Future breed

[Doglover1988]

In the future (probably 1-3 years) I would LOVE to have some sort of high drive herding breed. My favorite are border collies but I also love aussies and cattle dogs. What are some good points/bad with all of these breeds. I love agility, flyball, and frisbee. Maggie is actually learning flyball right now and Lucy will when she is a little older. But I would love a high energy very trainable dog. I don't care if I have to spend alot of time with the dog because I can do that. My obediance/flyball trainer has several border collies and I have fallen in love with them. I will most likely rescue this dog. The most common of them that I see in shelters are border collies and border collie mixes. Probably just because people can't handle them.

[sammy]

Sounds like you'd do fine with a herding dog - they certainly love their dogsports.
The only downsides I see really are the chasing/nipping and huge exercise requirement / need for mental stimulation and training.
My aussie will certainly bite if she is super excited and chasing something (actually it's an open mouthed muzzle bop but it still hurts ) . I don't find it a problem- I would never leave her alone with kids anyway and the kids that hang with us know to stop and stand still if she gets bouncing- we call it "the freeze game"
The thing you really have to consider is with a dog living 12 years or so, will you have that kind of time for your dog ten years from now? Sometimes I shake my head and wonder what I was thinking getting such high needs dogs when I have a child and a busy life or it's
-40 C and my dogs really need to get out for a run, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Personally I prefer aussies to border collies- (I have one of each and love both breeds). I like the joyful, happy attitude and sense of humor of the aussie, the 'blow the coat twice a year' rather than shed every day all year long and I can do without some of the border collie neurosis too. That being said, a "bad" aussie is a nightmare and there are plenty of them out there. Just do your homework and choose really carefully when you are ready to get the dog.

[Pondwader]

I love the herding breeds too. I love border collies, their intelligence and loyalty is what strikes me. I don't know if I could handle the energy level though.
The cattle dog is a smart dog too, and they usually have such long lifespans which is awesome. Most of the ones I have known have lived to be over 15. A friend has one now who is going to be 18 years old this spring.
I think I would choose aussie out of the three breeds you mentioned.
I think they have a more laid back attitude. They are high energy dogs too, and can go all day, but they can do a couch marathon too if your days plans involve nothing more than that.
As for herding breeds nipping etc... well, that is to be expected as puppies, but for the most part with gentle positive reinforcement training it doesn't take long for them to learn not to nip. My 3 old english sheepdogs all nipped as puppies, but all I had to do was say ouch in a loud yelp, then ignore them for a few minutes and praise like crazy when they remembered to play gentle. It was only a matter of 2 or 3 weeks before they totally got the hang of it.

[aquarian215]

I have a great mix I got from the shelter, he's a corgi/golden mix (maybe some other stuff) hes a good puppy, we've only had him for a month and he has learned all kinds of tricks, and took to housetraining very well, and he's great with the kids, though we are working on the nipping, but he is doing great with that as well.

[BCNTC]

sammy has a point about the age thing lol BCs keep going strong until the day they die, Happys mother is 11 years old and still running 5 seconds in flyball lol. Happy herself is 7 years old and you would think she was 1. Misty? most people dont believe me that she is not 5months old, she's 5 YEARS old.