Any breeders/owners of Borders on here? Just looking for some information and advice on the breed. I've previously owned Staffies and GSD, and find myself dogless after 20 years.

https://www.champdogs.co.uk/breeds/border-terrier/breeders

https://www.champdogs.co.uk/breeds/border-terrier/owners

>Just looking for some information and advice on the breed.

Ask away Fletch. I am sure someone will be along shortly.

Questions are really around exercise requirements, ability to live with cats and health requirements re hips. There is a lot of contradictory advice on the first two and no mention of hips in the UK but quite a lot in the US. I'm keen to make a sound decision around breed suitability so if anyone can offer advice and experience I'd be grateful. I would assume that if a pup was raised sensibly with cats there shouldn't be an issue? I plan on daily exercise of around an hour with longer walks at weekend and holiday times. I do believe in keeping the mind occupied so plan on using Kong's etc to keep little mouths busy. Is recall so difficult to teach with terriers? I do realise within a breed there is variation of temperaments but I keep hearing that terriers are extremely hard work. I've owned SBT and GSD before, so familiar with terrier of the Staffordshire variety, but they never seemed particularly like a true terrier to me.

Bad hips can occur in Border terriers. A friend of mine bought a puppy with the intention of showing it and, when it was old enough, training for agility competition. Unfortunately it was found to have severe hip problems at a few months of age. There are quite a few Borders competing in agility and I have heard they are easier to train than a lot of terrier breeds.

Thank you for the post. That's quite concerning at such a young age. Having had GSD I'm aware of environmental factors that can influence hip problems but at such a young age that must be genetic?

I do hope the hour's exercise is planned for when your dog is an adult & not from the outset.

HD can occur to some degree in nearly every breed & IMHO ALL breeding dogs should be hip & elbow scored before being bred from. Puppies can be PennHipped from 4 months of age unlike the BVA scheme, which means the health status of puppies can be known before any activities training is started & with correctly planned exercise the effects of any HD can be minimised.

As for living with cats I have a good few friends who have both living in harmony, it's all down to socialising & training from the outset.

The same goes for recall, good basic training from the moment your puppy comes home to make returning to you exceptionally rewarding, then it will always be there despite the periods when hormones dominate behaviour & you have to go back to basics.

Good luck in your search

Yes the hour would be as an adult, I tend to stick to the 5 minute per month rule as puppies re walks. I do make sure puppies don't jump off and on furniture, in and out of cars or go up and down stairs until mature to help with joint development. Thanks for your input x

Haven’t had one myself but there was a young border terrier in our recent Good Citizen Bronze class and she had no problems at all getting to the required standard, and enthusiastically recalled through a “corridor” of other handlers and dogs.

The owner did say recall was the thing they needed the most work on, but we all had our Achilles heel (ours was the 60 second stay - super hard for my interested-in-everything little pest) and we all passed.

So maybe recall’s a bit harder to train for some dogs, but they can do it if you put in the time. I recommend training a puppy recall as early as possible to take advantage of a baby puppy’s desire to be with you, before the independent streak kicks in. ;)