The information on this page is courtesy of Your Dog magazine (a British publication) as written by behaviorist and author of 'Understanding the Border Collie', Carol Price. (March 2001 issue)

Every time I hear that hackneyed generalisation: "Border Collies don't make good pets", I know it isn't true. I think of all the Collies I've known - my own included - who have made absolutely brilliant companion dogs.

I also think of all the thousands of people in this country who own, or have owned, Border Collies as pets with happiness and success, and love them with a passion. Surely we can't all be masochists or lucky exceptions?

Undeniably, what is true is that the Border Collie is a demanding, energentic and highly sensitive dog whose psychology and instincts have to be properly understood and handled if you are to live in harmony.

What is also true is that some Border Collies, or Collie crosses, are always going to be more difficult or trickier pets than others because of the way they were bred or raised in puppyhood.



TRICKIER COLLIES

In recent years, there has been a massive flood of Collies into the pet sector from backgrounds that do not equip them well for life in domestic households.

They have been bred indiscriminately by farmers or unscrupulous breeders and then offloaded onto an unsuspecting public.

Typically, dogs such as these can have nervous or volatile temperaments, and/or exceedingly high levels of working instinct. They may have had the added disadvantage of very poor early socialization - being reared in isolated outbuildings rather than in a loving and healthily bustling domestic home.

Few pet owners ever fully appreciate what they may be inheriting in a dog with this sort of background and inborn nature until it is too late.



UNDERSTANDING COLLIE PSYCHOLOGY

Whatever the nature of your Border Collie or Collie cross, his behaviour as a pet and companion can nearly always be improved by better understanding and mangement of his fundamental inborn instincts and psychology.

What Collies most crave is order, structure and occupation in their lives. If they do not have convincing leadership and sufficient daily mental and physical stimulation, like intensely bright and energetic children, they can go awry.

A great many Collies become 'problems' because owners either do not appreciate the exact strength or nature of their inborn working instincts - for example to chase, herd or nip - or do not take suitable control over them.



DEALING WITH CHASING AND HERDING

Collies have an inborn working instinct, but if any half-decent shepherd would not allow his dog to hare across the horizon like an unguided missile, chasing things at will, why should pet owners?

The more you let your Collie chase things, such as bikes, cars or children, unchecked, or without being given something better to do, the more he will want to - the action of chasing gives the dog a 'high', to which he rapidly becomes addicted.

Chasing can progress to nipping once the dog catches up with his chase target, especially if it happens to be noisy and highly animated, for instance, small, screaming children.

Your dog must learn that running after a target is something which you allow him to do on command, not any time he feels like it on his own initiative; firstly, because this says little about your authority over your dog and secondly because dogs who act in this way soon become real liabilities.

Your Collie can never be taught soon enough these five basic control commands:

WAIT! (when you throw a ball or toy or he sees something he wants to chase).
GO! (only when you tell him).
DOWN! (drop down onto the ground instantly when you tell him to).
STAY! (stay down until you tell him to move).
COME! (as in return immediately to me).

If these are the only things you ever teach your Collie, it will be time well spent. The difference between a Collie who has been convincingly taught these commands and one who has not is like the difference between a car with brakes and steering and one which is clearly lacking both.



BETTER CONTROL

You might think these commands sound difficult to teach, but they are not if you put them into the context of a pleasurable game.

First, get two rope ball toys - which Collies adore - plus a long training line from a pet store. Clip the line onto your dog's collar and take him out somewhere, keeping the rope ball toys in your pocket. Your dog must only ever see these toys when you are out with him, and at no other time.

At a chosen spot - hopefully without too many distractions - sit you dog next to you and hold him by the collar. Throw out one of the rope ball toys, simultaneously saying 'WAIT!' in a firm voice. Do not let your dog go after the toy until he has waited.

When he has waited, say 'GO!' and let the dog out on the line to get the ball and play with it. Then call 'COME!', holding out the other rope ball toy, temptingly. When the dog comes back to you, praise him well, make him sit, then let him have the other toy.

