Nuno1123

Thanks for all the inputs. I live in an apartment. The terrace has tiles pavement which is different from the place of the house where she spends most of the day which is the only room with acess to the terrace which is wooden floor. The door is always open so she can acess outside whenever she needs. I don't take away the possibility of she trying to keep it clean but I don't think it's that as she did her potty on her own bed some times. I do know it's been my fault, hence asking here what I could do to improve! I appreciate all your advices. I won't be able to follow everything as such because unfortunately my lifestyle, time and availability won't allow but I will definetely take it back to basics so I don't skip important phases in her education. I try not to use negative feedback. I also think positive reinforcement is the best way, and sometimes it's just harder for me to control the whole environment in the house.

She is fine and home now. No one is sure what caused it. Just to be safe will be tested for mdr1 gene. Sorry for the "off topic". All other tests are fine so the pee drinking is probably just a behavior issue. Will try to work on it as best as possible. Thanks everyone.

I am not sure. I think not. Actually yesterday was super tough. When I arrived home there was plenty of diarrhea on the floor. She refused to eat and then checked her gums, were pale. Went to the ER. They gave her fluids. Got better but had to stay there for observation! Super scared! No news yet. Probably not related but scary anyway!

Thanks for both replies. I know dogs usually smell and taste each others pee and that it is normal. In this particular situation though it's her own pee and it's not a simple lick or sniff. She stays there licking like she is drinking water. Sometimes I hear her licking liquid in another division of the house. I think she is drinking water, but when I check on her, she is drinking the pee. That's why I am a bit concerned. A visit to the vet will be scheduled soon. Thanks for the advices, and yes I have to invest more time training her. She still pees anywhere in the house and it's been a struggle cause we live in a flat (have a big balcony tho), I spend quite some time away from home because of work and it's winter so it's raining a lot these days. So she doesn't go as much outside and pees anywhere. Even on the couch and her own bed. I'm giving her positive feedback when we go outside, where she is peeing regularly, but rarely makes poop. So I only let her play outside with yoshi (there is a big garden nearby where they can run a play along) after she does pee and poop. Hope I'm doing it right, as I don't really remember how long it took with Yoshi (it was easier back then because I had more time available too). I'm not sure if she will have one-up-one-down ears when she grows up because the ears have been straigthing up progressively. Yoshi had too when she was a puppy and now she looks like a bat ahahah

Hi, everyone. Long time since I created a topic. Yoshi, my scared puppy is now 6 years old and much calmer and trainable. She end up being a great dog. And now it's another puppy that is bringing me here. I adopted a 4 month female border collie rescue 2 months ago. She is super energetic and very very smart. Unlike Yoshi, she fears nothing! Life changes and at this moment I don't have as much time as I had to train Yoshi, so I recognize we are a bit behind with the new puppy, Aimi. She is not affraid of anything and negative feedback surely does not work at all. Having issues to keep her away from trash bags as she is a way too much food oriented (must have some connection from coming from a shelter). The biggest issue I have though, is the peeing. Not only I have been having some difficulties in teaching her that at home she can only pee and poop on the little terrace that I have, but also she has a strange behavior when she pees in the house. She drinks her own pee. I have no idea why she does it. I'm just affraid it indicates some nutrition imbalance. Any ideas what might be and ways to stop it? She then smells bad because of it...

Thanks. Yoshi is actually from a working lineage but unfortunatly we were never able to take her to work with sheeps as we live in city environment. I will check the program and try to get a crate. I've put her already in crate before (other owners ones) and she didn't seem to responde badly to it, but wasn't great too, though we weren't paying attention to distance. I will try that out as soon as I can!

Thank you all for the kind replies!! I will take a deep look into it, so we can improve on it. One of the things we're trying to improve in agility is exactly that, make her drive foward. She's actually way better, but still a lot to work. Thanks!

Hi, Yoshi is now almost eligible to start competing in Agility. She's almost 17 months now, and know how to do every obstacle. Just needs to keep working on consistency and introducing more advanced stuff like different entrances in slalom among others... She no longer tries to bite my hands during pratices. In the street she's still a shy dog, affraid of unknown noises a sudden movements. She's more comfortable in known places and in wild forests Still scared to death when sees others riding skate although she's ok when it's me or ever herself on the board. That's the heads up... now the issue. When we go to practices, some owners leave their dogs in crates when somebody is practiciing in the track. We still haven't gotten a crate, so she sees everything. If she's loose she runs towards the dog that is practicing and round him... won't let the dog do any obstacle. Puts herself in front of any obstacle. Like an Anti-Agility Police Officer. So I put her on a lesh and try to mantain her calm, which is impossible. She becomes possessed, barking and pushing foward. I tried to play with her, don't give a... I tried tricks with treats that she loves at home, don't give a... tried a ball, toy, same thing... Anything I try different doesn't work as she is only focused on the other dog... When practicing she's somewhat dependable, very fast but she becomes so connected to me that I have to sprint up and down to help her guiding. Don't mind about it cause I'm pretty athletic myself so I like to run with her, and she has shown glimpses of being actually good at it... BUT... after watching other dogs and barking like a maniac for 20 or 30 min, when it's her turn, she's so over excite and anxious, she can't even listen to me correctly and sometimes tries to guess things. So... I would like suggestions to improve this pre-training anxiety (don't know how to call it). Here is a small video from a month ago, I wasn't trying to push her for speed, just wanted to make sure she did everything... she's looks to improve every practice (it was a very calm and relaxed training session as there was only one more dog there) Thanks, Nuno.

