Search the Community

Hi there, I'm a first time BC owner, and unfortunately, I am among those dummies that adopted a BC without first doing in-depth research about the breed and perhaps started out with my puppy all wrong. I know more about these dogs now and am doing great with the majority of his obedience training, I am very precise with him and he's gotten "sit", "down", "go get it", and it in the process of learning "leave it". Unfortunately, I have had NO success in reducing his play biting, which has worsened to severe biting every time I hold him or touch him. I have never used any sort of negative enforcement with him, but he acts as if hands are the devil/and are far better than his toys. I've tried the majority of corrections, I mistakenly tried the puppy "yelp" for two days before discovering that this breed usually gets more excited with things like that. I have tried removing him from play and putting him in his crate when he bites, I have tried removing myself from his playpen when he bites me and turning my back until he calms down. He simply goes nuts and barks and yips. We are capable of exercising him daily, we have a nearby trail and dog park, and he is still a young puppy, 2 months old, sonwe do tire him successfully, but the biting continues. I am socializing him bit by bit, nothing. My hands are cut up pretty badly. I would LOVE some advice for this. We love him dearly and simply want to be able to pet him and handle him without bleeding. Thank you for your time. I have attached a week old photo of him being held by my mother. No biting back then.

Hi! Three or so months ago I got a seven week old border collie/american eskimo dog mix puppy. I got him off of Craigslist, and did not know much about the breed prior to getting him, so I was not aware that they were working dogs. With this being said, I have been doing everything in my capacity to provide him with the mental and physical stimulation that he needs. I also am a college student, although I will be graduating in May, which has caused for me to not be able to devote as much time as I believe is necessary to train him. With this being said he does know most basic commands when treats are involved (paw, sit, down, stay, high five etc). Unfortunately he has a very bad habit of biting, and sometimes he will seemingly "viscously" bite others. He is now five months old, and has gotten his adult teeth in, so his bites are not always as painful, but sometimes they still are. The main issue is not that he bites me, but he will bite other people if the do something that "irritates" him. For example if my mother tries to put the leash on him she may get bitten, or if she tries to pet him while someone is preparing his food. He always will try to bite when people put on his leash, regardless of the person- but this is a habit that cannot persist. I have gone to trainers, and am currently working with a trainer whom has been very helpful, but I am getting worried because I do not want him to continue to bite as an adult, for his own safety. I know this was lengthy, but I can answer any other questions you guys may have! I usually spend my entire day with him except when I am in class, so I am normally with him about 18 hours out of a 24 hour day. I also am running out of ways to entertain him while I am doing homework, and he will always get into trouble if not supervised, or try to do bad things to get my attention. He is crate trained and house trained at this point. So to summarize what the issues are: 1. He bites other people, sometimes aggressively if triggered 2. He doesn't seem to have any desire to "please" me in the sense that my other dogs (labs) had. 3. I don't know how to keep him entertained when I am doing work 4. He bites when I try to put the leash on him, and I do not know how to eliminate this behavior (I have tried giving him treats and showing him the leash repetitively, and it has not significantly helped) I attached a picture of him, so maybe you guys can identify if he is not truly a border collie, but he has tried to "Herd" children when given the opportunity and most people when they see him assume he is a border collie puppy Another aside is that I also am not willing to give him up, I believe that it is my responsibility since I got this puppy to take care of him and to ensure that he has the best life possible, I do not want to give him away- he is extremely attached. I appreciate any help or tips you guys can give me! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for trying to help me! I just want him to have the best life possible and for this to work out so we can both be happy!

Hi everyone: Thank you all in advance for your help and advice. We just got our male puppy yesterday. He is eight weeks old. We have a house with a reasonably-sized back yard. Initially we have decided that he will not be allowed in the house, so we don't want to encourage behavior that tells him that he is allowed indoors. Also, we want to train him so that he always goes in a specific part of the yard. This will prevent future stepping-in-poo accidents and easier to pick up (you know where it is). So, we are confused as to how we should go about this. - One idea is to crate-train him. We would keep him in his crate and take him out frequently to the designated spot, etc. The negative side to this is that he is stuck in the crate most of his day. I am sure he would rather enjoy himself more if allowed free-reign of the yard! - The alternative is to keep him outside and take the sporadic opportunities we will have to catch him in the act to teach him where he should go potty. The problem here is that he will likely develop a habit of going where he is not supposed to and changing that in the future will be tough (or impossible). Also, I have read that 8 weeks is too young to start potty training but he seems able to hold his bladder rather well and has had no accidents in his crate for the day that he has been with us. I would very much appreciate your suggestions. We do not have experience with BC and you all have plenty! Thank you

