Old County Aussies

Old County Aussies Small hobby operation. Interested in promoting the tiny toy aussies WITH TAILS.

01/23/2025

TODAY OUR BREED EXPERT Carol Price looks at:

‘FEAR OF THE NEW’ BEHAVIOURS IN BORDER COLLIES

Recently a follower asked for advice about their 3 year old Border collie who had developed an instant terror of some new signs that has been placed in the road outside her home. “He really is deathly afraid of them,” she said, “and does not want to go near them or past them, even though he has not had problems with other road signs before.”

Reacting to ‘newer’ sights, sounds or experiences with immediate fear is such a familiar issue in Border collies, for reasons I hope to explain in more depth in this feature. For to better resolve or manage this phenomenon in your dog, you first have to better understand it.

EARLIEST EXPOSURE AND LEARNING
This begins with the reality that dogs cannot be born understanding what we already know about our world. All the different sights and sounds they get exposed to in their daily living environment; why they exist, what they mean, and whether or not they are potentially threatening to them. It is something they have to more gradually learn and process instead, from earliest puppyhood onwards, each and every time they encounter something ‘newer’ or ‘stranger’. And that includes newer people, dogs or other animals, and a variety of different new social experiences too.

Most breeders – or owners who get their puppies at an earlier age - will be aware of that moment when a puppy, who had previously taken everything around them in their stride, suddenly reacts more adversely – i.e. with noticeable alarm or outright fear – to something completely new that is introduced to them. It could be something as simple as a bucket placed on the floor, or a sound they have not heard before or someone wearing something less usual, like a hat. And such behaviour signals the beginning of the classic ‘fear response’ kicking in in young dogs, when anything immediately more different or ‘less usual’ to the dog so far, in their lives, also becomes something to be treated with far greater suspicion.

This inherent response – which is also a basic survival one – is part of natural development in dogs and will typically begin around 6-8 weeks in pups, though in some dogs it could be even earlier or later. It also reinforces the vital need, once again, for puppies to be given a far wider degree of socialisation - and exposure to umpteen different sights, sounds, people, and experiences, both inside and outside the home, including car travel – well before they leave their breeder. As you will never get a better opportunity to familiarise dogs to newer things than during this earliest phase of development. A reason I begin myself taking my own puppies out in the car, and carrying them around different places, and noisier or more busy social environments, from around 4-5 weeks onwards.

DIFFERING RESPONSES
Collies can still vary so much, in terms of the type of response they will have to newer things. Depending on how they are more individually wired, and what past socialisation or training they have had to cope better with ‘newer things’, their reaction may range from simple curiosity to outright terror. Similarly, while some dogs may choose to process their alarm about newer or stranger things into more phobic-type behaviours – like running away or hiding – others may adopt more defensive-aggressive reactions towards them instead (i.e. lunging, barking, growling).

To me what can also be critical in any dog is how quickly they are able to recover from a ‘fear of the new’ fright once it has happened. In other words, file off the ‘newer thing’ in their brains as not really that harmful after all, and then not worry about it anymore.

It might sound simple but this basic ‘quicker recovery’ ability, in any dog, can make such a difference to the future quality of life they lead. I.e. one in which everything newer immediately becomes far more terrifying to them, or something they will more quickly accept, instead, as part of their everyday lives. It also explains why some dogs will always find it much harder than others to get over their fears about different things in later life.

THE ‘FEAR SWITCH’
As owners, we often do not understand the struggles our dogs may have every day, trying to understand or process every newer or stranger thing that they are exposed to in their surrounding environment. Which they then have to file off into the appropriate category in their brains – i.e. safe or less safe. It is a constantly ongoing process that we can pretty much take for granted, instead, until something in particular suddenly flicks our dog’s ‘fear switch’ more dramatically. And brings us back, face to face, with the more primal dog brain.

Owners can get very frustrated with dogs who mount more excessive fear or defensive responses to things that they know themselves to be quite harmless. Or try to over-pressurise them into getting nearer to them before they are ready. Because they are human, with decades of past social exposure and experience behind them, of a kind dogs cannot have. Only an ability to process, from scratch, every individual new experience that comes their way, and decide how they should react to it.

STORING ‘PICTURES’
It can also be helpful to understand how dogs mentally store their acquired experiences of life; i.e. much like ‘pictures’ (see my accompanying illustration), to which they will then attach more positive or negative associations. So they will see or sense a ‘picture’ of something appearing or happening in their immediate environment, and refer the picture back to their memories. Their memories will then tell them whether this picture features something already familiar, or not, and what associations – good, bad or just neutral - they made with it in the past. This in turn will then trigger the dog’s response whenever they see the same picture again.

