Understanding Border Collies

By Barbara Sykes

Book Overview

The Border Collie is an extremely versatile breed, faithful enough to be a loyal friend, honest enough to be a hard worker and intelligent enough to be an asset in rescue and other services.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1861262809
• ISBN13: 9781861262806
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Crowood Press (UK)
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.7" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Understanding Border Collies

This book is excellent in that it is a great help to the reader for "Understanding Border Collies". It does not try to teach you how to train the breed, but rather does an in depth study of how they think and in turn puts you in the dog's mind, so you may think like they think and opens the road to a long, rewarding relationship with your dog.

Found it helpful

Never raised a puppy before. There were a lot of interesting facts. Many probably relate to other breeds. However if you are a first time border puppy owner I would suggest this book.

Barbara Sykes

Fabulous book. Barbara Sykes has a keen understanding of Border Collies and dogs in general. I found the information in the book very helpful in helping me better communicate with the border collie I recently rescued.

Helpful even to veteran dog owners - lots of specifics!

My fiancee and I recently made the decision to follow through with our dream of having a border collie. We've read other breed-specific books (after getting our other dog, a Shetland sheepdog) and came away unimpressed. Most of them provide basic, general dog-ownership advice and common sense. So, yes, we understand that we will need to give the border collie much more time and mental/physical exercise than a typical breed. We have also read plenty of horror stories of restless border collies destroying its owner's home to varying degrees. I bought this book, with limited information in the description, in the hope that it would have breed-specific information that I couldn't find just surfing the internet. ...And it really paid off! Clearly the author has great expertise with respect to border collies and is not afraid to share opinions and impressions that, while not necessarily universal, could be helpful to prospective owners. (e.g. The author believes that coat length and ear shape may give a hint on a puppy's energy level.) What I like, in particular, is that the author provides as much advice for owners seeking mere companionship (like us) as for those seeking working dogs. I just finished the section regarding specific dietary issues of border collies, and found it very helpful. (I was surprised to learn that the premium dog food we give to our finicky sheltie would probably send a non-working border collie through the roof!) If I was to find any complaint about the book, it would be that the photographs in the book are not in color. I also wouldn't mind if it were a touch cheaper, given that it's only 157 pages. These pages, however, are clear, well-written and chalk-full of valuable breed-specific information (and with almost nothing that is just general dog-ownership common sense). I'm sure that this book saved us any number of "incidents" and will only make our future border collie (and its owners) a great deal happier in the future.

Excellent source for any Border Collie enthusiast

Excellent contents, very explicit and specific. This book is the real deal in the BC world, I found it really complete and its really helpful, you need to read this in order to have a healthy relationship with your pet or working Border Collie.