Jean,
 
We also have a border collie mix (3/4 on the border collie side) and she
absolutely adores the ferrets.  I couldn't reccomend another breed more
highly for ferrets, because she is so intelligent and responds so well to
commands that she was very easy to teach not to play rough with them.  Now
she can tell them apart and there are certain ferrets she seeks out for
different games.  She plays the "Sit on Ashley so she can't bite my nose"
game and with Sophie she plays the "pick up the ferret by the tail and bring
her to mum" game.  With Tunk she herds him into the space between the wall
and the fridge and they play the open-mouthed "Bite Psych" game with one
another.  It really is a lot of fun and she keeps most of them too busy to
climb the kitchen table and destroy things up there.
 
She learned really young that the ferrets could bite her but she could not
bite them (the "Leave It" and "Drop" commands are extremely useful for
that).  Even when a rescue bit her severely, giving her a rather nasty scar
on her muzzle, she still didn't lose faith in the idea that ferrets could be
nice.  As a result, now my ferrets rarely even try to nip her, because they
have no fear she will ever hurt them, and everyone plays nice.
 
In think we've spoiled her though - she would rather play with ferrets than
another puppy or dog.  At puppy classes she has singled out a 12 week old
Jack Russell as the closest thing she can find to being a ferret and will
only wrestle with him.  Guess we know what breed of dog we're getting next!
 
Sheena
WFHHF and FAGV
[Posted in FML issue 1628]