Keep repeating this until you have a real rhythm going with the dog waiting, going off, and then coming back to you, all on command. From this stage, progress to the dog going down on command periodically when he is halfway to his toy.

You may have to tug hard on the trailing line at first, then go up to the dog to make him go down, and only then reward him with his toy. He should soon get the message that when you say 'DOWN!' he must go down instantly. Likewise, when you say 'STAY!', he must stay where he is until you instruct him to move, either towards the ball toy ('GO!') or back to you ('COME!').

The more relentlessly you practise these commands, the more conditioned your dog will become to obeying them, whether on a lead or line or not, all in the psychological context of pleasure. Many Collies become so obsessed with rope ball toys that, when out, they will focus constantly on their owners in anticipation of playing with them. A dog who is focusing entirely on you, anticipating you commands and his toys, is a great improvement on one who is tearing off to chase other things for want of something better to do.



THE COLLIE MIND

Whatever you are trying to teach your Collie, never shout at him or treat him harshly. Collies are exceptionally sensitive, with psyches easily damaged by any form of rough handling.

I regularly see Collies labelled as disobedient or crazy when they are merely stressed out by owners constantly shouting at them or 'scruffing' them.

Collies thrive on quiet handling. Always ask them to do something for you by making eye contact, then speaking in a gentle but purposeful voice. When they get something wrong, still give their efforts a brief word of praise, repeat the exercise calmly till they get it right, then go massively overboard with praise and the reward of a game or toy. This is all you need to do to maintain you Collie's confidence both in himself and you, and likewise his motivation to perform well.

Collies love feeling clever and getting things right. Give them the opportunity to regularly feel this for some reason, ever day, in a kind and encouraging way, and you will always get the best out of them.



AGGRESSION

Aggression in Collies is nearly always to do with either a misdirection or misinterpretation of working instinct (to grab at or nip moving objects), a genetic tendency towards nervous or over-defensive behaviour, or a dog in doubt about his status in the household.

Be aware of what targets (children, bikers, cars, runners) are likely to provoke your dog into chase or nip mode and keep these instincts under better control with persistent training.

More nervous Collies can often be aggressive towards other dogs or people because they are basically frightened of them. The problem is usually genetic but will be greatly exacerbated by poor early socialisation with new people or dogs in early puppyhood.

Unfortunately, it is instinctive for most owners to want to shout at Collies like this, or yank them hard on the lead when they show aggression towards others. This simply gives them the notion that other people or dogs really are bad news and threats to be kept at bay.

You will never make a dog who is fundamentally wary of less familiar people change into a friendly and outgoing one, but you can give him reasons to feel less wary and show less defensive behaviour.



DON'T FORCE HIM TO BE SOCIABLE

Many owners of naturally nervous or wary Collies make the classic mistake of trying to force the dog to be more sociable. They insist on dragging the dog over to strangers for a pat when out, or pulling him out from behind the sofa or under a table when visitors come. Even worse, some owners punish their dogs for showing behaviour that is purely rooted in fear.

Actions like this can make aggression worse, because they put the dog under intense and unnecessary pressure, which makes him feel more defensive.

By staying back from a stranger, or hiding under a table, the dog has made his feelings clear: he wants to be left alone. Let him stay where he feels safe and secure. It should always be left up to a nervous dog to make a first approach towards less familiar people, in his own time, when he feels confident enough - not the other way round.

A nervous Collie's perception of how harmless less familiar people can be, can be improved by taking the pressure off.

When you are out with your dog and see someone coming close, don't let him take the initiative. Instead, make him sit or lie where he is and stay there while you go over to the person and start chatting.

Encourage the person to totally ignore the dog - not looking at or talking to him - and give him or her a tasty treat to hold. Eventually the dog's curiosity should bring him nearer. When he comes fairly near, ask your 'stranger' to drop the treat on the ground for the dog, then end the encounter and move on, praising your dog well for any confident behaviour.

