Notorious Posted September 5, 2012 Report Share Posted September 5, 2012 Ok, so my Border collie is now 6 months old. How big exactly is her brain? What should I expect her to know? What games can I play with her? What are some fun activities I can do with her at this age? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenotri Posted September 5, 2012 Report Share Posted September 5, 2012 At 6 months they can learn just about anything. The only limitation is putting too much stress on their growing joints, so no excessive running, jumping or fetch games. At a minimum, she should have a good recall as this will likely be tested in the coming months. As far as games & tricks, it depends what you want to do with her. I do agility, so most of my games at that age are centered around agility foundations and building a solid reward system. If you're looking for inspiration, look up kikopup on YouTube. She has a heap of clips showing how to train some everyday, as well as some very complex behaviours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notorious Posted September 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2012 Thanks for the info! Will definitely watch the videos. This is my first border collie. We are going to be startin agility tomorrow actually, she won't be allowed to jump etc... Just getting her to learn the rules and what to do etc for when she is old enough to compete. What kind of "agility foundations" can I use as I have no idea what it involves or anything besides watching YouTube videos of tournaments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notorious Posted September 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2012 Forgot to mention and can't edit on my phone. Her recall is 100%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mum24dog Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 At 6 months they can learn just about anything. Or maybe not. http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.php?showtopic=33875 I'd be very rich indeed if I had £1 for every dog that has come through our classes that has suffered a reduction in learning ability about that age. At that age I would still continue with training but would put certain things on the back burner at the first sign of the dog having trouble getting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notorious Posted September 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 Thank you. How long can I expect her to stay at this level? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mum24dog Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 How long is a piece of string? You'll realise one day just how far you've come - it will probably creep up on you gradually. As for agility foundations - Having a solid wait in the face of exciting distractions. Learning to work for a high value reward that is only used for agility. Turning right and left on cue. Learning to follow your body language. Going on ahead of you to a target without looking back. Working on both sides of you. Learning that she has a leg at each corner - walking backwards, balancing on a wobble board, cavaletti. All to be done on the ground and heavily disguised as play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notorious Posted September 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 How can I get her to turn right and left? Just make her follow something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsmbc Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 Check out Sylvia trkman. She has a lot of free training stuff online and her cik and cak is about training turns - left and right.. You can find her at: http://silvia.trkman.net/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notorious Posted September 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 By the way I meant the "stay" command. What is a reasonable time/distance for the average? And thanks everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mum24dog Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 By the way I meant the "stay" command. What is a reasonable time/distance for the average? And thanks everyone. There is no average. You start with a short distance - even a couple of stteps - and gradually increase distance and the amount of distraction. If you increase one, go back a little with the other and build up again. Don't go beyond the point at which your dog will break. It's about giving the dog a chance to succeed, not correcting it for going wrong. If your dog breaks it's because you have asked too much of it. You'll need a wait because some courses will need it for you to get into position before you release the dog. Sometimes it may be only one jump, sometimes several. What you should be aiming at is to be able to give a single wait command and walk out without saying any more or looking back, confident that your dog will be rock steady on the line until you release it. I should also have said you will need a release command such as Go. Best to keep it as a verbal command and keep body language out of it as you might twitch without knowing and set the dog off. You should be able to run, dance, wave your arms about etc without your dog moving until it hears Go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notorious Posted September 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 She'll stay for about 50-60 yards. I just don't know how solid that is for her age, because everything I read says don't expect your puppy to stay very long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 She'll stay for about 50-60 yards. I just don't know how solid that is for her age, because everything I read says don't expect your puppy to stay very long. That is very good, but how far can you go in the presence of minor and major distractions? That is what you should be preparing for - as suggested by mum24dog "You should be able to run, dance, wave your arms about etc without your dog moving until it hears Go." Don't forget, you will be asking your dog to stay in a highly stimulating environment (an agility venue) so distraction training is important. I use the word "Break" as a release cue, some people use "OK". Decide on what you want as a 'release' word and practice using that word consistently. Jovi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notorious Posted September 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 She doesn't listen very well with a lot of "new" distraction like things she hasn't seen before, or if there's just a ton of energy around. How can I work on that? Just repetition and stuff around? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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