiring many hours of daily physical exercise and an equal amount of mental exercise to keep it happy and healthy.
“Picking a puppy is essential,” says Gauthier, who does her own little personality tests to determine a pup’s temperament before it goes to a family. Such testing is one of the small benefits of a qualified breeder. Gauthier breeds pups that are disease free and healthy, and they also have calm dispositions and a desire to please the owner, which is essential to the breed.
Because she has a 30-acre ranch, Gauthier has the ability to train stock dogs and their handlers, where they can learn how to maneuver cattle, sheep and ducks for training purposes. The key to training a Border Collie, says Gauthier, is to let them know who’s boss.
“The dog can interpret the handler as a weak alpha, so it pumps the dog up to becoming the aggressor,” she explains. “I’ve known people who own a Border Collie and I train them because they didn’t know what to do with the dog. The person would move the dog dish and the dog would bite their hand, because they don’t understand how to be the alpha.”
A poor breeder or trainer can raise a dog to be vicious if they don’t understand or invest the time in the breed. This is one example of where the seemingly easy-peasy purchase of a pup can go terribly wrong. Breeders and owners must also take time to ensure a perfect match.
“You can buy a Border Collie pup for $50 from somebody’s van,” explains Gauthier. “And there are breeders who aren’t being carefully selective of who their pups go to, they just are into money or moving the pups along. People aren’t educated enough. They see Border Collies on commercials or in movies or the neighbours have one, and they don’t realize how much work is behind what they are admiring."
“They are considered the world’s smartest dog because they were bred to work alongside man because of their intelligence, not just how they looked.”
Gauthier recalls that during the making of a movie she came up with 60 different commands for one of her dogs. It is a breed that is eager to learn, because tricks and commands are like a game to them. Their natural alpha tendency is due to the fact that they are bred to dominate a herd of cattle, which is no small task for a 45-pound dog. If the owner doesn’t learn to take control of the dog's alpha tendencies, the dog will remain dominant.
Gauthier’s pups sell for $850 and come with a lifetime guarantee. The average registered Border Collie pup, she says, usually sells for somewhere less than $1,000. And if you’re making a big-ticket investment like this one, don’t just go searching through the classifieds. Do your research. First off, make sure you know the breed.
And when searching for a breeder, make sure to ask about the dog’s parents, and if possible, see both of them. Check out the breeding facility, and ask to see the parents’ registration papers, as well as the puppy’s papers. Ensure the dog comes with a guarantee and that it has been checked for diseases and had all routine veterinarian health checks, not just spaying and neutering. Also, if the breeder is a specialist in one particular breed, that’s a sign of someone who’s got a long-standing respect and love for that dog. Also, watch for a breeder that breeds their dogs too young, or advertises pups at bargain rates and seems to churn out a lot of litters. Puppies shouldn’t be less than 8 weeks old when they are ready to go to a new home, and they shouldn’t be purchased through pet stores or “puppy mills.”
In other words, do your homework. It might seem like a big financial outlay, but a dog with major health issues can rack up vet bills way bigger than $1,000.