Being new to all these dog stuff and just because I'm very interesting in it, can anyone explain me why is it so bad for pupiles to jump? I mean, 20 years ago we had the same worries for humans and now it is known that you can work physical condition with younglings without putting extra weights, you can do jumping drills, as long as it's not a high repetition workout, while growing up. By her self sometimes she jumps 1.00m obstacles in the park without me telling her anything, and even jumped from a wall that wass like 1.60m (almost killed me with an heart attack!!!). I know that in a practice its a repetition problem but we only do like 3 or 4 times in a row... and then stop for a good amount of time (while others practice) and then do it again, and it's over, so it's not like we are pushing her over... I have to tell her no more myself lol She has been practicing (once a week) with jumps of 20 cm height (more or less).

I know she is very young but so energetic and athletic that she looks older... BUT, we as everybody advices, only do small jumps (athought she can do high jumps easy) and some obstacles, where she's learning contacts. It's also my first time at agility training so I'm still learning how to position myself and tell her comands... If I don't gesture, she doesn't do the obstacle and don't understand what I ask. So definitly something to work on. Thanks!

Hi, long time since I don't post any doubts. It's actually a good sign cause Yoshi as come a long way since her fearfull days. At 10 months she is very much confident and strong. She has become very fast and quick learner in agility practice too. She is one of those super excited border collies while watching the other dogs going to work. She barks like crazy! But that doesn't worry me too much, what is actually getting into my nerves (well, not that much but I would very much appreciate she stop doing it) is her nipping my hands (sprecially when I have to point down - like when she has to touch a spot in an obstacle). It's not like she's eating my hand but... What's your expert advices in this one? Thanks

Thanks for the advices Sue R. We'll work on it

J, What can I do, or what would you recommend to do, to diminuish these tendencies, like running away from skaters and the general fear of my street?

Hi, you've been quite a good help in some questions I've been having. Yoshi is not my first dog (my parents had dogs all my life) but it's my first border collie, and mine... ok, it's my first dog! Yoshi is almost 8 month old, she very beautifull and energetic. Loves to play and learn stuff... She's having first steps on agility and is quite good at it. Starting from the beggining, Yoshi's parents were working border collies. I saw that here most people preserve the border collie as the shepperdog he is, so you all might hate me LOL Why? Well she was born in a farm and I brought her to Portuguese biggest city, Lisbon! Me and my girlfriend commited almost every mistakes for getting a puppy, I'm aware of it, but when I looked at Yoshi in her eyes, it clicked, I couldn't say no. We didnt saw the parents, the owners were not breeders and didnt care for certification pappers, we didnt saw her interecting with her brother, just seen her in the back of the truck, a little timid, stincking, smelling like pee (she apparently were living in a barn or owners kennel) and had like 20 dried dead ticks on all her body. But her look to me... I couldn't say no and I love it! She has no major behaviour problems, but she is, from day one, quite affraid of city noites and quick unexpected movements. Cars and motociclos, she got use to it in the first coupl of weeks. Train, sometimes she still affraid... But the big prblem is: - the street I live (I've read to avoid places that acare dogs, but I can't avoid my own street, and I cant move to another place). In Portugal some cities, specially rural, historical places like where I live, roads are made of stones (can't really explain it) and it's quite noisy. Don't know if it's that or some neighbours, at the middle of the street while going to the park, she gets scared; - Skateboards! She hates it. Once she was out of leash in the park playing and escaped affraid of it... she went home! Never did it again but I was terrified! - Me killing a bug at home, pading the pellows or grabing one quickly at the sofa to put it behind be or doing a quick stretch, makes her go to the safe place (beneath the table). When she's affraid she crouches and tries to skip away from it. Other than that, she loves to heard (specially my best friend's 7 month old submissive Lab and Pitbull mix) plays with all dogs that she sees in the park, run, jumps a lot, love people (unless they are in my street), plays with toys, tricks and seems very happy! Untill she sees a skate! I would like to hear some advices from you, and try not to be upset for taking a BC to the city (at least it's not one of the busy Lisbon places, and has plenty and plenty of parks and beaches around where we play quite a lot). PS: Another question I had, a dog trainer and german shepperd dog specialist told me she had a good instinct for biting by seeing her play. He said I should incorporate biting activities. Is it frequent on border collies? What kind of biting activities could be indicated?

Even if she's doing it only once a week? In each session we do it like 3 or 4 times a small section... then we stop for all the other big dogs practice, than we do another section, and its basicly it... not very long stuff. This raised a question I have for a while, I already red before about jumping and they all said that. When I go with her to the park to her potty time and then run and play a bit, she louves to run and jump high bushes! I mean sometimes really high bushes! She's so active... Should I restrain her to do so?