Alternatively, if they have not seen the picture before they will need to decide whether they are going to store it as ‘safe’ or not. And sometimes this process can happen very, very, quickly. However, once you understand the whole concept of ‘pictures’ and mental associations in dogs, you will also see how the key to getting dogs to change their more fearful reactions to a negative ‘picture’ is to make that picture become more positive in their minds instead.

You can do this by more gradual exposure to the initially more frightening thing, at a level they progressively cope better with, and constantly rewarding any signs of growing confidence in them with praise and rewards. And also by teaching your dog to understand that when you give them a specific command or instruction – I like to use ‘go see!’ – whatever they are about to approach will be safe.

THE BEST APPROACH
The best opportunity you will ever have to change a dog’s perception of something new from potentially negative to positive is also the very first time they are exposed to it. Alternatively once a negative association is allowed to become more established in a dog’s mind towards something – usually through them constantly repeating a more negative response to it – it can take a lot longer to change. Constantly avoiding what makes your dog fearful will have the same effect.

You will need patience, and persistence, only every progressing at a pace the dog is able to cope with, in building greater confidence, but it is the only way to eventually change the way a dog responds to something they previously feared.

Meanwhile far more on socialisation and social training for Border collies – including the ‘go see!’ training mentioned in this feature - appears in BOOK TWO in my BREED APART trilogy, ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING, and all aspects of fear in collies and how to deal with it is covered in BOOK THREE on BEHAVIOUR.
All text ©Carol Price/Collieology 2025
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/?s=carol+price In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://4mymerles.com/collections/books In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html

03/07/2024

FOR ANYONE who has recently – or even not so recently - gone through the devastating experience of losing a beloved dog, we hope this feature by our breed expert, Carol Price, is of some help.

LIVING WITH THE LOSS OF A DOG

In the last three years I have gone through the loss of two of my most special and beloved dogs – as all of them are. Dogs that I bred and brought into this world, shared so much with for so long, and then suddenly they were gone. And with each of their departures, I once again faced that dagger in the heart that so many of you will know, with the loss of a dog, and a friend, and a life that is so uniquely precious to us. There is the shock and the pain and the blind grief, but most of all the horror at the sheer finality of it all. Of realising that you will never see again the face of a dog who was a part of your life for so long.

As humans, it is mostly our lot to outlive our dogs, who invariably will have shorter lives. We know that is the deal when we take them on, and yet still so quickly push this reality to the back of our minds during their lifetimes, along with all the other darker truths of existence that are just too painful to dwell on. Until the day time finally catches up with us, and our dogs. We must say goodbye to them and then somehow find a way to live with the overwhelming vacuum they leave behind.

Every dog we own is uniquely special to us, and similarly the nature of the relationship, and life experiences, we shared with them. All their sweeter or sillier habits and ways that only we understood and all the adventures, and ups and downs, we had together. The sum total of all this is what we truly lose when we lose a dog. It is something so special and unique to us, and the dog we once owned, that it can never really be adequately put into words, or sufficiently explained to anyone else. Except, perhaps, another dog owner who has been through the same experience.

THE JOURNEY OF GRIEF
They say that grief has no universal road map, in terms of the psychological and emotional journey we must travel after losing much loved dogs. For some the journey is much shorter, for others longer. Plus there can be so many other factors that further complicate the picture or lengthen the recovery process; such as how young a dog was when they died.

For losing a dog far too young to illness may always make you feel cheated. Whereas losing a dog to some accident, or because of its more dangerous behaviour, may al-ways make you feel guilt - however misplaced – that there was always something more or better you could have done to prevent it. Feelings like these may also intensify people’s reluctance to get another dog, for fear of history repeating itself – even though in reality it rarely does.

They also say that grief has well recognised stages; i.e. shock and disbelief, guilt, anger (and a desire to blame or self blame), then finally resignation and acceptance (of the loss incurred). But some people may not go through all these stages or get stuck in some and find it harder to move on. It is incredibly important to understand this about yourself; where you stand in this emotional recovery process and what you think may be preventing you from being able to move on.

MAKING SENSE OF LOSS
When faced with any great loss, it is also incredibly common for the more logical, and emotional, parts of our brain to be in constant conflict as we struggle to deal with it. In other words, one moment we may be rationalising that our dog had a wonderfully long and happy life, and could not live forever, and the next we will be overcome with emotion, and tears, because we have just spotted their old collar and lead hanging up in the under stairs cupboard, or seen the ghost of their presence on a favourite walk. Even months or years later, it is always the smallest, poignant, sights and memories like these that suddenly catch us offguard and re-inflame the rawest pain of loss that is still lingering inside. This too is totally normal.

