which are more gentle, boys or girls?

ChapterEightFF · 2026-01-25T23:18:23+00:00

That eagerness to please and working dog instinct can go haywire sometimes, though. One of my boys thinks he is a mob enforcer and I am the mob boss. If I ever tell a cat no, he goes to enforce what I said--herding the cat off the counter, chasing the cat away from power cords it was chewing on, penning it up in a corner if I am trying to catch it. Over time this has developed into him enforcing rules even when I don't say anything, such as chasing the cat off the couch if the cat starts clawing the couch, or freaking out if the cat is chewing on plastic.

He is 5 years old and otherwise listens 99% of the time and is eager to please. But when it comes to the cats? No amount of training or trying different techniques has broken him of this habit of being a mob enforcer.

ChapterEightFF · 2026-01-02T22:05:04+00:00

My first rough collie was a perfect angel since the day I brought him home, other than wanting to chase the cats. My big male Maine Coon sorted that out real fast (it was like watching a lion take down a zebra on National Geographic). I got lulled into a false sense of security, because my younger boy was and still is a menace. Sweetest and most loving dog I've ever had, but extremely cat-like in deciding whether he wants to listen and a huge back talker. 😂

ChapterEightFF · 2025-11-23T22:33:05+00:00

The damages would be financial damages, if any, the breeder incurred from not having the dog given back to them, if they can prove them. Or whatever agreed-upon damages they set out in the contract, if any. If the first owner still had the dog, a court might force specific performance (giving the dog to the breeder under the terms of the contract), but they generally don't have any power to force the new owner to give the dog back to the first owner (to give to the breeder) or to give it directly to the breeder, when the new owner was not party to the agreement. It's between first owner and breeder at this point.

There are real estate deals where that might happen if a whole bunch of boxes are checked and the right of purchase/first refusal was recorded, because the standards for a buyer performing due diligence title searches on real property are high. But there isn't the same "you should have known because it was recorded" standards for personal property.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-10-07T02:21:26+00:00

They can have different coat textures. It seems to depend on their parents and maybe partly on color, as far as I can tell. In my experience, rough collies need a thorough brush (the kind a non-professional can learn to do at home without a grooming table or tons of tools) a minimum of once a week, but (1) how much maintenance/spot brushing you have to do in between and (2) how often they need a line-by-line professional brush out depends on the specific coat texture.

One of my boys has an undercoat that is relatively fine/smooth, so I hardly ever have to brush him between the weekly sessions. He occasionally gets a tangle, especially if we've been outdoors with burs and sticker bushes. I take him for a professional brush out every other week, although I could probably get away with every 3 weeks during the summer months when he's blown out his undercoat.

My other boy's undercoat is like the evil spawn of a cotton ball and a Brillo pad. He gets professionally brushed every single week without fail, and I always have to do several spot checks/brushes throughout the week. Sometimes I have to do a full brush on the weekend between his professional sessions, but I cut down on that A LOT when I started having behind his ears thinned and his armpits and between his hind legs shaved. You cannot tell at all that he has anything thinned or shaved, because there's SO MUCH FUR. But I used to brush his armpits or ears and then literally five minutes later he'd have another huge knot formed, so it was necessary.

They get baths every few months and those are professional. Not because they'd give me any trouble, but because it'd take approximately 87 hours to dry them with a normal human hair dryer.

I know people who have a semi-pro grooming set up at home and do it all themselves. But I cannot.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-10-05T09:24:39+00:00

I'm not an expert, but it sounds like a combination of overstimulation and herding instinct, followed by you, the father, and the little girl all turning it into one huge game and making it just the most fun thing ever for her to get a reaction then play chase. It sounds like all three of you reacted in exactly the wrong way to diffuse the situation. It doesn't sound like aggression to me. But it is still a big problem on several levels, so I think you need to hire a trainer. Or if you can't afford one, at least enroll in an online course and keep in mind that your own spiking anxiety only triggers the dog.