Hello all, I adopted a Border Collie named Herschel a month ago. He's somewhere between a year and a year and a half old. warning: very long! He started out in Arkansas, I guess was found as a stray, was heartworm positive, lived in a rescue kennel with lots of other herding dogs in Illinois for about three months, and now is with me in a small city in Connecticut. He has come a long way since he arrived! Happily, rescue taught him really well to walk on a leash, he almost never pulls. But he was not 'crate trained' as they said -- he chewed up the plastic mat in the crate even if he had something to chew on in there, and then chewed up the horse stall mat I got from Tractor Supply, too. He also managed to pull a blanket underneath the crate up into it (I was trying to protect the wood floors, as he would put a paw out and scratch the floor and even scooched the crate over to the bed and chewed on the bedskirt! He also would bark unhappily as I was walking away from the apartment, and bark on and off while in the crate, partly in frustration, partly reacting to noise. He slept fine in the crate in my room before I trusted him to be loose in the room overnight, and is very well behaved in the crate in the car, however. He's gotten a lot braver about the city stimuli. He doesn't like loud noises -- roofers working, a truck going by close, a motorcycle -- but can manage people biking by, cars going by close. Is not fazed at all by people walking past us on the sidewalk or other dogs, either, even if they are barking at him. He's done great in large outdoor crowds, including accepting petting from strangers, even little children. (I tell them not to pet his head, he doesn't like strangers petting his head, though he just flinches, he doesn't snap or anything). I've made a lot of progress house training him, and he is not destructive when left alone in the house (He has access to the kitchen, living room and dining room -- he's only in the crate if I came home at lunch and he's done something in the house, which is about once a week) He also is generally calm while hanging out in the house with me, and is very affectionate. I'm very glad I adopted him. I plan to take him to a group obedience class, because I don't have any real experience with training beyond 'sit' and 'come.' My last dog, an Aussie-beagle mix, was so well-behaved and easy that I really didn't have to do any formal training past teaching him not to get on the couch. It didn't hurt that he was smaller (28 pounds) so training him not to jump or things like that wasn't as critical. Herschel is 35 pounds, that makes a surprisingly big difference! BUT... if you have any advice on counter surfing and barking in the house, that would be appreciated! Since he is no longer in the crate in my bedroom, the woman who works nights and whose bedroom is directly below mine is no longer kept awake by his barking. What I've tried with barking is calling him to me (or going to him) and cupping my hand lightly around the top of his muzzle, while saying 'Quiet' in a conversational tone but with an edge in my voice. Sometimes this stops the barking, sometimes not. I also bought a 'dog corrector' canister that makes a hissing sound when it sprays air (not in his face). I have tried that a few times. It startles him, and he stops making noise right then, but sometimes barks again after that, and it's like spray-'quiet command' pause-bark-spray-quiet-command-pause-bark. (I tried pretending to check out the noise/taking him to see out the window, but that had no effect) I praise him for being quiet when he stops, and there have been some times (a handful) when instead of full on barking at the noise, he does what I call barking under his breath. I praise that vociferously, because if he were to go from barking to that, it's a solution I could live with. What makes him bark? Someone going in and out of the front door, one floor below us, which happens a lot, because four others live in this three family house! The upstairs tenant going up the stairs past our apartment. Sometimes the sound of him walking around upstairs (less often). Sometimes people talking loudly on the sidewalk outside. Once in a while I can't hear what set him off. My friend Tony came over a few weeks ago, and although he had met him before, he barked and barked and would not stop when he came in the apartment, even though I tried to reassure him he knew Tony, and hugged him to show he was a friend. (This is before I had the spray to try). Once we left and the three of us hiked together, he was perfectly fine with Tony. He visited a friend's country house this past weekend, and it was interesting -- he barked at the owner of the house when the rest of us were sitting around in the living room, and the owner came back in the front door, even though he'd been spending nearly the whole weekend in his sight! But when his wife came in after a briefer time away, he didn't bark. He also barked at a woman cleaning the apartment when she re-entered the room we were in after being out of sight for a half hour, and would not be calmed. He'll bark a little at noise when we're in the backyard together, but largely isn't barking much outdoors. The one exception was when he was on leash on a hike and we were taking a lunch break, and a strange dog arrived at the peak off leash. He was lunging and barking like he was going to tear the dog limb from limb, and my friend who was hiking with me, her dog got the same treatment when he came close off leash, though they had been hiking together with her dog off leash with no problem for a couple hours before that. (I was holding his collar, so there was no danger of an actual encounter) So! That's it for barking. Thoughts? I will keep trying with the spray in the apartment if the quiet/good quiet sequence doesn't work. (It did work just now.) On counter surfing -- he got into the trash when he was bored alone at home, and then I bought a simple human latching dog proof trash can. Not dog proof when he knocked it over and got into it again while bored alone at home. So now it stays out on the landing. He will try to get to any food that's not straight up vegetables (he's not interested in those) that's on the counter, unless it is way far back at the wall/on top of the toaster oven and he can't get to it. He doesn't do it in front of me, though once I heard him trying to bother a pan of tomatoes with cheese while I was eating in the dining room. Today he ate a half a loaf of bread b/c I forgot to put it back on top of the toaster oven after the toaster oven cooled back down! Argh! I can't close the kitchen off from him, because it has a swinging door between kitchen/dining room, and even though it has a latch of sorts, I found it didn't work to keep him in/out. So is my only hope to improve my vigilance on where I leave tempting food? I'm not used to this, my old dog wasn't tall enough to do this! And by the way, I have tried leaving him toys that promise hours of stimulation -- starmark brand -- but they do not. One is shaped like a tire and you put an edible chew disk in it; he makes short work of it. I do feed him always in their puzzle balls, and that works well, though one hasn't held up well and now isn't as challenging as it started out. If you're still reading, thanks for spending so much time with this Border Collie newbie!

