She actually honestly looks about the same size as my Border Collie. Mine is only 50lbs and she's pretty small overall. She was definitely the runt of the litter and only got to 50lbs because she's in incredible shape and really muscular.
There are some pocket Border Collies that are small. I knew a sweet white and tan that was the same size. But that face, while adorbs, is not Border Collie.
Papillon + Border Collie = quick and smart as a whip! There’s no better combo for primo doggo mix! 🥰 You can really see the papillon in her at the end when she’s being held. It’s that “eager” look. What a cutie pie.
And, crucially, gets the dog into a lower size class, where there are fewer border collies. If you can compete where there are next to no full borders, you've got way more chance of winning 😂
The 8 inch class is dominated by Papillion to almost the same extent the taller height classes are by border collies. It's not unusual to see it be Papillion, Shetland, collie, collie in the increasing height classes.
Yeah doesn't surprise me at that height. In the UK, generally our smallest category is 350mm (13.7inches), so that covers a lot of very small spaniels (which I suspect are being crossed with paps somewhere along the line to make them that small).
But I guess there's a reason that "anything but collies" comps exist, categories with lots of collies tend to be a one-breed race. If you can make a tiny collie, it's gonna excel.
They get their name from the long whispy hair beneath their ears that runs down their neck, giving the ears and mane a ‘butterfly wings’ shape. I’ve got a papillon x rat terrier mix (rat-a-pap), I swear the papillons, they’re a type of dog that knows how incredibly smart and pretty they are. 😄
I would put black lab border collie up there too, as long as you live in the country and have a very active 4 year old who likes to spend all day every day playing outside with them and being herded around!
Yes! I bet you have a lot of fond memories of Rocket 🙂. Mine was named Sam. Between Sam and I, and a calico cat that never really got a real name, we had a lot of fun together when I was a little kid. I called the cat "kitty," my mom and most other people just called her "the bitch." She got to be ~20lbs and was just a menace to most living things, but she was always best friends with me and Sam. She would curl up and cuddle with both of us, even play fetch in the yard. She couldn't pick up a frisbee of course, but she would get wicked excited if Sam missed it and she beat him to it on the ground!
My sister had a border collie x German shepherd. She was the size of a border, was orange for some reason, and the face and huge fluffy tail of a German shepherd. She was mental. And hilarious. She loved nothing more than digging a hole and sitting in ilthe cool dirt. She lived til 15. Her name was Sasha 🧡
That sounds like a really fun mix! My grandfather got mine as a very young puppy shortly after I was born, and since there was no daycare at the time I spent almost all day every day at their house. He even helped me learn how to walk by standing very still while I stood up leaning against him and slowly moving to the side 😂. I remember trying to harness him to my sled to pull me around the yard one winter - he tried his very best, but it turns out I was not in any way skilled enough to make that work.
Man do they take their jobs seriously. I'm glad my grandparents were (mostly) retired when they adopted him. My grandmother trained him to pick up weeds and put them in the wheelbarrow when she was weeding her gardens and my grandfather would take him for rides everyday when he would go visit his friends to play cribbage. Grandpa also taught him to run off the groundhogs that would try to get in the gardens - he knew never to cross the property line, and he wouldn't attack them, he would just sort of aggressively herd them out. Anti-herding? Lol.
Boredom is always the danger! My big girl is very clever and very protective. She's done some doozies but never the same one twice, thank goodness. She caught her collar on the bottom dishwasher tray while trying to wash dishes behind my back and pulled the whole thing out when she panicked. A lot of plates died that day. But she not only hasn't done it again, she warns the other dogs from doing it, too.
I have one too, it’s a little scary how smart they are. She recently had surgery and figured out how to use the plastic cone as a ram to push stuff and a lever to open doors and cabinets.
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u/tinaoe 2d ago
Best girl, actually! Her name's Nimble and she's the first mixed breed to win this competition :D