Our dog Summer came into our lives about five years ago. She was quite a handful from the very beginning. But she adores her family and is very protective! Naturally, she won a place in our hearts straight away. I have always had a dog in my life. There has been Judy a golden retriever followed by Carmen a black Labrador. Then Bryn, Holly and now Summer who were all collies. Dogs are loyal and loving, I think a dog will always feature in our lives. My husband had even more dogs growing up, his family always used to have a few at a time. I thought it might be nice to write about Summer’s personality. It can bring the realities of dog ownership to life, so read on to learn more about her.

An escape artist

As a pup she seemed to be on a mission to find a way out of her garden. Once the neighbour found her sitting on their doorstep. Fortunately, we finally managed to identify and block her main escape route and eventually she grew bigger and couldn’t squeeze out of such small places anymore. Part of dog ownership is making sure they have a space and secure place to exercise. Even when you think you have everything covered accidents can still happen. Our previous dog managed to get a cut leg from broken glass on one of her walks. Natural remedies used as a means of intervention for the pain can be very helpful but she still needed a trip to the vet for stitches.

She Had A Thing For Shoes

In the beginning shoes were her favourite chew toy! Luckily, I work from home which helped a little with damage limitation. She was never on her own for long. But even so we had to replace quite a few pairs as we only had one decent shoe left each time! It was quite maddening! However, we couldn’t be cross for long with her cute little face looking at us!

Puppies just love to chew, I think its an inevitable part of dog ownership! So please prepare yourself for this before considering getting a dog. A previous dog we had Holly went one step further and chewed a chunk out of my sofa! How I miss Holly, I know my dad felt her loss too. I might have to get him one of the hand drawn pet illustrations from vectorpets. He would appreciate that I am sure.

Chewing is how dogs explore the world around them and relieve some of their teething pain. But despite this, dogs enrich our lives and I would not be without them regardless of the odd bit of damage here and there. It does settle down, Summer could be in a room of shoes now and wouldn’t bother them at all thankfully! She has her own toys and knows to stick with them. She is such a good girl. I think I will get a Pet Portrait of her too. She hasn’t replaced Holly but having Summer fills the void. Dogs hold a place in our hearts forever I think, so it would be nice to have more portraits up in the house to remember them.

Loves Affection

She adores fuss and attention from her family. If you are not giving her enough, she will push you with her nose, so you continue stroking her. She is the well and truly the baby of the family and gets so much love.

Not Comfortable With Change

Summer likes things to be just so and can get anxious if they are not how they were. If on a walk something is out of place, like once we saw a random boot sitting on a wall, she gets a bit scared of it and barks angrily.

Similarly, when a business board was put up in the path of her regular walk! She barked and barked at it because she was fearful, she didn’t want to pass it.  Eventually I managed to coax her to carry on. It can take a lot of patience dealing with a dog prone to moments of anxiety.

Border collies are very sensitive dogs, as a breed they are very reactive to their environment. When you have a dog its important to learn to accept their quirks and try to help them as best as you can. Although when it comes to dog ownership you can find that the same breed can have very different personalities. Summer is much more anxious than Holly ever was.

Prefers Her Little Pack

My dog loves her immediate family and my mum, dad, and brother. But she isn’t always as keen on the world as a whole. She can be nervous around other dogs which is a real shame. This was because she had an incident with another dog as a pup that really frightened her. The dog was loose and aggressive, and I had to scoop her up to safety and run off. Collies can dwell. So, she is never very comfortable around other dogs now. She acts all tough and will bark if they come near. But also, she has such a tender side, once she managed to find a wild baby rabbit in the garden and was gentle carrying it around in her mouth! I ran out when I saw something was in her mouth, but the rabbit was completely unharmed, and we released it back into the wild safe and well.

Do you have any interesting stories about your dog?