Our beloved dog died in October and we are now contemplating adopting another mixed bread dog. I have my eye on one at the Milo Foundation, a medium-sized border collie-pointer mix. Currently, he is with a foster person, who will let him stay at her home until he is adopted. He is a sweet, intelligent 1-year-old who needs a fair amount of training. He was given up by a previous owner and his background is shrouded in mystery. Although we have made inqueries, it is not clear that he is house broken. And we are concerned that he requires a lot of stimulation, even after a good morning walk. We have an 8-year-old child who loves animals, although I doubt she will routinely participate in his care. Has anyone had experience with such a mix? If so, do you think he would make a good family dog, and is it difficult to train what appears to be an undisciplined, year-old animal to sit, stay, come, lie down, etc.? I'm asking because I just can't get this little guy out of my head. Thanks! Dog lover

Sirrius also offers dog/trainer lessons for older dogs at the Berkeley Humane Society. We attended and that was helpful for us. ALso, over the first 3 months we found by accident that our dog did know some useful word commands - ''OK'' and ''Let's go'' that he associated with good things from his owner and we capitalized on those. (For example, sitting on the couch talking to people and saying ''OK, let's go'' ...the dog perks up and runs up to me. OK is a good one to get his attention.) Also over 6 months, the dog learned our routine and learned where and how he fit into our family and we learned how we want him to be a part of our family (things like on the couch or off the couch? crate or no crate?, etc.) We kept him on leash alot at first, especially compared to now and I always keep him on leash when we walk down the street. Of course, every dog is a little different. Comparing his behavior now to his behavior when we first got him, he was a bit anxious in his new setting, ''tested'' his limits, and consoled himself with chewing - some OK, some not OK. Now: we are totally a part of his pack, he would never leave us, he is our dog and we still train him. Hope this helps. Good luck! Hope you find the adult dog that is just right for you! Lissa ------------------------------------------- Both Border Collies and Pointers require a great deal of exercise. My guess would be that many discipline problems could be related to a lack of needed exercise. If you know that you're able to provide regular opportunities for vigorous R.L.

If the dog is living with a foster family now, I would be very surprised if he's not housebroken. But if he's not, housebreaking is not a difficult thing to do. The bigger issue is really what effect the dog's mysterious background has had on his behavior. For example, our dog was rescued at 7 months after her owners dumped her outside a veterinary clinic with a very bad case of mange. She's a sweet dog, but she has tremendous fear aggression with other dogs that, despite several obedience courses and a lot of work and attention, has lessened very little in her 10 years with us. I've always suspected that it is caused by trauma in her early life.

Yes, a dog can be trained ... particularly a border collie. One of the reasons border collies are known as ''smart'' dogs is that they do very well in obedience and can problem-solve. Our border collie loved to learn (still does, in fact). I remember teaching her to ''go to bed,'' and after the second time around, I barely raised my arm in the command and she was off and running to her bed, wagging her tail and clearly happy to show off how well she understood the game.

If you try to housebreak the dog and find he's just having accidents, there may also be medical causes and treatments. As a fellow dog lover, I would encourage you to give this guy a chance. But I would make sure beforehand, that you and the rest of your family recognize how much time and attention you'll need. You should walk him at least once a day. Our dogs get two 30-minute walks a day. You should spend at least two 15-minute periods of play with your dog. And you should make sure people are going to be home significant amounts of time with the dog. Then there's feeding and grooming and scooping up poop and vet bills.

Plan on enrolling him in obedience class. There are decent ones run by city recreation departments and humane societies and shelters and good ones (a bit more expensive) offered at the major pet store chains. They're all very similar, and a lot of the results depend on your being consistent in your training. It is my belief that 90 percent of obedience training is training the humans and 10 percent is training the dog. Good luck. Gwynne