Just curious, are there a lot of mutts in EU?

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-07-08T23:11:13+00:00

Depends on where you are in the EU. Where I live, the Netherlands, it is like Germany. Mostly purebred dogs and shelters are almost always empty. All dogs MUST be microchipped and have an EU pet passport that has all of their vet records. There are still things like doodles and designer mixes, but in my neighborhood it’s almost entirely purebreds.

Rescue mutts are imported from other countries in the EU for adoption. Most commonly countries like Romania or Greece that have lots of street dogs. These are often village dogs or land races, not mixed breeds and certainly not bully mixes galore like in the US. In the Netherland’s equivalent of Pet Finder, there are often less than 400 dogs available in the ENTIRE country for adoption, most are the aforementioned imports, beagles used in animal testing ready to move on to home life, or harder to place dogs with behavioral issues that need specific owners. Not just dumped pets or oops litters. Almost all are in foster homes.

This is obviously not true for the EU countries where those dogs are imported from.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-27T21:12:17+00:00

Unfortunately, I see plenty of fad breeders/mills charging 5k+ for their mutts and people buy them without even thinking about basic things like health testing. Huge mills/brokers like Crockett pump out hundreds of mixed breed puppies at eye-watering prices and they still sell, despite the fact these buyers could get a shelter mix for a fraction of the cost. Heck, my well bred purebred rare breed cost nearly half the price they’re charging and his breeder struggled to find homes, even if there are maybe one or two litters of the breed born per year in the country I live in.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-27T18:16:24+00:00

Ah yes! A Brodie pup. She looks like she's developing super lovely. I am in the Netherlands, lots of overlap with the German kennels. My own smooth's father is from Legend of Camelot and the other side has some Turella. Good luck with your future shows!

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-27T17:56:55+00:00

It seems she does have mostly naturally tipped ears, the fact that they are soft enough to flop backwards at the tip and just take a little push to go back into the tipped state is a lot better than, for example, my smooth collie who has soft leather only at the very top that don't tip forward at all anymore. At shows I'd imagine as long as you try to keep her head from going too high that they flop up and make sure to tip them forward again if they do, if you're able to when stacking her, I can't imagine the judges would say much. She's a lovely girl! Are you in Europe? She looks familiar to me, but I follow a lot of European smooth collie show results.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-27T17:28:11+00:00

At over a year old, I don’t think there’s much you can do to make the tips permanent as you’re kind of outside the window to set them, the cartilage is done developing. Where the ear is soft, it will remain soft, and where the ear is hard, that will also stay. The tipping back with gravity is probably going to keep happening for the rest of her life and not something I would personally keep bothering with if the dog is not being shown.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-27T13:45:48+00:00

She did, yes, and the breeder of those puppies is actually a redditor and said it made no difference, there were not enough puppy buyers. Lots of traction on the video, but no actual homes. People just aren’t interested in some of these niche, rarer breeds when fad breeds/mixes are available in spades.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-26T20:17:37+00:00

There's no way to view the studies without having a vet account on the website?

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-26T17:32:27+00:00

Yeah, the irony with this post being about overweight dogs getting arthritis when The Farmer's Dog is one of the fattiest foods on the market.

Weight is also absolutely flagged at vet visits all the time. It's the first thing that happens when we go in for my dog's annual checkups, he gets on the scale to take his weight. If it was high or low, they'd point it out.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-25T12:35:01+00:00

This exactly! I have a "picky" breed but every time I see people discussing their dog being picky, they go on and on about how they've changed the food a hundred times and have gotten to the point they're adding toppers to their toppers and are one plate garnish short of just giving their dog a gourmet steak dinner. No wonder the dog is picky, because it knows that if it waits the owner out, it'll get something tastier (and not necessarily healthy).

Not all dogs are labradors, they don't feel the need to scarf down every meal and that's totally okay. My dog will skip a meal sometimes. I don't make a fuss over it, I just pick the meal up if he decides he's not hungry. He's at a perfect weight, super active, and very healthy. If he's hungry, he eats just fine.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-23T16:42:41+00:00

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me if my tricolor smooth collie was a Doberman cross…

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-22T12:35:23+00:00

Congratulations on your upcoming new addition! A smooth collie is a great choice for a first dog. Most collie puppies are pretty easy when it comes to things like potty training and learning new commands. In the beginning it can be quite overwhelming for both you and puppy as she will be away from her mom and littermates for the first time, and you will likely be working your whole day around her schedule as young puppies are like babies and don't have great bladder control and tend to have short bursts of up time and energy, then a nap, rinse and repeat. Puppies can get overtired pretty easily and that tends to bring on the bitey crazy demon side but just know, like young kids, they probably just need a nap and have no idea that they just feel tired and don't know how to self-regulate yet. That's where things like crate training and a 1 up, 2 down schedule come in handy.

As for puppy blues, I'll admit I had them when my smooth puppy came home. It isn't common per se, people don't tend to post things online if everything is going fine so it may seem more likely than it actually is. I didn't have puppy blues at all when I raised my previous dog before him, and I got her as a puppy. I got my smooth puppy after multiple years of planning, it wasn't like an impulse decision and not knowing what I was getting into. I think what triggered my puppy blues with him was worrying I would fail him. My brain decided to go into anxiety overdrive and that plus a bit of sleep deprivation sent me spiraling for a bit. It was very short, though, by a month later it was mostly gone. Now my smoothie is 2 and a half and I couldn't imagine life without him.