If he shows any aggression, make him go back, sit and stay where you originally left him, and repeat the exercise. Work on this daily, going up to more and more people; aim to increase the dog's confidence to the point where he will take a treat from people's hands.

At home, work on the same principle with visitors. Get them to totally ignore the dog when they arrive, leaving it up to him to approach then for a treat only as and when he feels ready.

Once you have taken the pressure off nervous dogs to enter into confrontations for which they are not ready, rewarded their confidence with treats and discouraged aggressive behaviour by banishing them to go and sit or lie down and stay somewhere you choose the instant they show any 'snappiness', you should soon see improvements in their behaviour.



WHAT YOU SAY GOES

Sometimes just a few basic, but consistent, measures can help reassert your authority in your dog's eyes. These include:

Always totally ignoring your dog for a good minute or two when you first come home or come down in the morning. It should always be you who calls the dog to you for attention, as and when you feel like it, not the other way round.
Always ignoring him when he tries to manipulate you into giving him what he wants by barking, whining, nudging you with toys, pressurising you for food or a walk. If you cannot ignore these things, make him go out of the room, lie down and stay where you place him until you say he can move. He must learn that everything that happens in your 'pack' from meals and play sessions to walks, will occur only when you decide, and that any sort of pressure to change this will not be rewarded.
Never giving your dog free access to any area/furniture in the house he may later want to 'guard', or allowing him to have anything 'for free'. In other words, any time he wants anything at all from you, like a walk, meal, game or treat, he has to do something for you first - such as a one-minute 'Sit' or 'Down', or retrieve an article.

These are just a few ways you can effectively assert your authority without ever having to get into a confrontation with your dog.


CONTROLLING THOSE CANINE ENCOUNTERS

If your dog is seriously aggressive towards other, simplistic as it may sound, one of the easiest first steps is to get him a basket-type muzzle. Providing you know the dogs he will meet in the park or other safe open space are not aggressive, let your muzzled dog off the lead to encounter them.

He can now run away if or when he feels like it, ignore them, or find another way to interact with them now that he has no option of aggression in his repertoire. Either way, he will soon get used to the idea of other dogs being around and nothing particularly bad happening as a result. You can relax more!

Depending on how ingrained your dog's aggressive behaviour towards others has become, it may take a while before you can trust him to encounter other dogs unmuzzled. If you are not sure when this point has come, get the advice of a good behaviourist - preferably one specialising in Collies - who can show you other techniques to improve a dog's confidence with others.

Owners will often see muzzling a dog as the end of the world. In reality, it can give him far more freedom to run and experience the company of other dogs at close quarters than he would otherwise have, and improve the owner's stressful state of mind no end.


AGGRESSION TOWARDS OWNERS

Owners sometimes tell me their dog has "suddenly turned on them." In reality, certain medical conditions apart, this can be just a symptom of other deeper-rooted problems which may have been brewing for a while.

Collie aggression towards owners can be fear-related - you or a former owner may have badly frightened or threatened the dog in the past in a certain context. Typical examples will be a dog physically punished for instinctively 'protecting' his bed or food bowl, or for being 'nasty' to strangers and visitors. Such actions can force the dog to lose trust in his owners and associate certain scenerio's with a need to defend or protect himself.

Dogs like these have to regain trust in their owners through never being 'frightened' by them again. They also need to get the message that although their owners will never seek to push them into an unpleasant confrontation they are still unquestionably the person in charge of their 'pack'.

When Collies begin to doubt the quality or strength of their 'pack leadership', then, depending on the individual dog, they can become highly manipulative - barking, whining or generally 'pestering' to get their own way - insecure, or even physically challenging towards owners they have come to view as 'inferior' to themselves.

Within this article, I only have space to touch briefly on some of the most common 'behaviour problems' in pet Collies, and give reasons why they should occur. Every case will be different, depending on a multitude of different genetic or environmental factors. What most have in common is that somewhere amid the chaos of an 'impossible' Collie and a despairing owner, there is nearly always a better relationship waiting to emerge, given slightly more insight and understanding.