Being a Border Collie dog owner and trainer, I wanted to
share some basic ideas and concepts behind the process itself. Always keep in
mind that each dog is different and something that might have worked for one
dog in the past won't necessary work on another. Just like people, dogs have
different personalities, needs and wants. However the concepts that I cover
here should work with practically any dog.
Anyways, here are some things I've learned that hopefully
will be helpful to you. I really value your opinions, comments, thoughts and
questions so don't hesitate to contact me if you have anything to say. I'm not
a "professional" dog trainer but I've taught my dogs plenty of
tricks, dealt with nearly all behavior problems out there and even helped other
dog owners with their dogs, so I know my way around a dog.
General Trick Training Tips
Trick training is not really that hard. All it takes is just
to follow a couple simple steps, patience, consistency and love.
And no you can't skip LOVE because dogs can sense your
emotions and mood. If they notice you are tense or frustrated then the whole
training experience will be tense and frustrating for them too. Which is
something you want to avoid at all costs because that's when remember things
gets much more difficult for your dog and he is more likely to forget things.
Now to the simple
steps:
Get your Border Collie interested in whatever you want her
to do. If you're having a hard time, using a treat has never failed me as a motivator
for my dogs yet.
The next step is to reward that action. If you used a treat
as a motivator, this is the time to give that treat to your dog. Otherwise
praise your dog and tell her what a good job she did.
Be excited for her. She will feel much more motivated to
repeat the same trick again if she notices that it makes you happy. Just like
humans, dogs love positive emotion and perform worse when there is negativity
or stress involved.
The next step is just to repeat the process. You can't
expect the Border Collie to learn new tricks simply by doing them once. Refresh
her memory a couple of times and keep practicing daily until she really gets
the trick. After she got the trick, be sure to refresh her memory everyone in a
while so she doesn't forget it.
House Training
Border Collies puppies are not born knowing that going to
the bathroom indoors is "gross". Even humans are not born knowing
they can't pee or poop in their pants. So why some people expect puppies to
"know" that they shouldn't go to the bathroom indoors is beyond me.
Housebreaking a Border Collie will take some patience, and few
paper towel rolls. Be prepared to clean up the mess after them. Have all your
cleaning utensils in an easy to reach place while housetraining because the
sooner you clean up the mess, the less your house will smell.
How to teach the
Border Collie to potty outdoors
The simplest answer is to let the Border Collie spend more
time outdoors. If the dog spends more time playing outside, she will be much
more likely to do her "business" there too.
So take your Border Collie out whenever you have the chance.
It's particularly important when you are trying to housetrain the dog. Also
don't rush back home right after the dog finished her business. Let her enjoy
the time outdoors a little as a small reward.
You should also take the puppy out on a walk 20 minutes or
so after every meal. The 20 minutes is a general rule, your puppy's timing
might be a little different.
What to do when after
an "Accident"
Did your puppy have an "Oopsy" moment indoors?
Although it might feel really tempting to scream and yell at the dog, you
should not. That is the opposite of what you should be doing. Screaming or
yelling won't make the mess go away and it won't teach the dog anything.
Instead what you should do is clean up the mess up right
away. Make sure you get the odor out with a special cleaning solution designed
just for that.
If however you catch the Border Collie red-handed, then you
can use this moment as an opportunity to correct your dog on where she should
be doing her business instead.
Grab the puppy and carry her outdoors to finish. She will
probably be startled at first so spend some time with her outside to make sure
she completely finishes.
By taking her outside you will teach her that if she needs
to go, she has to go outside. It's the most direct way of teaching your dog
that she should go potty outside so don't hesitate to bring her out.
If you just stand and watch her pee indoors, and she sees
you not doing anything about then she will assume that it’s no big deal and she
can go potty indoors anytime she wants.
Disobedience and Behavior Problems
There are a number of different disobedience and behavior
problems ranging from something as simple as jumping on people to something as
serious as aggressive and dominant behavior. It would be too much to write for
me to cover all of the behavior problems so I'm only going to focus on the
general idea behind solving or curing bad behavior.
The very first step when dealing with behavior and
disobedience problems is to find the actual cause of the problem. Sometimes
it's not as obvious as it might seem. Sometimes you will have to dig deeper to
uncover the real cause of the problem.
For example, a dog that chews on your shoes when you're gone
could be chewing just because he doesn't like his chew toys. Or the more likely
reason would be that he is chewing on those shoes because he misses you.
Chewing on the shoes remind him of you and help him pass the time by giving him
something to do.
The next step is to find a solution to that particular
problem. For our last example a solution would be to work on the dog's separation
anxiety. Leaving some music playing or finding some new more interesting toys
to keep your dog company is something you would consider doing.
And the final and critical step is to be consistent with the
solution. If you don't want your Border Collie jumping on your furniture and
your solution is to never let the dog get on the bed, then be consistent and
never make exceptions to the rules. If you start making exceptions then the dog
will assume it's ok to break rules.
So when dealing with
a disobedient Border Collie look for the
root cause of the problem, find a solution that targets that root cause and
then stick to it. If you apply this principle to any behavior problem, you are
guaranteed to see positive results in your Border Collies behavior.
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