Having just one dog, and losing them, can also be particularly hard. Because being a dog owner, by this stage, could well have become an intrinsic part of your own identity as a person, and this is now also lost to you.

MOVING ON
The main reason I began breeding my own dogs, was to ensure that everything that was so special about them, or their immediate past ancestors, was carried on into newer generations, and thus I would never truly lose the dogs who lay in their past, while I had their offspring. But of course this is not an option for everyone.

After losing a dog, there may well come a moment when you are ready to contemplate owning another. Some people do this too soon, out of a desperation to replace what they have lost with another dog they hope will be the same, but never can be. Newly-bereaved owners can be highly vulnerable to more impulsive decisions about next dogs, and one must always be aware of this, and let enough time pass, until you can think more clearly or rationally and no longer expect a next dog to be just like the one you lost.

Other people may find the pain of losing a dog so great that they cannot bear to get another. Sometimes there are other pretty practical reasons for this decision – like their age, or other changes to their lifestyles – but if it is just fear of loss alone then this is sad. For we have one life, and within it we can choose to embrace love or fear. You can-not experience the joy of loving anything without the fear of also losing them one day. But that still cannot stop us loving things. It is just what humans need to do.

All text © Carol Price 2024

01/06/2024

TODAY OUR BREED EXPERT LOOKS AT A TIMELY SUBJECT FOR THE NEW YEAR!

TOO FAT, TOO THIN OR JUST RIGHT?
How to know if your dog is the right weight

One of the most heartening sights for me on this page is the number of followers who send us pictures of their active, healthy BCs who are all of an ideal weight. For being the right weight will not only preserve your dog’s active life for so much longer, it will also spare them so many more unpleasant health issues in older age.

It is also vital for working or competition dogs to maintain the right weight to minimise the risk of injury or excess strain on the heart and joints.

Obesity in dogs, in general, is now becoming as massive a problem as it is in people. Similarly it makes them more vulnerable to so many other illnesses or conditions, ranging from diabetes and arthritis to heart problems and a range of cancers. And seeing as we totally control everything a dog eats, it is also completely avoidable.

WHAT IS AN IDEAL WEIGHT FOR YOUR DOG?
What your dog weighs, on the scales, is not always the best indication of how healthy or ‘right’ their weight is, as collies can come in so many different sizes and body builds. A far better guide can be seen in our illustration, where we look at these key things:

1. WAIST. Does your dog have an immediately obvious ‘waist’ when you look down on them from above? If so, this usually signifies a healthy weight. Similarly, when you run your hands LIGHTLY down their sides, you should EASILY feel their ribs underneath without pressing harder. If your dog looks ‘squarer’ from above, without a more obvious waist and you cannot easily feel their ribs for fat, or without having to press quite hard, the chances are they are pretty overweight. Your dog’s ribs, however, should not actually be sticking out, which could indicate they are UNDERWEIGHT instead.

2. THE ‘TUCK UP’. Dogs of an ideal weight should also have a pronounced ‘tuck up’ where their underbelly tapers up, at an angle, neatly into the groin area (again see illustration). If the underbelly sags down instead, or you cannot see this same slanted angle of ‘tuck up’ your dog is likely to be overweight (though do note some health conditions can also cause swelling of the belly in dogs – covered a bit later).

3. PELVIC BONES. If you put your hand on top of your dog’s ‘bottom’ or hip area, in dogs of ideal weight you should just feel the top of the pelvic bones under the skin. If you cannot easily feel them your dog may be overweight. If they are actually sticking out, your dog may be underweight.

In longer coated dogs you may need to rely more on ‘feel’ than sight to tell if they are the right weight, or look at them when wet. And if in any doubt you can also ask your vet for their opinion.

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR DOG IS OVERWEIGHT
If your dog is overweight, the most important thing to do is accept it. It can be too easy instead to make excuses, or go into denial about it, rather than putting your dog’s health and best interests first, as opposed to your own need to not to have to change what you are doing, or feeding your dog, because this is more comfortable for you.

Weight usually creeps up steadily on dogs for the same reason it does on people – too many extra treats or snacks or portions of food that do not match your dog’s daily exercise levels. Some dogs are also more prone to weight gain than others. But the more overweight your dog gets, the more exercise becomes progressively harder work for them, and takes an ever greater toll on their heart and joints.

