I wonder if the bloodlines of her dogs are being perpetuated anywhere? Was anything known about their pedigrees?

Betsy Arehart
Anchorage, AK

I owned a Rough collie whose ears did naturally tip–perhaps a tad too much, according to his breeder. He was gorgeous–championship quality but couldn’t be used for breeding because he was a monorchid (sob!). When I was a kid we owned a lovely Shetland Sheepdog whose ears did not tip–I always wished they did!

I’ve wondered if surgery could be possible on non tipping ears? Has that possibility ever been explored??

-Issabell

The Collie was 6 weeks old and housebreaking “us” as he would go to the door and bark when he wanted out. If that did not work he would pull on your hand or put his leash in your lap. The dog could open sliding glass doors, trash can lids ( we had to get lids that would snap down ) I had a small forest like area behind my house and would go hide somewhere in a tree and he would search until he found me. The dog learned how to track just by playing hide and go seek with him like that. I could point out a track to him on the ground and he would stick his nose to the ground and take you to where that animal had been bedded down. ( I did not use him for hunting, just playing around as a kid. )

I taught him to do all the normal tricks, plus play dead when I would point at him and say “bang” I taught him to give me a hug or he taught himself. I would say: Give me a hug and he would put one paw on each of my shoulders and lay his head on my neck. When he got older and could no longer do it, he would just lay his head on my neck. Even when I didn’t tell him to, he had to come and give me a hug every night when I went to bed, then he would go to sleep.

If it was going to storm the dog would come and wake me up, then go back to bed himself once I was up. I used to take him to the park and got him to climb the ladder to the slide once. After going down the slide one time he was hooked. He would go up the ladder, slide down and then go stand in line behind the kids and bark at them to hurry up so he could go down the slide again. He played football with us, but he played defense for both teams. whoever had the ball was getting dropped, period. He knew to bulldoze right into the back of their legs and put them on the ground. The dog was so smart his favorite toy growing up was my skateboard. He would ride the thing around by standing on it with his front feet and pushing with his back. If he went into the grass he would pick it up and put it back on the driveway or sidewalk himself. I actually have an old VCR tape of him doing this as a puppy.

When I was about 14 someone broke into our house while I was at school. When I got home my collie was lying in the doorway to our side door/backdoor. I freaked out thinking somehow I had left it open and could have lost him. When I went inside however, I saw the bathroom door in the hall had be scratched/clawed up and knew someone had been in the house. My collie had been on his hind legs trying to scratch his way through the door to get to the person and there was blood on my side door by the handle where the person had grabbed it to get out.

When I was 15 I was attacked by a drunk guy. I managed to push him backwards and ended up falling on top of him. We were still fighting when we hit the ground, but not for long. Within seconds my Collie was on top of him. Those were the only two times he ever bit anyone and I’m glad he did in both cases. He was not a mean dog at all. In-fact the only time he ever showed aggression to anyone or anything was in protecting me or my home. Any other time he was a happy go lucky dog that just wanted to play with everyone.

When I was older and living on my own I got sick from a chemical I had been around at work. I thought I had a cold or was coming down with the flu, but it ended up being much worse then that. I went to bed that night and woke up 2 days later with a fever of 104. I may have not even gotten up then if my family had not figured out something was wrong and came looking for me. My aunt had gotten scared when no one had seen or heard from me and I had not answered my cellphone or home phone so she let herself into my house. My Collie had known and loved her his entire life. This woman was scared of dogs, but not him. She even bought him a toy box to keep all of his toys in and brought him a new toy every time she came over. Well, she said she knew something was really wrong when she let herself in and my Collie didn’t meet her at the front door so she went on in to where I was asleep. She said he was lying on my legs and wouldn’t get off of the couch to come to her even when she called him. After talking to him for a few minutes he got up and came to her, then went back and got on the couch with me and was once again on top of me. I think he was trying to keep me warm.

I can honestly say the dog was my best friend. I took him fishing with me, into the woods with me and even running around with me some when I was in my teenage years. Even my friends loved him and welcomed him right into their homes. They still to this day tell other people themselves how smart he was. I’m 30 years old now and have to say losing him was one of the hardest things I have ever gone through.

I could go on and on about him but I have probably bored people with this long post already. I still have my German Shepherd, but he is old now as well and having health problem. I do not know if he will be around much longer either. I’ve been thinking about getting another puppy and it has been long enough I think I could get another Collie, but I can’t even find Collie puppies here.

I would also like to say this is a very nice site, probably the best site I’ve ever seen for something like this.