Hi there,

Thanks for visiting my new blog page.. It has been a long time coming really but I have eventually got round to posting my first blog.

So I thought I would write a piece about the first 18 months of Benji’s life and the ups and downs which all add up to the rollercoaster ride that is bringing a border collie into the family home.

Back in November 2014 myself and my partner decided we would like to bring a dog into the family to join our pet cat, Fred. We researched a number of different dog breeds, but after reading up a lot about Border Collies we decided we had to get a Border Collie puppy. We felt that as we are such an active family it would be perfect for us to get a dog that enjoys spending time walking with us around the country. Researching the behaviour traits of Border Collies we understood the amount of work, time and effort that would be required in order for Benji to be most importantly happy in his new home. With us considering getting a working dog we also realised there would be a lot of work ahead relating to our pet Cat, Fred with the probability of the herding instinct coming in to play.

So I will move to the first night Benji arrived home from the farm. I am waiting patiently at home for a lovely puppy to arrive. What arrived was a tornado, a whirlwind of chaos and not what I was expecting at 12 weeks. He was huge and full of enormous excitement. As it was 11pm my excitement was somewhat on a low reading considering Benji arrived covered in his own poo and vomit. The casualty of his first trip in a car..

The following morning Benji was introduced to our Cat, Fred. This was a spectacle, Fred looking at the dog and then ourselves with surely an expression of “what the heck have you brought into the house”. For the next 6 months we worked extremely hard trying to get the animals to accept each other and accept that they both lived in the house. Initially the herding instinct wouldn’t allow Benji to let Fred move around the house but towards the end of the first 6 months and by Benji’s first birthday this behaviour was becoming a rarity. Benji was beginning to accept Fred as part of the family.

Back to Benji’s arrival and the aftermath of his arrival. Within a week or so Benji decided he would start to try and take the house apart, piece by piece. First he decided to eat the wallpaper in the hallway (and some plaster for good measure). This was very closely followed by him deciding he had an acquired taste for the hallway carpet too. This was closely followed by expensive earphones, a fitbit, too many pairs of shoes to mention, basically anything Benji could get his paws/ jaws on would be fare game. Three months in i’m thinking, I didn’t realise it would cost me this much. The list is endless of what Benji devoured as we continued to persist with the training and advice we had received. Very often the first thing someone says or thinks is it must be a lack of exercise or mental stimulation that’s accountable for this behaviour but in Benji’s instance it all seemed to stem from separation anxiety. By nine months Benji was still prone to the occasional shoe attack but was significantly more relaxed when being left along for a short time as he began to accept that it wouldn’t be long for you to arrive home.

The one remaining issue revolved around the herding and nipping of my seven year old son. He wouldn’t be able to go anywhere without Benji letting him know he wasn’t happy about it. Over time Benji has realised that my son is above him in the pecking order in the house and now just shadows him everywhere.

Now at nearly two years old Benji has grown into an incredibly bright, happy and very loyal young dog. He shadows me everywhere I go but I wouldn’t change anything for the world.

He learns new tricks constantly and is calming down all the time.

I will be writing a new post soon concentrating on the relationship between Benji and his Cat friend soon so please stay tuned for further posts.

Thanks for reading

Benji and Family

Benji and Fred