Border Collie: Training Insights & Behavior Traits

An Energetic Breed

If you are thinking about a Border Collie as your next dog, you need to give some thought to the time you can devote to such an energetic breed. It would be unfair to keep this breed couped up for long hours – they are definitely not “couch potatoes.” They do not do ‘home alone’ too well and can exhibit separation anxiety. If you lock them up for hours on end, it won’t be long until you get complaints from your neighbors about endless barking.

If you have a busy lifestyle, then consider day care or dog walkers. Always do your own research into the right people to care for your precious pet. Also check that they hold adequate insurance and have experience in dealing with this breed.

Popular Working and Sporting Dog

The keenness of the Border Collie and its attractive look and appeal, is what made it a popular dog for obedience trials, dancing with dogs’ competitions, and agility competitions. Once you see a Border Collie perform, you will be impressed.

They move gracefully with determination, focused on the task ahead which is a learned behavior from their sheep dog herding ancestry. Once they lock their interest on something, nothing else takes their focus.

Border collies were bred for their stamina, always presenting their ‘A’ game. They ran all day, without exhaustion, as they accompanied the shepherds at a moment’s notice.

Border Collies are easy to train, but beware if they get bored, that’s when mischief begins. Suddenly they will be chasing squirrels, barking, chasing cats or digging. Make sure you have the time to devote to keeping their mind and body engaged. Their personality is characteristically alert, energetic, hardworking, and smart. They learn quickly — so quickly that it's sometimes difficult to keep them mentally challenged.

They are a visual breed who constantly scrutinizes your face. They are highly sensitive to your moods and subtle looks and will predict what you are about to do, even before you know what you are about to do yourself.

Border Collies are an all-round sweet dog, usually very soft in nature, but are highly driven by the chase of a ball or something that moves quickly. They are generally easy to train and love to work either in obedience trials or other types of events such as fly ball, agility or sheep herding trials.

They are fairly easy to care for, just a brush every day to make sure their coat does not get tangled, especially behind their ears.

Border Collies love to be around the family, but still happy to be on their own, but without proper training they can be a nuisance with their barking and herding tendencies. f you are consistent you will have no problem training a Border Collie, they love to learn new things.

Case Study with Donna Ryan, Bark Busters International Head Trainer

Millie – a rescue puppy -- was 6 months of age when Bark Busters was called in to address her unpredictable aggression towards strangers.

Millie would growl and snap if strangers approached or tried to touch her. This is quite common behavior in temperaments such as the one that Millie has, which we diagnosed as ‘fearful’.

Many puppies are born with a fearful or shy temperament that makes them predisposed to overacting when strangers approach or try to touch them.

We started out explaining dog psychology to her doggie parents and the fact that all dogs need strong leaders and especially dogs with Millie’s temperament.

When they don‘t get the much-needed leadership and security they crave, they become concerned for their own well-being and they then take matters into their own control and start acting out.

This aggression can commence at about 6-12 months of age and when it happens it catches everyone, who knows and loves them, by surprise.

It’s a self-protection response that is simply indicating to the approaching stranger that they should STOP their approach or the consequences could be dire.

The reason that this ‘aggression to strangers’ generally starts somewhere beyond 6 months of age, is due to the fact that young pups won’t deal with things, they usually just practice avoidance, until they feel capable of seriously repelling an approach.

We started her owners off with some basic commands for them to gain control of Millie’s aggression. We explained that she needs to always know that she can default to them when things don’t go her way or when she feels she needs protection. Where the owner is concerned, it’s a ‘we have this’ approach, so she learns that her humans will take care of things that scare her.

We also had them change the way people interacted with her. They have to be pro-active, raise their hand in a stop signal, and hand the approaching person a packet of treats. Visitors should then throw her a treat versus trying to pet her or stare directly into her eyes.

This worked amazingly. In no time Millie felt less concerned or worried about approaching strangers, knowing the humans had control and she was in safe hands.

She actually began seeking people out more as they approached and waited for the treat she knew was coming.

Barking

The Border Collie is a barking breed. They are easily visually stimulated which is often why they bark so much. They will bark at anything that moves quickly, such as bikes, skate boards and the like.

Barking in the car, barking at people on bikes, and barking at lawnmowers are high on the list of behavioral issues that Bark Busters training addresses.

Dogs do not have great discerning abilities. They see something whizzing past and it concerns them. They don’t recognize it as a human on a skateboard or a human on a bike. They bark just to send it on its way. The fact that it was already going that way is lost on the dog and it mistakenly believes that their barking is what dispatched it.

With the Border Collie breed, you also have the strong herding instinct and that just adds to the problem.

As mentioned earlier, the Border Collie is easily stimulated visually. It’s that look that they use to intimidate the sheep that is at play here. Dogs can become over-stimulated in cars as images do flashing by.