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First time Border Collie owner

5541 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  hanksimon, 
M
Hello! I got a Border Collie puppy about 8 months ago from a woman off of craigslist who needed to rehome her so I unfortunately have no info on the breeder or the parents but she is turning out to be an amazingly well rounded dog. This is my first BC and first dog to own on my own, so any advice, tips, experiences and/or comments are most welcome.

I was not looking for a specific breed when searching for a puppy so to be quite honest most of my research on BC was done after I had acquired Millie, but luckily for Millie and me, I am very athletic and outdoorsy so burning off her energy has not been a problem, however, feeling like I am keeping her mind busy has been. So any advice on games or dog puzzles that would work out her brain would be very helpful. I have also introduced her to agility courses which she picked up easily and showed a natural talent for even though I had no idea, and still only have a vague idea, of what I'm doing haha. We will pursue agility more when she is older though, but still, any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you! :)
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3GSD4IPO
Check out "100 things to do with a box" and Karen Pryor's Clicker training site. In inclement weather mind games can tire a dog out.

As to agility, there is a thread here about that in the Dog Sports/Show part of the forum.

Good luck and have fun!
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CptJack
Marisa25 said:
Hello! I got a Border Collie puppy about 8 months ago from a woman off of craigslist who needed to rehome her so I unfortunately have no info on the breeder or the parents but she is turning out to be an amazingly well rounded dog. This is my first BC and first dog to own on my own, so any advice, tips, experiences and/or comments are most welcome.

I was not looking for a specific breed when searching for a puppy so to be quite honest most of my research on BC was done after I had acquired Millie, but luckily for Millie and me, I am very athletic and outdoorsy so burning off her energy has not been a problem, however, feeling like I am keeping her mind busy has been. So any advice on games or dog puzzles that would work out her brain would be very helpful. I have also introduced her to agility courses which she picked up easily and showed a natural talent for even though I had no idea, and still only have a vague idea, of what I'm doing haha. We will pursue agility more when she is older though, but still, any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you! :)
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Agility is great - it builds bonds and works body and mind at the same time. Now is a good time to introduce her to rollers (discs rolling on edge for her to catch without leaping) , too.

That said, my advice is mostly:
Don't over think it too much.
Don't buy into the border-collie hype and try to exercise her into the ground/exhaustion. It won't work. Work on teaching her to chill out sometimes ad not to expect constant activity and enertainment.
The mind work stuff? Obedience behaviors and trick titles! If you're training, she's using her brain. What matters very little. Even if you don't pursue the titling domorewithyourdog has some awesome lists. Also youtube videos for teaching any trick.
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M
Thank you! I will definitely check out that site :)
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M
Yea I am super excited to really start training for agility and we have started doing the rollers, I found out pretty quickly that the cheap discs from PETCO do not last long haha. She actually has a great "off switch" when we are not doing anything, she will sigh really loudly but will just lay down and sleep eventually. Thank you for your advice!
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hanksimon
Look up the books and youtube videos on Chaser, the dog that understands more than 1000 words, to give you another idea of what to train. ;-)

You really can train your dog the names of her toys, and she can easily distinguish between blue and yellow toys. If you are near an area that has sheep, some border collies like to herd.
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