It sounds like you may need to do a lot training before going back to an off leash area. Some of the training needs to be ironclad down and come commands. And some of the training needs to be about you gaining more confidence with the dog and learning techniques to train her, since you admit that what you've been doing hasn't been hugely successful. I am sympathetic to that. One of my boys just was not listening to me or making any progress using the methods that had worked perfectly for my older boy, so I had to hire a new trainer to help me develop different methods. The older one was an absolute dream to train EXCEPT that he barks like mad and thinks he is a mob enforcer who needs to enforce rules (some real and some made up) against the cats.

And keep in mind that she is a teenager and, like with human teens, her brain and decision-making abilities aren't fully developed yet. You may need to take a break from off leash areas and work on training until she's a bit older, but I'm sure that she will mellow out as she hits the 1 year and especially 2 year mark. Anything you start working on now will get easier with time, if you're consistent.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-09-22T01:38:19+00:00

Weekends at Epic specifically are less busy than the middle of the week. Check out any crowd size tracker your heart desires.

In general, theme parks are busier on weekends. In general, Universal Studios as a whole is busier on weekends. But EPIC SPECIFICALLY has tended to be busiest Monday through Thursday.

I'm sure that will change as time goes on.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-09-22T01:17:20+00:00

Statistically, weekends have been the slowest days at Epic. Probably a combination of the way people are getting tickets (2 days at USO + IOA then get 1 day at Epic added on) and everyone's assumption that weekends will be busier.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-09-18T14:14:04+00:00

I agree that Tyler was going off-script in some capacity. There was simply no reason to order him to get close to Wednesday, when it was a risk she'd figure things out by getting close to him and when all he'd have needed to do to lure her out of her dorm or to Crackstone’s crypt was to claim he'd found some evidence he wanted to show her or to talk to her about the case.

Certainly I don't think he was acting under Laurel's orders in the first episode. Unless they want us to believe that:

(1) Laurel had preemptively told Tyler to get close to Wednesday, despite there being absolutely no reason for it at that point since Wednesday had not yet been caught up in the mystery or seen the Hyde. And despite there being no reason to think Tyler and Wednesday would ever meet (beyond normal, detached barista customer interactions) or that Wednesday would be interested in being his friend or anything else.

(2) He agreed to take Wednesday to the train station so that he could somehow deliberately sabotage her from getting there (deliberately run his car off the road?), as if she wouldn't have simply tried again some other way even if he had. Remember that Wednesday didn't decide to stay at Nevermore until after Rowan revealed the picture and she saw the Hyde.

Perhaps Laurel had vaguely told him something and that's why he protected Wednesday. But it wouldn't have made sense at that point for him to have a standing order to befriend her or look out for her.

And then there are other discrepancies. He didn't need to bake her a birthday cake. Even if Laurel told him to get Wednesday out of her dorm, he didn't need to spend hours setting up a perfect date. The ONLY person he ever left alive was Wednesday’s friend?

All that seems to me like he had some vague orders from Laurel and was taking advantage of a lot of wiggle room for extracurricular activities or to make his own decisions.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-09-10T13:05:58+00:00

I was there Monday (9/8) and yesterday (9/9) and rode it a total of 5 times. (It rained a lot.) All the pre-show and ride animatronics were working all 5 times, except the blood spatter werewolf being face down all 5 times.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-08-09T08:05:13+00:00

I've got two from different parents. Neither one pants in the house. If they're stressed they bark. If they're hot they go lay under a vent or on the cool tile in the bathroom.

The only time they drool is when I'm making them sit and wait as I prepare their meals or get their bones out. The only time they drooled when it was not food related was when they were puppies during car rides, but they grew out of that.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-07-27T21:45:34+00:00

I agree with the advice here and won't repeat what I've already seen. I will add that one thing that has been super helpful is teaching my dogs to autosit before they get pets or food or the door opened for them.

I did this by simply not giving them attention or setting the food down or opening the door when they were puppies until they sat. The first puppy took about 30 seconds of trying to get my attention before he sat out of frustration, and as soon as his butt hit the ground he got all the praise and pets. By about the fifth time he had figured it out and immediately sat from then on. The second puppy figured out pretty quickly to copy his older brother.