Hello all, I adopted a Border Collie named Herschel a month ago. He's somewhere between a year and a year and a half old. warning: very long! He started out in Arkansas, I guess was found as a stray, was heartworm positive, lived in a rescue kennel with lots of other herding dogs in Illinois for about three months, and now is with me in a small city in Connecticut. He has come a long way since he arrived! Happily, rescue taught him really well to walk on a leash, he almost never pulls. But he was not 'crate trained' as they said -- he chewed up the plastic mat in the crate even if he had something to chew on in there, and then chewed up the horse stall mat I got from Tractor Supply, too. He also managed to pull a blanket underneath the crate up into it (I was trying to protect the wood floors, as he would put a paw out and scratch the floor and even scooched the crate over to the bed and chewed on the bedskirt! He also would bark unhappily as I was walking away from the apartment, and bark on and off while in the crate, partly in frustration, partly reacting to noise. He slept fine in the crate in my room before I trusted him to be loose in the room overnight, and is very well behaved in the crate in the car, however. He's gotten a lot braver about the city stimuli. He doesn't like loud noises -- roofers working, a truck going by close, a motorcycle -- but can manage people biking by, cars going by close. Is not fazed at all by people walking past us on the sidewalk or other dogs, either, even if they are barking at him. He's done great in large outdoor crowds, including accepting petting from strangers, even little children. (I tell them not to pet his head, he doesn't like strangers petting his head, though he just flinches, he doesn't snap or anything). I've made a lot of progress house training him, and he is not destructive when left alone in the house (He has access to the kitchen, living room and dining room -- he's only in the crate if I came home at lunch and he's done something in the house, which is about once a week) He also is generally calm while hanging out in the house with me, and is very affectionate. I'm very glad I adopted him. I plan to take him to a group obedience class, because I don't have any real experience with training beyond 'sit' and 'come.' My last dog, an Aussie-beagle mix, was so well-behaved and easy that I really didn't have to do any formal training past teaching him not to get on the couch. It didn't hurt that he was smaller (28 pounds) so training him not to jump or things like that wasn't as critical. Herschel is 35 pounds, that makes a surprisingly big difference! BUT... if you have any advice on counter surfing and barking in the house, that would be appreciated! Since he is no longer in the crate in my bedroom, the woman who works nights and whose bedroom is directly below mine is no longer kept awake by his barking. What I've tried with barking is calling him to me (or going to him) and cupping my hand lightly around the top of his muzzle, while saying 'Quiet' in a conversational tone but with an edge in my voice. Sometimes this stops the barking, sometimes not. I also bought a 'dog corrector' canister that makes a hissing sound when it sprays air (not in his face). I have tried that a few times. It startles him, and he stops making noise right then, but sometimes barks again after that, and it's like spray-'quiet command' pause-bark-spray-quiet-command-pause-bark. (I tried pretending to check out the noise/taking him to see out the window, but that had no effect) I praise him for being quiet when he stops, and there have been some times (a handful) when instead of full on barking at the noise, he does what I call barking under his breath. I praise that vociferously, because if he were to go from barking to that, it's a solution I could live with. What makes him bark? Someone going in and out of the front door, one floor below us, which happens a lot, because four others live in this three family house! The upstairs tenant going up the stairs past our apartment. Sometimes the sound of him walking around upstairs (less often). Sometimes people talking loudly on the sidewalk outside. Once in a while I can't hear what set him off. My friend Tony came over a few weeks ago, and although he had met him before, he barked and barked and would not stop when he came in the apartment, even though I tried to reassure him he knew Tony, and hugged him to show he was a friend. (This is before I had the spray to try). Once we left and the three of us hiked together, he was perfectly fine with Tony. He visited a friend's country house this past weekend, and it was interesting -- he barked at the owner of the house when the rest of us were sitting around in the living room, and the owner came back in the front door, even though he'd been spending nearly the whole weekend in his sight! But when his wife came in after a briefer time away, he didn't bark. He also barked at a woman cleaning the apartment when she re-entered the room we were in after being out of sight for a half hour, and would not be calmed. He'll bark a little at noise when we're in the backyard together, but largely isn't barking much outdoors. The one exception was when he was on leash on a hike and we were taking a lunch break, and a strange dog arrived at the peak off leash. He was lunging and barking like he was going to tear the dog limb from limb, and my friend who was hiking with me, her dog got the same treatment when he came close off leash, though they had been hiking together with her dog off leash with no problem for a couple hours before that. (I was holding his collar, so there was no danger of an actual encounter) So! That's it for barking. Thoughts? I will keep trying with the spray in the apartment if the quiet/good quiet sequence doesn't work. (It did work just now.) On counter surfing -- he got into the trash when he was bored alone at home, and then I bought a simple human latching dog proof trash can. Not dog proof when he knocked it over and got into it again while bored alone at home. So now it stays out on the landing. He will try to get to any food that's not straight up vegetables (he's not interested in those) that's on the counter, unless it is way far back at the wall/on top of the toaster oven and he can't get to it. He doesn't do it in front of me, though once I heard him trying to bother a pan of tomatoes with cheese while I was eating in the dining room. Today he ate a half a loaf of bread b/c I forgot to put it back on top of the toaster oven after the toaster oven cooled back down! Argh! I can't close the kitchen off from him, because it has a swinging door between kitchen/dining room, and even though it has a latch of sorts, I found it didn't work to keep him in/out. So is my only hope to improve my vigilance on where I leave tempting food? I'm not used to this, my old dog wasn't tall enough to do this! And by the way, I have tried leaving him toys that promise hours of stimulation -- starmark brand -- but they do not. One is shaped like a tire and you put an edible chew disk in it; he makes short work of it. I do feed him always in their puzzle balls, and that works well, though one hasn't held up well and now isn't as challenging as it started out. If you're still reading, thanks for spending so much time with this Border Collie newbie!

