INDIVIDUAL CASE BREED ADVICE

Border Collie Rescue offers individual advice to people experiencing problems with Border Collies or Working Sheepdogs.

Border Collie Rescue has been helping Border Collies, sheepdogs and their owners with problems since we started in 1976.

We may be able to assist you with advice on behavioural problems, training problems and understanding the needs and reactions of your Border Collie. Enquiries can be specific to a dog or more general about the breed.

We do not give Veterinary or Medicinal advice.
For responsible advice on these matters you should consult a qualified Veterinary Practitioner - or The PDSA if you are in receipt of Council Tax Relief or Housing Benefit.

Advice is only given directly over the telephone or in person - we cannot respond to written enquiries.

Border Collie Rescue runs a once weekly telephone advice line.
Only on Thursday Afternoons between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm

To use this facility you would need to call us on 0845 6044941 or 07707 485813 within these hours and ask for the advice line. If you use our 0845 number we will call you back to save you the cost of the call

Calls for advice to our office and mobile will only be answered during our office hours - as above.
There is no voicemail on our mobile so you cannot leave a message.

If you are concerned about 0845 call costs, phone us first, give us your number and we will call you back. This does not apply to calls to our mobile.

What we need from you to give good advice.

When you phone Border Collie Rescue for advice you are likely to be asked for a lot of information and we may need to contact and talk to other people who have seen or handled the dog before we can give an informed response.

Before calling please try to have the following to hand -

Information on the dogs age and background history and any contact numbers of previous owners, the breeder, shop or organisation you got the dog from. Any pedigree or registration information (KC or ISDS).

Information on the dogs medical history and state of current physical health and the contact number of any vet or behaviorist who has seen the dog.
Please phone your vet and give permission to discuss the dogs case history with BCR, should the need arise.

Be prepared to email or post us copies of any reports or assessments you have on the dog.

Information on the dogs diet (name and analysis of food - see label), protein level and any medications the dog has been given.

Information about the routines you and your family follow in the home with your dog - feeding times, exercise times, home alone times, busy times in the household

Notes you have made about the general behaviour of the dog, circumstances surrounding occurrences of problems, times and regularity of occurrences, possible trigger points.

This information may not all be available or even required, but if it is available at the time of the call it will speed up our response and assist in greater accuracy in understanding the circumstances and environment the dog is, and has been in. If you do not have all (or any) of the information requested above we will work with whatever information you can provide.

Where appropriate, with your permission, Border Collie Rescue may need to contact others involved in the case, or in the history, of the dog for further information.

Registration numbers will enable us to research the family history and ascertain if there are possible hereditary factors influencing its behaviour.

If the dog is not registered with no pedigree information it is more difficult to ascertain the background of the dog but we can still check by enquiring.

During our normal office hours - see the 'HQ Information' section of this Website - you can phone for more general information and will be answered by a Duty Officer who may be able to assist.

If the problem is serious you will be asked to call back during advice line hours.

We can only take a limited number of cases each year. In Border Collie Rescue we all volunteer and give our time free.

All our services are free and carry no fee - although donations to the charity are always welcome.

If we refer you to a professional individual who specialises in an area where you need assistance it is likely that the person will charge a fee - so please check in these instances.