Border Collie Training Tips

July 12, 2005 9:37 PM

Casting a wide net filter regarding border collies: I have a 3.5 month old purebred border collie puppy and am soliciting answers and advice regarding her training. She starts training this Thursday and I've consulted my vet and breeder, as well as Google, but would appreciate any advice here also.

I've read The Ultimate Border Collie and The Dog Owner's Manual: Operating Instructions, Troubleshooting Tips, and Advice on Lifetime Maintenance prior to receiving the dog. I have also raised Schnauzers from puppies, though I realize that's an entirely smaller ball o'wax. Our local dog trainer is known affectionately as the "dog nazi" so I'm sure we'll learn a lot, but I hope there are a few BC centric tips I can glean from this audience. Specifically I'm looking for the best way to curtail jumping and approaching everything with her mouth first. Thanks in advance.

posted by MarvinTheCat to pets & animals (5 comments total)

Added details: we have two legacy felines, ages 5.5 and 1.5. Feline age 1.5 seems to be stoked in respect to all that new fur as a supreme place to nap in calmer moments; spoiled first-child feline aged 5.5 has no business with the newcomer. Furthermore we live in a modest home with a fenced yard, as I know that affects the advice. Finally, I can and do take her to work with me, in an office, 2-3 days a week. She gets crated at work when "overly tired." Also, we have no children.

Yet.
posted by MarvinTheCat at 9:52 PM on July 12, 2005

Lots of exercise (I mean LOTS - you need to find a fenced area where you can play fetch and where she can run, dog parks are often a bad idea, depending on who goes to them), lots of purposeful work (agility, herding classes, whatever), in addition to obedience work, and fair, reasonable, consistent management. Any good, modern puppy book will equip you with what you need to train your dog appropriately from the get go (and ALL dogs approach things mouth first to some extent, especially as puppies, it's how the explore they world). I hope the "dog nazi" is just a nazi about appropriate training and management, and isn't some kind of old school jerk'n'praise type. Read Jean Donaldson, read Karen Pryor, read Ian Dunbar, and remember what your dog was bred for - she needs a job and if you don't give her one, she'll invent one for herself.

Dogs jump to get close to your face, to communicate the way they do naturally. If you simply make a policy that jumping means you ignore her and/or go away from her, and simulaneously teach her a polite greeting (sit = attention, praise and treats, jumping = nada), and are consistent with both, there should not be a problem.

Redirect mouthiness, always have a toy or something nearby, when she mouths inappropriately, entice her with the toy, and praise her for taking it. Good luck.
posted by biscotti at 10:39 PM on July 12, 2005

Once again I second biscotti's recommendations on reading and training. Those are important authors. Do you know what approach to training the "dog nazi" takes? Clicker training is great. I strongly suggest combining voice commands with hand signals at least initially. Dogs are much better at getting visual cues than verbal commands.

Consistency and vigilance on your part will make a big difference. It means you can correct and redirect "bad" behavior, but also mark and praise "good" behavior. Avoid allowing opportunities for bad behavior.

We brought home a dog with a lot of herding instinct and successfully integrated her with our two cats by constantly watching the dog when she had run of the house and correcting any strong herding. Now usually the most she does is nudge them with her nose which we decided to allow. One cat took to her more quickly--she's the one who gets nudged. The other cat is warming to her after a year. We also were able to maintain our flower and vegetable gardens by teaching her where she was allowed to walk, eliminate, nap. I also provided her with a digging pit filled with sandy soil where I buried toys and bones to teach her it was her digging spot. She still occassionaly goes after a bug in the grass and digs, but that's rare now.
posted by lobakgo at 9:26 AM on July 13, 2005

Thanks for the input. And the "dog nazi" isn't meant to be derogative; in our community when you mention who you're going to training for the response is "oh, the dog nazi! She's fantastic." I don't yet know what type of training she uses; we start puppy class tomorrow night.

I like the idea of the digging pit, she does have a tendency to dig sometimes. Thankfully we planned on tilling and reseeding our back yard this fall, so she can't do much damage right now.

Thanks again.
posted by MarvinTheCat at 9:46 AM on July 13, 2005

I strongly second clicker training (keep in mind that positive training does not have to equal permissive training, which is a common complaint that many adherents to old-school methods have). A digging pit is a truly dog-loving thing to do. Most dogs love to dig (terriers more than others), and it's a great energy outlet (which is likely to be a concern with a high-energy dog like a BC). My dog's a herding breed (not a BC), my first of this group (my others were hounds and gundogs), and there is a noticeable difference in many areas. On the plus side, he is scary-quick to learn, LOVES to work (he will come and get me for clicker training sessions and I am shocked at how focused he can be when we're working in agility class) and is loyal, sensitive and highly forgiving. On the minus side, he needs LOTS of attention (compared to my gundogs, who were often happy to just be with me a lot of the time, as opposed to actually interacting with me, which my herding dog needs much more often), LOTS of exercise (I remind myself that this is a dog bred to work actively both mentally and physically on a farm all day, not bred to lie under my chair and snooze), LOTS of training (which is fun for me too, since he's so eager to learn), LOTS of mental stimulation ("Buster cubes" and other food-related puzzle toys are a godsend for dogs like this) and fairly regular reminders about appropriate and inappropriate behaviour (all that intelligence and energy can lead him astray, especially when combined with youthful adolescent idiocy).

Remember to think in terms of asking the dog TO do something, this is easier for them to understand than just telling them what NOT to do (e.g. "don't bark" is much less effective than "go get your toy and work out your excitement about the doorbell on IT instead of barking"), and installing default behaviours incompatible with the unwanted ones also works very well (it's hard to bark with a toy in your mouth, it's hard to jump up when you're sitting down, it's hard to nip when you have a toy to chew). Remember to reward the behaviours you want, even if it doesn't seem necessary (I always reward my dog in some way for coming when called, for dropping something I've told him to drop, and for settling down quietly, and I regularly reward every other cue I've taught him, even those he's known since he was a baby, like "sit" - I expect more repetitions and a higher level of performance of the behaviours he knows well, and I don't reward every time, but I don't ever stop rewarding on a permanent basis. I wouldn't work without a paycheck, I don't expect my dog to. Remember that a "reward" is anything the dog likes, not just food).

Enjoy, herding dogs are wonderful creatures, just remember to be patient and approach things from a learning/teaching perspective, rather than a do what I say/punishment perspective. Herding dogs tend to be very sensitive in general, they don't need or benefit from harsh handling, they WANT to do what you want them to do, you just have to teach them what that is, and once you've built a good relationship with your BC, you will probably find that she will do anything and everything to please you.
posted by biscotti at 2:06 PM on July 13, 2005