You should begin by cutting out all extra snacks, treats and food leftovers and then additionally cutting their daily food portions back by about a quarter to a third, so the reduction is less drastic. If you want to give them treats things like carrot sticks, or lower calorie treats made of fish skin, can be substituted. You want to aim for slow and steadier weight loss over time. Vets can also really help these days with weight loss plans and special diets if required.

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR DOG IS UNDERWEIGHT
People can be so used to seeing overweight dogs in society today – and thinking this ‘normal’ – that very often what they may think is an underweight dog is actually one of perfect weight. Again, if you are not sure check our illustration, or with your vet.

Collies who have been subjected to great trauma or stress – like rescue dogs – can lose weight very rapidly, as can dogs with more super-high metabolisms. Often when the stress element is removed from any dog’s life, their weight will return to normal. However some collies will always be harder to keep weight on than others, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they are not also healthy.

MORE RAPID WEIGHT GAIN OR LOSS
If your dog has suddenly gained or lost weight more rapidly, or over a shorter period of time, then a vet check up is strongly recommended. As conditions like Hypothyroidism or Cushing’s Disease can make dogs gain weight or give them a more ‘pot bellied’ appearance. Other conditions can lead to more dramatic weight loss, so it is always worth ruling these out first.

Generally, it is worth weighing your dog(s) more regularly, like every two or three months, to ensure they are maintaining a more stable, healthy weight. It will also give you a chance to act sooner, rather than later, if they need to lose or gain a bit more weight, or if their weight change is a first sign of something else not going right with their health.
All text © Carol Price 2023
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/product-category/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/ In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://www.4mymerles.com/product-category/books/ In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html

11/20/2023

OUCH! TODAY OUR BREED EXPERT Carol Price is looking at the teething, nipping and chewing phase in BCs:

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TEETHING, NIPPING
AND CHEWING IN BORDER COLLIES

Many of you may have just got new Border collie puppies, or may not have gone through a pup’s ‘nippier’ and ‘chewier’ phase for a while, so I thought today I’d cover the teething process in these dogs; what to expect and when, and how to get through it. I am also going to look at why some collie puppies seen ‘nippier’ than others, or may continue chewing things for longer.

EARLIEST TEETH
Most BC pups will get their first baby teeth from about two weeks onwards; around 28 small and razor sharp little gnashers that they feel compelled to put to good use from the moment they erupt. As these teeth more fully come through, however, it can become more and more painful for their mothers to feed them – especially as their claws get ever sharper too. Which is why breeders typically begin weaning puppies from around three and a half to four weeks old.

Young puppies greatly explore their new environment with their mouths and teeth, and are particularly drawn to different textures or tastes. And the reason human skin and fingers can become so irresistible to them is because they tick so many boxes on a sensory level – i.e. warmth, scent, texture, taste, movement.

STOPPING NIPPING
A lot of early attempts to stop puppies nipping fail because we are too inconsistent. I.e. we may tolerate puppies licking or more softly mouthing our hands/fingers and then suddenly become more aggressive when they bite harder, which can scare some puppies or even make them bite harder out of fright. It is important to understand that very young puppies are still in the process of learning bite inhibition – i.e. how to better control the use or force of their bite in different contexts. So we cannot expect them to achieve this without clearer guidance.

Some puppies may stop nipping/biting immediately if you give a loud ‘yelp’ like another pup or dog would to tell another that they are being hurt, but others will not. So for this reason I always find the best thing to do is to teach them the ‘off!’ and ‘back!’
commands (see end of feature) which not only immediately stop nipping, but will also have so many other uses later in different contexts.

WHY PUPPIES NIP
It is important to understand that puppies keep nipping us – until they are stopped or retrained – not because they are ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’ but because this is an incredibly strong and instinctive compulsion in them. So if you do not want them to nip you, always immediately direct them on to something else instead they can chew. Like special chew toys, or things like antler bars; there are just so many options like these around now. Make a lot of fuss and praise them well, too, when they are chewing the right things, otherwise pups soon learn that they get far more attention from you when they chew the wrong ones. Including bits of your body.

Sometimes owners trigger pups to bite them harder because they play rougher or more confrontational games with them, which trigger the pup to behave in a more excited or defensive way. If you are playing any kind of tuggy game with your pup and they catch any part of your hand – even if inadvertently – with their teeth, immediately abandon the game, as you never want this ever to become a more normal experience for your young dog. Biting any part of a human hand or skin should ALWAYS be taboo, and
immediately out of bounds as an activity, from day one. It cannot be sometimes OK, and at other times not, just because of the context in which it occurred. As this is how dogs can become more confused.