I have a 13 week old puppy who I've been training since I got her at 7 weeks. First was housetraining and crate training. She was able to sleep through the night at 8 weeks and comes up to me when she has to potty during the day if she's outside of her crate. She can guzzle water right before bed and sleep 9 hours straight. She also learned to sit for things she wanted (food, toys) in her first week home with me. We've been working on down, look, touch, leave it, recall for the past several weeks. I just started duration work with her. She's doing very well and picks up everything quickly. She was good on a leash when I first started walking her around 9 weeks. She is learning how to be calm around people passing by and people greeting her. She's good in the crate in my car and at my house. She's well socialized with dogs and puppies at a doggie day care. They tell me she's confident and will play with any sized dog. I take her to cafes and coffee shops all the time and she does great. I'm honestly not experiencing any huge issues with her. Just training good behavior and teaching her what's acceptable and what's not. I feel like she's too good to be true and I'm going to jinx myself or something! Did anyone else have a very good puppy, but things went downhill for whatever reason? Just curious if this is an indicator of fewer issues down the road or if it's completely hit or miss.

So an update and another question for the masses this morning!: I realized that my dog had not fully grasped the concept of me telling her to watch her sheep and I had not understood the importance of her knowing it, so we went all the way back to zero and I just walked around telling her to watch her sheep and walked away from her and them ( in a safe way) I did this enough times that when we would walk up to the fence she was already looking for them. After doing this I noticed a huge increase in her speed and when I would release her to watch her sheep I would name flanks as she took them just by redirecting her with my body, and this seemed to work.. My conclusion is that while she is sensitive to pressure I had made a training error and let it go unnoticed for too long, my question is how would one go about pushing a more sensitive dog off stock? I love posting the day before training, I get such wonderful feed back from y'all!

So even though my trainer offers to rent sheep for us to work between lessons I keep asking myself how I can get more time on sheep, we live in San Diego county California and there are plenty of people with sheep in the area but would it be rude to just ask them? I have also thought about just talking to ad posters on craigslist of people looking to sell sheep in hopes of networking out some possible work for us to go do, the experience for my girl would be payment enough. Thoughts or advice?

Hi there as this is my first post please forgive any grammatical or other forms of error when it comes to terminology. So I have a 16 month old mix of the three most regularly recognized "herding breeds" Aussie, Heeler, and Border collie but the border collie comes through the strongest. With her JHD I was told she was rather keen had a medium strength in her eye and was nice to her stock. Now the problem that Iam finding myself faced with when we go for a lesson is that she holds back, like shes concerned with making an error, she doesnt do this every time but it takes a gratuitous amount of praise to get her to speed up and cover correctly, now she had a bad experience with another trainer before hand but her Tentativness stems more from her intelligence. I have let her back myself and the flock into an arena corner and encouraged her to watch em/get em and then gone back in the field and was able to see how much more focused and turned on she was. Iam going to go back into a smaller area today and see if squaring her flanks up better will maybe help her, she also thinks that when I tell her to get out that she is in trouble. Any help would be great Thank you!

