Minimum size garden for a collie

iguana

What would be the smallest garden you could house a collie in? My partner and I are just starting to look for a new house in London and are trying to figure what would be the minimum size garden we would consider if we want to get 2 border collies.

One of the reasons I want them is that as they are a very cute pup they tend to be bought and abandoned as they get older when it becomes obvious quite how much care they need as they are incredibly active. This means that there are quite a lot in need of homes but they are limited in who can take them. As I've grown up with them I would be happy to take them on and I know the kind of attention they demand.

My parents have a large garden around 175ft but it is in different sections and the dogs aren't allowed in the vegetable garden or flower beds. They generally tend to stay in the area nearest the house or play on the lawn and only ever go to the top of the garden if they need the toilet. They tend to stay in an area of around 40/50ft.

While I'd love a huge garden, I do live in London and any garden at all is very expensive, so I need to work out what is the absolute least amount of space this kind of dog needs.

Sigma Force

As a colllie mum all I can say is the bigger the better, although even with the largest garden they still need a lot of stimulation. So you could have a 50 by 50 sized garden which would be fine as long as they had plenty of regular walks daily and a strict routine.
You could have half an acre but if they are not getting the playtime and attention they won't be very happy.
Most collies need something to concentrate on to avoid them developing negative behaviours best thing is either a ball or frisbee or another type of dog toy.

So I guess as a rule of thumb: Routine, toy to concentrate their energies on, a bit of basic training also. Older collies have lots of energy but not as much as younger ones and are a bit more mellow..usually. It depends on the individual dog. Mabey there is a collie club that you can join over there where you can meet other collie owners and go on walks etc.
Must be plenty of collie rescues in the UK as well.

They're a great dog, most are energetic but you do get the odd lazy lump
Mine is plain bonkers but she's very good and may not be the brightest banana in the bunch be she tries to hard to be.
She's mellowed since we got her but still needs a lot of runs and loves her routine, when she's not chasing her ball she will happily have a nap, they follow you everywhere so will lie down by the fireside but the minute you get up to do anything they will proabably follow.

peasant

I would agree with GPR ...the size of the garden isn't quite as important as the quality of stimulus their getting. If you have daily acces to a secure area where they can let off steam and excercise, your garden at home could actually be quite small. Big enought to play and chase a ball, but they could get their real physical excercise (in other words get them tired ) somewhere else.

It is important though, that you are around most of the time and give them something to do or rather prevent them from doing something they shouldn't be doing.

Be careful though about over-stimulating your border collies ...they can be made into right adrenalin-junkies. Don't play and excercise with them ALL the time ...because they will take all you got and then go and demand some more.

Actually they will be quite happy with one or two intensive excercise, play or training routines per day (roundabout half an hour or so) and can indeed learn to relax for the rest of the day.

Good luck with finding the right place

iguana

Thanks for all the advice. I guess I'll just go for the biggest garden I can find. There do seem to be a few border collie rescue groups here, so I'll definetly contact them once I have the house sorted.

The area I'm looking at has lots of large parks around, many with biggish ponds that I've seen dogs swimming in. All of our collies have adored swimming (except one who was always nervous about going into the river, though he loved it once he was in, as he broke his leg on a river rock as a puppy). As much as I want collies I wouldn't do it if I thought they wouldn't have enough room or stimulation as that would be selfish.

I was thinking of getting 2 dogs that were different ages. I'd love a puppy, but I also thought about getting a dog as my parents recently got a young dog who had been very badly treated as a pup. Seeing how he has changed from being so frightened of everything to a much more confident dog with them makes me want to help another dog like him.

Would a dog like that be nervous of a young puppy or would having the pup around help it gain confidence and socialise with other dogs better? And give the dog a chance to enjoy playing with other dogs as my parents dog had to learn how to play as this was something he'd obviously not been able to do before.

peasant

Well, if i was you I wouldn't get two at the same time anyway ..one after the other.

A puppy is a good handful for about a year or so before it settles down. A disturbed dog could need even more attention.
It would also be difficult to prejudge a disturbed dog ..they're all disturbed differently.

Hats off to your good will though

Sigma Force

Some rescues have dogs that come together anyway so you could have a look and see.
Check out dog pages http://www.dogpages.org.uk/