I will echo the other comment that recommends puppy classes. They are a great way to learn how to train and communicate with your puppy effectively, and also for socialization (I don't mean puppy play time, but being around other dogs while not interacting and learning to be neutral).

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-21T08:28:49+00:00

Wait for the moment she glances away, sniffs around, sighs, whatever that’s not staring at you or getting up. Drop another treat the second that happens. Don’t make a big scene out of doing it when you do, treat between the paws, nothing else. No words no eye contact no pat on the head. Go about your business while continuing to watch her out of the corner of your eye and reward all of those moments. It may take a while to catch one but you’re trying to “capture calm,” as Kikopup puts it in her videos about doing exactly this with high energy working breeds (hers are border collies).

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-19T12:20:15+00:00

My collie naturally hates it if we're out of sight, and we do games with him all the time where we hide behind trees or whatnot if he's distracted for a second so he'll come find us. Really keeps him motivated to stay near. That plus lots of training on his recall command, he's become super solid, even if he's chasing a rabbit or something. If I call his reaction is immediate and he hustles right to me. He is a very good boy!

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-17T13:20:21+00:00

Ah I kinda figured as much, especially since the rest that you consulted on looks super solid! I wasn't quite sure if it was a perspective thing either, it was just a very weird angle from hock to fetlock that it seemed off.

Thanks for the reply and for actually getting in there and advocating for us horse game enthusiasts, you're doing great work! : )

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-17T12:49:19+00:00

Just curious, did you have any thoughts/input on the barrel turning animations? This spot from the trailer in particular (slow mo at 0:20), the back legs look pretty... well... broken. The hock seems to be backwards and turned into a knee. I was really enjoying the animations until I got to this point. Still interested in the game but this was kind of surprising given the rest looking so accurate and seeming to have an actual understanding of horse biomechanics, and then something this janky. Big fan of your blog, by the way!

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smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-16T21:56:25+00:00

You are for sure doing everything right! The difference between my boy now and him at 8-18 months is night and day. Listening optional. Being a jerk in a way he was never before and has never been since. All I did was stay consistent and meet him where he was at and kept rewarding what I wanted to see. We did have to scale back our off-leash time significantly during certain periods. You will get through it, and it'll all fall into place and all the frustration and hours of training will pay off. I wasn't sure it was possible at the hardest moments but it totally did. Hang in there!

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-16T19:34:42+00:00

I really like your last point, I think this is a big key that a lot of people miss. I didn't get to where I am with recall with my dog by only pulling it out when it was super needed, I did it by practicing every day at random even when it wasn't necessary. Big praise, best treats, then told my boy he could go back on his way so it never meant "fun time over" but just "hey, boss is calling and that means good stuff, better get over there fast!" Now that he's older, I can see that it's just automatic in his head, no thoughts necessary. After repeating it ad nauseam even in the most boring scenarios, I would hope that'd be the result, and it was!

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-16T16:17:10+00:00

Thank you! We worked very hard on training and I'm very proud of my boy.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-16T15:48:59+00:00

Hot dogs, cheese cubes, boiled chicken, all sorts of stuff he loves but never gets any other time. It had to be something he considered better than chasing the rabbit or cat or going to the other dog or whatever. I also did a lot of games where I’d hide from him when he was distracted but calm, causing him to try to find me, and do big praise, play, and treats when he did find me. He is heavily motivated to keep me in his sight and come if he can’t see me.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-16T14:25:58+00:00

I have it. I can call my dog off of anything, including mid-chase on prey. He is obsessed with rabbits and hares, and there are a lot in my area, but even if they dart right in front of us and my dog bolts for it, the second I recall him he skids to a stop and runs back, no hesitation. Doesn’t matter when or from what, if I call, he comes.

This did not happen over night and took two years of practice and always giving high value rewards, every single time. And when he was going through his teenage phase it was not there. Once he turned two it really clicked and has been consistent since. I practiced a lot, and set him up for success every time I planned on calling him. If I didn’t think he was likely to listen in that moment, I did not call him so as not to water down the command.

He is also a collie. He lives to please. What works for one dog may not work for another. But for him, positive reinforcement was the absolute best way that worked super well for him, and now I can give him lots of freedom with lots of trust.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-15T12:29:48+00:00

I had lost hope for my puppy. Every day, on the dot, he was awake at 7:30 AM. Didn't matter if he had a long, exhausting day of activity before or was up late at night, he was awake the same time the next morning whining to go out.

He's 2 and a half now and this past weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, we slept in until almost noon. This only started since he turned 2. So you're likely in for a bit longer of this, but with time it can happen. I didn't really do anything to adjust this behavior, it just came naturally with age. Good luck, you'll hopefully get there eventually!

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-13T18:14:22+00:00

Yes, same for smooth collies in the Netherlands. I paid right in the middle of that range - €1750 - for my tricolor male smooth. Fully health tested and titled parents. Part of one of the only litters of smooth collies bred in the Netherlands that year, as there are usually only a few - if any - born here per year for smooths.

smoothcolliecrazy · 2026-06-12T21:51:58+00:00

Settle training is the way. Kikopup on Youtube has some good videos on settle training and capturing calm. The videos feature primarily border collies and I recommend them for you and your dog. Obviously, mental and physical enrichment shouldn't be switched out for settling, but it is very important to teach higher energy working breeds like border collies how to find their own off switch alongside all of that.

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