Hi y'all The shelter I volunteer at seems to be having a rash of BC surrenders around the age of 6 months to 1 year. Is this the usual age the owners (who have various excuses, none of which I really believe any more) start thinking, "OMG, this thing has no off-switch"? Actually as far as I can see, they most certainly do have that switch but it is usually only accessible after you have worked their brains and body enough...just wanted to be able to give color why they might be being surrendered when I talk to potential adopters. Also...as I am totally falling for the breed (had been a GSD/Mal afficionado all my life) I was looking for some advice on how to manage their shelter time. My observation has been that they deteriorate very rapidly in the shelter, go OCD quickly and drive everyone around them nuts. I have been handling this by just breaking them out of jail and taking them out all day to trail run with me, chase balls and do as much obedience/trick work as my rather questionable mechanics will allow. The current one is sleeping quietly at my feet after a 20k run (probably 40k in his case with all the fetch we played along the way)...but I know if I move I will get that intense "What's next?" look I am falling in love with. Anyhow... Any thoughts and advice on how to manage the shelter time and prepare them for being adopted would be helpful as, despite all the farming in this country (and sorry I don't know any sheep either), there aren't any BC specific rescues around here (and I don't think I will survive the required trail mileage, fun tho' it is)... Thanks, Tim

Hello everyone, We have a bit of a beginner question. Hope you guys have some useful insights! We adopted a lovely border collie puppy two weeks ago. We've been planning this for ages and she's from a very reputable breeder. She is from two parents active in sports, with calm temperaments at home. Both of the parents are great dogs. Let me start off by saying this: our little lady is lovely as well! We fell in love with her. she is very affectionate. After 10 days she was pretty much potty trained, she loves her crate, sleeps all night and responds so well to training. All in all, the perfect little border collie. However, we are already experiencing some hyper behaviour. She turns into a little landshark sometimes, bites her leash like a maniac when we go out, goes ballistic in the garden and in the house by running around and into things, to the point where she's panting and gets the 'crazy eye'. I honestly don't think it's because she's overstimulated, but just to be sure, this is what we do with her: We go out with her about three times a day, for about 10 to 20 minutes, around the neighbourhood, trying to get her socialised to everything. She gets unstructured playtime for an hour or two a day, she gets kongs and chew toys, and she gets clicker training twice a day for about 10 minutes. The rest of the time she sleeps. I've started taking 5 minutes at the end of every walk sitting down with her and rewarding when she simply sits and calmly observes things. Same thing in the house. This is not easy for her though. We understand that hyperness can be a trait of the breed, but if there's anything we can do about it now, it will of course be better than later. We live in a crowded neighbourhood, (also with lots of parks and green and room to roam), so she needs to be able to settle when we want her to. We don't want her to turn into a cardio machine, so I don't want to completely tire her out physically, especially not at this tender age, so the walks can't be any longer just yet? Any tips? Is this normal baby behaviour? Are we overanalysing? Any feedback is greatly appreciated! All the best, Two new parents

In the Spring my previous dog and I were involved in the production of these videos for Tawzer dog. Game On! is for teaching obedience classes using games, and has some super fun ideas for any trainers out there. Agility for fun and confidence is a 6 week curriculum for teaching an intro agility class to help dogs build confidence and have fun. Nicole's great to work with, she has great ideas, and Tawzer's having a 50% off Black Friday Sale! http://dvddepot.tawzerdog.com/ My doodle and I make some appearances in the Game On preview also

Ms. Denise Fenzi recently published a new book geared toward a pet dog audience (or toward trainers who work with pet dog clients) called, "Beyond the Back Yard" If you have ever thought or said, "+R trainers must have food on them at all times", this book is for you!! In this book, Ms. Fenzi details how to move from getting trained behaviors reliably in the presence of reinforcers such as food or toys to having a dog who will perform trained behaviors in everyday situations where such reinforcers are not present! I highly recommend this one!! This is the "missing link" for so many who attend introductory dog training classes, especially when they don't go on to sports and other activities. The book is well written, accessible to the average person, yet full of gems for the more experienced trainer. And it is all from a positive reinforcement based approach. This one is worth a read, no matter what your training experience level may be!!! Book description and reviews are available on Amazon. The book can be ordered from Ms. Fenzi's website, as well. http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Back-Yard-Anytime-Anywhere/dp/0988781859/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446989729&sr=8-1&keywords=beyond+the+back+yard

Has anyone trained their border collie for bird control work on golf courses and public parks? I know most stock dog trainers would look at that as pretty bad behavior for a border collie, but it seems like interesting work. Has anyone worked their dog in this way?

