my border collie-German Shepard long hair: with us 2002 until 2016

I met him coming out of a video Store around 2002 or 2003. I saw this dog and I felt an immediate affinity for him. He reminded me a lot of the intelligence of my father's huge German Shepard, King that he had out in the desert on his 2 1/2 acres above Yucca Valley in the early 1980s.

The SPCA was there showing off some of their best dogs. He was about 1 1/2 years old then and likely someone in the military had trained him to be like he was: "the smartest dog I've ever met". Since both breeds are for sheparding sheep and cattle they stare right at you and don't avert their eyes because they are used to staring down cattle and sheep as a breed. So, it is almost like a human being or a wolf looking right at you in the eye. I was immediately taken with him. Both my wife and I were looking for a dog and we each found a different dog we wanted the same day. She found an old Jack Russell-corgi mix that she wanted and I found this border collie-German Shepard long hair mix. So, we decided to keep both dogs. So, I walked the forests and beaches with both dogs until the Jack Russell Corgi got into it with a raccoon and had to be put to sleep a month later from kidney failure. I think this happened around 2005. Our baby sitter for our daughter forgot to bring in the dogs and the Jack Russell-corgi was a fighter like all Jack Russell's are when they come up against wild animals especially. My Border collie- German Shepard would know not to tangle with a raccoon unless he had no other choice. So, basically the Jack Russell Corgi died defending the trash cans from the Raccoons.(one month later).

At first I didn't think I could handle the Border collie-German Shepard because he was competing with me sort of like:"I'm smarter than you are!" And he was also 70 pounds not a little dog so you have to really have a handle on a dog this size for walking in the forest or on the beach. So, I was worried I couldn't get him to obey me. Then it happened. He stole a whole large pizza off the top of the stove and I had to scare him into giving me back the pizza.

This worked!

I was alpha from this day forward and he knew his place in his new pack. He was the best dog ever and he lived with us until he passed away a few years ago from 2002. He passed away at age 15 1/2 and left quite a hole in all our lives. He was just such an intelligent and wonderful dog that everyone begged me to give him to them. But, he was a member of the family and I couldn't do that.