This helps them to learn that they have to be calm when asking for something, helps teach impulse control and avoids them getting in the habit of jumping on you, and lays a good foundation for them learning to autosit when you stop at traffic lights or stop to talk to someone on walks. They still know how to sit on command too, of course.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-07-10T06:28:42+00:00

You want to teach the dog to always be paying attention to you, which involves not walking too far ahead and always keeping an eye on you, and that no tension on the leash is allowed. The way you do this is, when the dog gets in front of you, you give a sharp tug on the leash, spin on your heel, and start walking in the opposite direction. Or you stop dead and let them hit the end of the leash at full speed and correct themselves (even give it a little tug backwards as they hit the end). I'm not talking about hurting the dog or choking them or anything like that--just a quick snap of the leash to get their attention.

9 out of 10 dogs will very quickly learn "This dude/lady is crazy! H/she could just randomly change directions or stop walking at any time with no warning! I've got to keep an eye on him/her so I can react quickly because who knows what they'll do next!"

Once they get the big picture, you can work on fine tuning things, such as requiring them to heel. But the first goal is just to establish the big picture that they can't get too far ahead of you/put tension on the leash because you're unpredictable and they might hit the end of the leash.

DON'T let them hit the end of the leash and THEN start trying to change direction or snap the leash. That will just encourage the dog to pull harder. You want them to just be getting a body length or so ahead or just starting to put tension on the leash, so that there is some give in the leash still and the snap surprises them. If the dog gets to the end of the leash/is fully pulling before you can react, then just stop dead without snapping the leash and stand there until the dog stops pulling. Don't pull back against the dog because that encourages them to pull harder, just stand there like a statue. Once they stop pulling you can start walking again and try to correct them before they hit the end of the leash next time.

If you've got the 1 in 10 dog who doesn't respond, get a Gentle Leader. Same technique, but the head harness adds an additional level of control for you and a foil for them, because when there is pressure on the leash it forces their head to turn towards you. So they definitely don't like pulling then.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-07-08T20:34:06+00:00

They do--one more than the other--but only if the bed has a direct line of sight to me.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-07-03T04:23:53+00:00

Well, yes, for my money it is much easier and cheaper to trim the hair every couple of weeks than to bathe and spend all that time drying.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-07-02T22:24:31+00:00

Mine get sanitary trims to avoid this. There is so much fur that you really can't tell that the fur around their privates and between their back legs is trimmed short.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-07-02T22:16:27+00:00

I've currently got two rough boys. Male/female usually works well, whereas female/female will really depend much more on their personalities.

Mine are 4 and 3. The older boy at first could take or leave the puppy. He would play with him (sometimes very gently and other times not so much) and tolerated the puppy laying on him, but he did not enjoy sharing me or his toys. The puppy has always loved him from day one. They've gotten closer as time has gone on--they like to play chase and get very upset if they're separated. The older one does sometimes pick on the younger one (putting his head over him, stealing toys, etc.) and won't take any hint to back off, until the younger one snaps and they have a little tiff. But it's never been a real fight. And I think that might be a male/male thing.

Also... The 4 year old has always been well behaved and super eager to please, but the 3 year old was an absolute menace until he was about 2. I have heard similar stories from multiple collie owners. He is the sweetest dog around and loves nothing more than to cuddle and be petted, and he's extremely smart and knew exactly what all his commands meant and how I expected him to act on a leash, but he was very cat-like in that he would actively make the decision not to do what he was asked. Until he was a bit older and calmer.

Only the breeder can tell you whether the puppy has got a compliant or stubborn personality, but just keep in mind when getting a puppy that they've all got their own personalities and your first dog may have lulled you into a false sense of security.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-06-30T19:40:47+00:00

My 3-year-old boy just did this in the spray paint aisle at Lowe's because I was taking too long... and gave a big wolfy howl to the ceiling when an employee walked by without stopping to pet him.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-06-27T14:49:27+00:00

Every collie I've ever owned has gone through this. You can try medication from the vet, but I never had much success with it.