It's been a while since I've felt the need to post anything! Mr. Tyrael has been doing wonderful we're so happy with him! But! For the last few months he has been intensely sniffing our other dog. Like nose shoved in her fur all over just always in her face sniffing. Recently he's been starting to lift his leg to pee on her. She often growls at him and when he doesn't let up she lunges for him, connecting like 50% of the time. She looks so disgruntled when she comes back with tufts of hair in her mouth. Even after she lunges and snaps at him he does NOT get the clue and immediately goes back to shoving his nose all over her. What the heck can we do to get over this? Kasha is 13 years Tyrael is 11 months. Last week, (May 1-7) we had him boarded at a doggy daycare/overnight boarding facility while we were in New York. We had checked the place out prior to letting him stay there. It was beautiful, football field type grass, the fake stuff ya know, so no one was really able to get dirty/muddy, the staff was great the place smelled super clean it was wonderful! Good reviews at first glance. Well it turns out this place isn't as amazing as it appeared. We got our Tyrael back on the 7th and he had 9 wounds. 4 of them were bad enough the vet had to shave them to see the whole thing and we have to spray an antiseptic 3x daily, plus cone of shame. The other 5 I would expect, they were small and in various stages of healing and Tyrael is just a clumsy boy. He skinned a pad at the dog park from tripping. So the kennel had not informed us that he was in a fight that had injuries and they didn't even notice! I'm so angry with this kennel and we're dealing with that. Filed a report with animal control and disputed the charge for service with American Express. Anyway! Since he's been back he's been very slinky and guilty acting, he flinches when you move a hand too fast. Lots of training regression. We had been able to stick fingers in his mouth to see teeth, grooming wasn't a problem, touching feet and all over wasn't a problem, now he's really defensive. Walking on a loose leash was difficult prior to this boarding experience, now it's almost impossible. He seems very distant and distracted. He doesn't even want to play with his best Viszla friend anymore! Half the treats we gave him before this experience that he LOVED he won't even eat. Since he got home he's been pacing a lot also. Like he'll flop down for a nap sleepish for a minute get up abruptly pace around the room, flop down in a different spot. Rinse repeat, for like a half hour or longer. He also came back with poop matted in his butt fluff. We got him groomed same day because I wasn't able to get all the poop out in our bathtub. The groomer had to snip some of it out. Ridiculous! We went to see his favorite groomer and everything but as soon as we handed her the leash and she started to walk towards her doggie bath tub he poured all his energy into brakes. He did not want to go! She was wonderful with him, used some biscuits to coax him in, very patient. When we got him back she told me she didn't have to muzzle him to dry, which was odd usually she does because he gets snappy at the dryer (he doesn't get groomed often and we don't have a dryer at home. We love his curls!). He was a little perkier after the groom he had his ears up and a little wag. But he's still generally acting guilty or like he's constantly in trouble. How can we help him get over this quickly! Worst timing ever, he was almost ready for his CGC test (2 weeks) and now I don't know if he'll pass at all because he does not want to walk on a loose leash or let people groom him. I attached 3 of his injuries. Apparently his elbow is too big. We're just really frustrated by this whole situation. All injuries are on the right side and the kennel owner claimed Tyrael was always the aggressor because all the dogs he was in the play yard with were passive, roll over at confrontation type dogs. There's so many holes in the story and we're just struggling to keep our cool and tackle the problem in a mature manner.

Yesterday's work day shed a whole new light on my 1.5 y/o BC. She has been working sheep periodically since she was about 9 months old. She's shown quite a bit of talent, a nice easy demeanor with the sheep and the ability to pick up commands. Things were going quite well. Yesterday, however was a mess. She would go from complete disengaged sniffing the ground with her back turned to the sheep to exploding in after the sheep, especially when I would give a "that'll do" command. Often she would do a nice small "fetch" and as soon as I would say "down" she'd lay down, but then turn her attention elsewhere. The whole day seemed to be a about the sheep poop on the ground. She showed some seriously defiant behaviors that the trainer and I could only interpret as her feeling the need to be in charge. So, I am curious if others have encountered this with their dogs and how did you interpret that? How did you change your training? I understand she's still a pretty young dog. I work her 1x per week. Thanks!

So I just started reading about free shaping and I really want to start trying it. For some reason I can't think of how I would free shape a behavior and turn it into a command/trick. I think it is because I am only really familiar with luring and for some reason the idea of free shaping confuses me. Maybe you guys have some ideas to get me started. What have you taught your dog to do using free shaping? I want to ask how you trained it, but I guess the answer is "free shaping". If there are any details that you think might help the free shaping process the please let me know (like what steps did you take to reach your end goal). Thanks!

