Introducing Apollo

I figured I should introduce all of my pets, since they are a big part of my blog and my life. First up on the list is Apollo. Dog of my heart… I can’t say he’s my favorite of the two, but he’s the dog I’ve always wanted. So easy to train, so well behaved, so expressive. I’ve never had another dog like him, and I don’t think I ever will. He lives to make me happy. I know it’s a Border Collie trait, but I’ve always had terriers before this. There’s a huge difference between the terrier “Ok, but what’s in it for me?” attitude, and the Border Collie “Ok, mom, give me a job, any job. I’ll do it for you, I promise!”. Here he is this morning asking me to tell him what to do.

My biggest challenge is keeping him (and his brother) from getting bored. It’s much better now that winter is over and they can spend more time outside.

Apollo and his brother Ares are littermates. I purchased them two years ago from a local rancher who raises Border Collies as stockdogs… for working and for competition. Their grandfather, great-grandfather and aunt are all grand champion sheepherders. I was planning on doing agility with them, but unfortunately, there are some health issues.

Hip displaysia is fairly common in Border Collies, and breeders try to screen for it (both parents were x-rayed to check for it), but in this case, their mother had the recessive gene for it. The breeder has since spayed her, and the four pups from that litter are the only pups she had. Ares has a fairly severe case of hip displaysia, and Apollo is borderline. Agility competition is out of the picture because of that, but we try to keep them both busy without putting strain on their hips. My latest tactic is having them “find” something. Currently we’re just finding the cats by name, but I’m wanting to teach them to find objects by name. They will find their Kongs for me, because then I fill them up with kibble and peanut butter. They’ll pretty much do anything for peanut butter.

I’ll update on the rest of the pets throughout this week.

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