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I love my border collies.
All Red-Dawn border collies live in the house as pets, play in my yard and
either sleep in crates at night or in my bedroom. They live together as one
pack. Rule #1: all dogs must get along to live in my home. Some of the
dogs I've owned have moved on to other homes and are not part of the
Red-Dawn breeding program due to poor social skills. I believe that the
majority of temperament traits are
genetic and a minority are
environmental. I provide good leadership plus structure to my dogs'
lives, socialize them appropriately and train them well. The reason I
believe my border collies have very good temperaments is primarily genetic, not my
lifestyle.
My border collies get bathed regularly and groomed appropriately: nails
trimmed, thorough brushing, hair on feet and ears kept trimmed, ears
cleaned, teeth brushed/ mouthwash/ C.E.T chews etc. They get many
outings each week to play and train in parks, agility, obedience,
conformation and swimming in the warm months. I have regular dog parties
and we LOVE going to doggie birthday parties and swim parties! We also
herd sheep every chance we get.
 I feed a fresh raw food diet: BARF. Most meals I feed
a chicken leg quarter. I also feed a veggie/ offal/ tripe mixture weekly
and a variety of 'other' meats. The border collies have as holistic a life as possible.
Dr. Pam Montgomery sees
the dogs for chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture, nutritional
counseling and homeopathy. The holistic approach we use is: support the
dog's body with species appropriate food, provide whole food vitamins
and supplements, give booster shots according to research studies, give
Interceptor heartworm prevention, avoid the use of drugs (i.e.
antibiotic) for non-life threatening issues (we use homeopathic remedies
for most issues) and keep the dog's spine/
body in alignment. With this lifestyle, our goal is to locate the core
health issues lingering inside each dog's body and stimulate the body
with acupuncture and homeopathic remedies to heal itself into a fully
healthy being. With this method I believe each of my border collies has the best
possible chance to live a healthy life well into their teen years.
There are a handful of co-owned Red-Dawn border
collies. They too live in their
co-owner's house as a pet, are trained/ shown in at least one dog sport,
plus receive proper nutrition and health care. Their parent is their
owner for life. Red-Dawn is just the name used as one of the co-owners.
If/ when the dog is bred I (Alicia) help decide the appropriate match,
oversee the raising of the litter and screen all potential pup buyers.
Alicia |