Hi Everyone, I was just wondering if anyone has a good recommendation for any attention/focus games. I currently do a name game where I lure my dogs gaze away from me then I say his name. Once his eyes meet mine I click & treat. It has been helpful, but I think I need to try something new. Basically, I would like to find more ways to teach him that when I say his name, he should look at me. He does great with the name game at home, but that is because any reward will work. But once I go outside he doesn't do so well. We practice the name game outside, but it just isn't as interesting to him as everything else. Any recommendations would be appreciated, thanks!

I think I'm in a bit of training fatigue. This is the first time I have really not enjoyed my pup since I got her just over a year ago. She has been a handful from the get-go, but has also developed into a sweet dog. She's well manured around the house, no chewing or unwanted behaviors. At 15 months old I would expect the puppy behaviors to be through for the most part, which many of them are. What is frustrating me lately is that many of the challenges that I have been working on relentlessly with her simply are not coming to fruition. The big one is her excitability and charging/growling at the cat in the house. I will give her the one point which is the cat is a major jerk, but i can't seem to get her to relax. The other day I found a portion of the porch screen pushed through where the cat usually sits and I know it was her. I've worked SO HARD to get her to stop and she simply will not. Seeing that porch screen was very discouraging. So, I wonder how others have dealt with the low points in training a young BC. At the moment I'm really feeling no joy whatsoever around the pup, which is very hard since she is always there and always wants to be involved with me. What I want for this new year is to get her weaned off the ball a little bit. She's definitely ball obsessed, which I take full responsibility for. It was the best form of exercise I had available. I need her recall to be better and I need her not charging cats or generally being reactive (outside of the normal BC behavior). What I want most of all is to feel like the hours and hours of work I put in will actually pay off. Thanks everyone!

So I have a border collie that is not a stock dog, but wanted an opinion from stockdog trainers. I've decided to do whistle training with my pup, mostly for the recall command, but I also want to do treibball in the future and I imagine a whistle will be helpful. I've never done whistle training before and I'm not concerned about being able to do it. My question is just why to use a shepherd's whistle versus a gundog whistle like the acme 210.5. The shepherd's whistle definitely seems more complicated and with the acme 210.5 I would never have to worry about blowing the wrong pitch. I would loose the ability to use pitch in my command, but can still vary the length and number of blasts, which would be easier then controlling the pitch. It seems like this would provide a more consistent command. Also, those gundog whistles can be super loud (that is a plus for me, but probably a downside to anyone near me). I imagine that I can't really go wrong because I could train the dog with anything (maybe I should break out my alto sax?). So I am basically just looking for some opinions. Also, answering this question would help: why would you not want to us a single pitch whistle like the acme 210.5?

I'm curious if anyone has successfully trained their BC to be a therapy dog. I feel like I am constantly searching for purpose in my training with my 14 mo. old BC. I've dabbled in agility, I take her out somewhat regularly for sheepdog class as well as basic obedience. I search for purpose both for her and for me. Seeing her learn about herding is like watching a fish jump in a lake, but I personally don't have much intention or inspiration around livestock. I do, however, have experience in medicine. Has anyone had luck or stories to share about training their BC to be a therapy dog? How early did you start? What was the dogs temperament before you started and how did it change? Were you successful? I ultimately want to find something that allows us to work together and be inspired together. I'm happy throwing the ball for her forever, but I know she and I will want more. Thanks!

Laugh for the day: Teach your dog how to follow directional movement and go where you ask it to. Tie the dog to the end of a long stick and point it in different directions, forcing the dog to move where the stick is pointing to: http://www.wikihow.com/Teach-Your-Dog-to-Herd

It's been a while since my last post up here. My BC pup is 1 year-old is doing very well is almost every regard. Smart, sweet, fun, great with people, dogs and no bad habits. Outside of the one issue, her recall, she seems like the perfect pup. I could gush about how much I love the dog, but when it comes time to call her when I need her, she manages to drive me insane. I've read all the posts about recall and read the books and general theory. No punishment or negativity on recall, no repeating yourself. I've been working on recall since she was 8-weeks old and have never made any headway. I admit to my shortcomings (over-using the word "come" or not properly reinforcing the recalls) but she seems to have the whole things figured out. When we are out walking, she will come back to me without hesitation, but when we are at the house, she will stand out in the driveway staring at me and will not budge when I say "come". Big surprise, she's figured out that play is done and doesn't want it to end. I have started her on sheep with a few local trainers and it's the same thing. She is doing brilliantly in almost every single way except for the recall (calling her off). She will completely blow me off when I saw "That'll do" and dash in at the sheep (she never dives in after then except when I say "that'll do". So, I'm looking for solutions and I'm trying to wade through the confusion of all the different training perspectives. The sheepdog handlers have a much stricter perspective than the trainers I've talked to. I'm afraid that somehow the dog doesn't actually respect me. The only advances she has made in sheep classes where when the trainer got in the ring and really got after her about any bad behavior. Do I need to be harsher with her? That goes against everything I believe in with training. Is it just a matter of going back to square one and trying again, because if so that sounds daunting since she has all the tricks figured out (treats, play, enthusiastic reinforcement). The other small concern is the ball. I admit she is a ball dog because we play everyday and it's her most reliable exercise form. I am worried that it also is breeding behavior that I don't want. Could ball obsession be playing an issue? I'm eager to hear your perspectives. Thank you!

