jami74

Do people find their border collies are easily stolen? It's a genuine question. My last dog would not have gone off with just anyone. If I left him somewhere he'd have waited for me, there were only a handful of people (my partner and a couple of close colleagues/friends) who could have convinced him otherwise (I worked in a huge horse training centre so we met and 'knew' a lot of people). Because of that it surprises me to see so many dogs get stolen. Our new puppy, once he's made friends with a new person I think would happily go off with them at the moment. Is there a way of training them to not just go off with anyone? I suppose it comes with adding distractions to the 'stay' command when the time comes. Dogs do seem to get stolen quite a lot where I live (judging by the facebook posts). Being able to wait outside a shop is something I plan to teach, just in case we're ever in that position where for whatever reason I have him with me and need to pop into a shop for something, although I don't plan to use it and certainly wouldn't for anything other than an emergency (maybe to grab a bottle of water).

I would imagine if a farmer had a working dog that was developing OCD and aggression, bad enough to be a major problem that was affecting its work, if he/she couldn't fix it pretty darn quick the dog would be disposed of whereas pet owners would be more likely to battle on or surrender the dog to a shelter. Do we know if there are lots of farmers disposing of well bred dogs due to OCD and aggressive behaviours?

Thank-you all for the reassurances. We are doing puppy classes twice a week. I signed up for the same class twice because I also have a teenage daughter so they each do each class once rather than having to share the time and it means I get to observe twice a week which helps me keep practice on track, it's a lovely class completely positive based and only 2 or 3 other puppies to the two trainers so we all get plenty of attention. I think it's going to be okay, just a bit slower than I expected. It had never occurred to me that my children wouldn't just know how to work with a puppy.

Could it be less to do with breeding and more to do with their experiences in the first few months of life? I'm only on my second collie (who is so very different to my first that they might as well have been completely different breeds) so I'm not greatly experienced but I think being aware of potential issues means that they can to some extent be avoided. With any animal I've worked with, I've considered behaviours that I would not want and trained with them in mind from the beginning. For example, as a child I was afraid of a dog that would take something and no-one could get it back. He was a scary dog, once he had something it was his until he had finished with it (he chewed my doll ) so with my first collie I spent a lot of time as a puppy giving him things and taking them away (food, toys, things he wasn't meant to have like my socks) and he grew into a dog who would not take anything without permission and would happily give up a bone if I asked him to (and I did, at least once every time he had one - I would return it after lots of praise and a little play). Another example is when one of my children found a laser pointer "Look! He loves this game! This will keep him busy for hours!" they said, but he had that crazed stressed look about him and the laser pointer was delegated to a secret location. So, my theory would be that collies don't suddenly turn overnight into a dog with OCD or aggressive behaviour but that subtle signs aren't being picked up soon enough by their owners. I would be interested though to hear other peoples views because I am still very inexperienced.

Hi, I'm new here but have been reading the forums for a while now. We have a beautiful black & white border collie puppy, he's about 16 weeks and we've had him since about 7-8 weeks. .. I wasn't planning on using a crate but a few hours into our first night our puppy just kept climbing out his bed and we couldn't leave him, so we got one the next day. He has always been happy to go in it at bedtime and he currently sleeps in it from about 10pm until 6.30-7am in it. I work 3 or 4 days a week but there is always someone at home. Apparently when I'm at work the puppy plays/trains a bit, plays a bit by himself and then curls up somewhere (usually next to the sofa) and sleeps quite a lot. When I am at home in the evenings he does not settle and when I'm at home on my days off he doesn't seem to settle or sleep for more than a few minutes. We've realised it is because I'm always on the go, when I'm at work the other humans are generally lounging around quietly watching TV but when I'm home I potter about so our puppy doesn't stay still for long, then he gets over tired and starts getting into mischief (chewing furniture, grabbing at legs, taking things he's not allowed etc). So these last couple of days I've recognised that he's getting tired and popped him into the crate which he has willingly gone and promptly fell asleep. I've then quietly opened the crate after an hour and he's woken up and come out. I've done this a maximum of twice a day for one hour each time. So my question is, how long is it appropriate to crate him for during the day? How long do other puppies/dogs spend crated? He has been so much calmer and more pleasant to be around with a couple of enforced crate times. The difference at puppy class between the session we went to when he'd been awake and playing for hours and the next session where I put him in his crate to sleep for an hour before class was unbelievable! But I feel uncomfortable about shutting him in, I hate cages and have never used anything like a crate before. It's big enough for him to stretch out in and I imagine it will be big enough for him as an adult to sleep in (I hope at some point to take the door off) but it isn't big enough for a bowl of water, it's a bed rather than a living space. He has a couple of small toys (to chew) in there and a small handful of kibble. Is an hour twice a day reasonable? Should we leave him in until he wakes up and asks to come out or is it best to restrict it? I have previous dog and collie experience but have not had a dog since having a family so this is a whole new experience. The puppy is intended to be a companion for my 13 year old son to have adventures with (he's home-schooled). We have stacks of opportunities locally to us, currently doing puppy classes, to follow are obedience classes with agility foundations, later on there is the opportunity to learn to work with sheep, flyball/agility, then further in the future there is sniff training, protection dog training, eventually maybe PAT (Pets As Therapy - visiting nursing homes/hospitals). We live right by the beach, within walking distance of several parks and very close to the river, woods etc. Our puppy has a busy and active life ahead of him. My plan was to remain hands off and let the puppy and boy bond over learning together. They are bonded and adore each other, however watching them is like watching the blind leading the blind. Their reaction times are off so they are missing each others cues and it is quite frustrating to watch. So I've stepped in and am doing some training with the puppy and then passing him to my son and hanging back a bit but offering guidance and this seems to be working okay, except that the puppy very much sees me as 'Mum' and at times they both look at me for guidance rather than each other. My son is reluctant to take him out for walks on his own and when we've been for walks if I've suggested I take an alternate route the puppy has been reluctant to leave me and my son hasn't been confident enough to make him go. Has anyone got any ideas or experiences to help me pass the 'leader' baton to my son if that makes sense? My hope is that they can go off and do things together without me having to follow along. Thank-you in advance X