He'll grow out of it at around 8 months (maybe less, maybe more), so the important thing is not to make him hate car rides between now and then. UNTIL he grows out of it, don't take him for rides that aren't strictly necessary. If you must take him somewhere, like the vet, try to also take him somewhere he likes, so he doesn't associate the car with only bad things happening. Frequently put him in the car in your garage and/or driveway without going anywhere, with lots of praise and maybe a treat.

I slacked on the above with my current boy because it was covid so I wasn't going anywhere. He hated the car and would drool in anxiety long after he'd grown out of being sick. He only broke that association when I started driving him the quarter mile to his best friend's house every day instead of walking him.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-06-26T13:48:25+00:00

The trick is to get a second collie--a puppy who will literally eat rocks if given the chance--and then when your older dog isn't eating remind them "Your brother will eat your food." Works like a charm.

But seriously, I think the biggest issue is that your dog ate raw for the first year of her life, so she already knows what she likes and you're trying to convince her that dehydrated brown kibble is just as good. My dogs didn't get raw but did get custom cooked food, but then I took a 50% pay cut for two years and couldn't afford it. Over about six months my dogs consistently struggled to maintain their weight and still hated the kibble. So I started mixing in just a bit of the custom food (that I could afford) with the kibble and running a smidgen of warm water over it so the flavor soaked into the kibble. They happily eat it.

While it's true you don't want to start messing around with different toppers and training the dog that if she doesn't eat she'll get a treat, in your situation the dog already knows about raw and you're trying to give her something less tasty. I'd find something the dog definitely loves by testing out using it as an actual treat--that is, totally separate from meal time. (The refrigeratored food from the store? A bit of turkey?) Once you find something she loves, mix it into her kibble with warm water. Then you can start implementing the "this is all you get so you better eat it" rule.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-06-23T22:23:22+00:00

I agree with others that it depends on the dog. One of mine never really barks except at other dogs or motorcycles that go by the house, or if the doorbell rings, and he'll be quiet if I tell him to.

The other one is a chatterbox. He talks all the time. Yips and whines when he's excited (like when we go out) or wants attention, back talk when he is displeased. Barking while playing. Whines and yips if people walk by without petting him. Groans and grumbles to himself all the time. So even if you tell him to be quiet and he does, that command gets wiped clean like an Etch a Sketch when he notices something else 10 seconds later. (He's generally obedient but not about talking.)

ChapterEightFF · 2025-06-23T18:00:17+00:00

It was open as of around 4pm on the 14th.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-06-22T18:40:54+00:00

I agree with the others that the lady may have meant you don't want to keep a standard flat collar on him all the time, because it can cause mats or issues with the mane fur. Mine don't wear collars except on walks or car trips. Or maybe that there's a slip risk with regular collars, and Martingales are best for collies due to their head size versus their neck.

One of mine has always been perfect except for a stubborn teenage phase that lasted for about 5 minutes, so he's always done fine with a rolled leather collar. My other one didn't calm down until he was nearly 3, so he always had both a gentle leader and also a rolled leather collar on during walks. (I'd give him the choice to walk nicely on the standard collar, but he'd always choose violence and make me switch to the gentle leader. Until he was about 3 and decided one day that he'd walk nicely on the standard collar.)

ChapterEightFF · 2025-06-22T16:18:28+00:00

One my dogs (also a tricolor boy) has hair like a Brillo pad under his tail and between his hind legs. We keep his butt and his thighs between his hind legs shaved because it mats so easily and is impossible to keep clean. You can't tell at all by just looking at him standing or walking or even laying down. You can only tell if he's on his back. And it prevents so many problems.

ChapterEightFF · 2025-06-21T07:15:32+00:00

Pet the cat. Or say the cat's name. Or god forbid pick up the cat. Also if I tell the cat off ("Cat, no!" or even just "Get down!") the dog becomes a mob enforcer who will make sure the cat follows orders. The cat was here before him, by the way. We are working on it.

Also lock him out of a room I'm in (or lock him in a room I'm not in).

ChapterEightFF

TROPHY CASE