I have been involved with dogs for much of my life. The majority of that was spent with European-line GSDs and training and competing in Schutzhund. I got out of that about 10 years ago when I noticed a huge change in the politics of the sport and the breed in general and didn't like the direction that it was going. I focused back on my horses (which have also been a big part of my life and, sadly, are not any better than what is going on with the GSDs at this time) and got a nice Red Heeler that was my buddy and companion for 11 years. I ride reined cowhorses and while Cowboy, my heeler, was a wonderful companion, he was backyard bred and untrained- I was so disillusioned with the dog world at that point that I was a bit of a rebel. Cowboy passed away last October and I swore I would not have any more dogs. That lasted almost a year!!! lol I was on line one day and saw an ad from our local Humane Society for a BC that was up for adoption. I just felt a strong connection to this dog but when I called on him, he had already been adopted. Two days later, during a family BBQ, a BC wandered into our yard and, again, that connection was there- he was playing with my grandkids and greeting everyone, even my grumpy Chihuahua liked him and he usually hates any other dogs!!! I asked all of my neighbors and no one had seen him in the neighborhood or knew anything about him so I thought that we would keep him over night and get ahold of the Humane Society in the morning and see if anyone was looking for him, if he was chipped, etc. Not too long after we decided that, a guy that was visiting someone in the neighborhood claimed him. That was it, I was interested in Border Collies!!!! I began researching and learning everything that I could. since I had a background in working line dogs and that is where my heart lies, I knew that I wanted a working line BC and I knew that I would need to decide on some sport or activity that would keep my dog's mind sharp and boredom down. At first I was thinking obedience and agility but as I was researching, I kept going back to the cowdog lines. I was reading about other people who ride cow horses and use their dogs to turn cows back for them, etc and settled on that line of work for my prospect. I found a breeder that I liked and put my deposit down!!! I spent some time hanging out with the breeder at trials and I am hooked!!! I have had my puppy now for a month and I love her!!! So far she is all that I could have asked for in a pup. I do have a few questions, though. I have taught her to sit, down, stay and come to her name- all for food and all puppy stuff, of course, but she is doing really well. I have a friend that has experience with stock dogs and she has a pup that is about 2 weeks older than mine and she started an obedience class and told me to bring my pup so I did. The first class, she explained that they would learn to heel, sit, down, recall, stand and do a one minute stay. In my past experience with Schutzhund dogs, we would have never put that much obedience on such a young puppy and I wonder if that is too much for my herding prospect also. What do you guys think? The other question that I have is that I want to eventually do the horseback trials with my dog as it will be a good marriage of the two things that I love. So I don't want her to be afraid of horses and I don't want her to try and work my horses- I hate that!!!! I've taken her out to the barn with me, on leash, a few times and just let her hang out with me around the horses so that she gets used to them. The cows are quite a ways away from the barn so she doesn't even see them. Is this OK to do with her? Or should I just keep her away from all livestock until she is older?

I am mostly in a wheel chair. I have not found a dog dummies training book that addresses basic obedience training from a wheel chair. I had my new BC guy taught how to sit at our very first meeting. Kept reinforcing, praising, treating him. I went to work on trying to teach him lie-down stay. I had the female demonstrate what I meant, so that took about a week of watching her lie down to get what I was trying to tell him. He will lie down on command, but not lie down stay. But he can't quite understand what I mean about lying down-stay. He wants to follow me if I move backwards. What I have been doing it count as I tell him to lie-down stay. As long as I am counting and I keep repeating "stay," he does. But I can't move. I think it is crucial to get him to learn this for safety's sake. I would like to do agility with him, but feel that it is very important to have him understand lie-down stay before progressing. I suppose that I would need to be in a class with him, but he has to learn basic obedience first. I have no idea how to teach him to heel with me in a WC. This is uncharted territory. He is also very mouthy. My friend who trains fox hunting hounds (also the mule packer) carries a riding crop when working with hounds. I had been using a fly swatter, now I have moved to a dressage whip as I am down low in a wheelchair. The fly swatter doesn't seem to get his attention as much as the dressage whip. After reading about the 4 month puppy with the nippy bitey stuff, just wondering about my newly adopted rescue BC male. Anyway, I can shriek all I want, or rattle a bag (didn't work). I can shriek and stare at the ceiling. Probably if I could walk away and deprive him of attention then maybe the shriek, then attention withdrawal might work. The dummies book suggested rattling a bag, Sigh, didn't work.