MORE SERIOUS NIPPING OR BITING
Previously I have also written about how sensitive some collies can be to confrontation, or some more obviously hostile approach from owners, even when quite young, and if you have a pup like this you have to be even more careful not to trigger responses that could become more seriously aggressive as the dog gets older. Any more serious aggression in a collie pup should always be taken seriously, and if you feel less able to re-solve or better manage this yourself, do seek more expert help as soon as you can, or well before the behaviour has a chance to further escalate.

TEETHING/GETTING ADULT TEETH
Around 3-4 months old your pup will begin losing their baby teeth and acquiring adult ones – 42 of them typically. The teeth fall out as their jaws grow and puppies will either swallow them or you will find them in bedding or elsewhere. Do not panic if some baby teeth take longer to fall out than others while the new ones come through, as eventually they do.

Teething can be incredibly painful and uncomfortable for puppies, which is why they constantly need to chew to relieve this discomfort in some way. During the teething period you may also find that your puppy’s previously good toilet training overnight fails, because the discomfort is keeping them more awake. So be understanding, and once they are through the pain and upheaval of this process their toilet control should go back to normal again.

To try to better relieve the pain of teething you can give your puppy things like a carrot or banana frozen in the freezer. There are some special teething gels you can buy for puppies now, too.

OLDER CHEWING
Often people will expect dogs to stop being so ‘chewy’ once they have got their adult teeth fully through – typically around 6-7 months old. But in fact another fervent chewing period can kick in around 10 months to a year old, and this is thought to be driven by the need to embed their molar teeth more firmly into the jawbone. So do not be surprised if this happens with your own dog.

The older dogs get, the more the urge to chew things other than food items or toys can wane. So if dogs are still chewing less ‘normal’ things – like bedding or household items - more compulsively when they are 18 months or older, there could be some more psychological reason for this, as the act of chewing can also be a self-calming behaviour for dogs in situations of greater boredom, anxiety or stress. If this kind of ‘less normal’ chewing only happens when you are out, for instance, this is likely to be the case, or alternatively your dog may have some source of pain they are trying to displace into the act of chewing.

Meanwhile everything you need to know about raising and training BC pups – as well as teaching the ‘off!’ and ‘back!’ commands - is covered in the BOOK TWO (red cover) of my BREED APART trilogy: ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING:

Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/product-category/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/ In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://www.4mymerles.com/product-category/books/ In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html
All text © Carol Price 2023

11/20/2023

FLASHING COLLARS: A WARNING. As the evenings get longer and darker for many of us, just a warning for those using illuminated dog collars never to put them on FLASHING mode. As on a sensory level this can not only be incredibly stressful and unpleasant for many collies, but may even trigger epilepsy in more susceptible dogs. So always put them on STILL mode instead, when you take them out for those darker walks. Or use other means to make your dog more visible.

Wi******er is growing into a very handsome boi!!! 😍 Looking forward to the added gorgeousness and intelligence in our pa...
11/15/2023

Wi******er is growing into a very handsome boi!!! 😍 Looking forward to the added gorgeousness and intelligence in our pack!!!! Canyon Country’s Toy Aussies thank you!

10/04/2023

WHY WON'T YOUR DOG COME BACK WHEN YOU CALL? Today our breed expert looks at:

RECALL TRAINING & PROBLEMS IN BORDER COLLIES

Is there anything more frustrating than a dog who refuses to come back when you call them, or the sight of defiant collie bottom disappearing into the distance, to chase something, while seemingly ‘deaf’ to any command you give them? Dogs who won’t come back when called are also more likely to get into danger, or have less free and fulfilling lives, as a result of having to spend more time on a lead or line. So this feature is going to look in more depth at what could have gone wrong with your dog’s recall training, or responses, and how you might greatly improve both.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RECALL
Whether or not they always realise it, recall is one of those responses in dogs that so many owners take for granted. Or imagine should just naturally exist. I.e. they see it as just a simple matter of, when I call a dog it should come to me. When my answer to that would be, why? Why should a dog come back to you when there might be something ten times more interesting or important – at least to them – to focus on instead? Or, what have you done to make returning to you the most rewarding thing any dog can do, in any situation?

So a basic first problem can be how we approach the action of recall in dogs ourselves. Believing it should either be a completely ‘natural’ (as opposed to trained) response in them, or something they should do out of some kind of deeper 'respect' for you as their owner. Rather than because they have been consistently taught to find this response intensely rewarding.

Making recall a far more personal issue, or battle, between yourself and your dog, is also where everything so often goes wrong. Because it inspires so much greater anger or frustration in an owner, which then passes down to the dog and - somewhat self-defeatingly – can make them even less keen to return to you when called, due to the hostility they have associated this response with in the past.

When recall fails, it's also always going to be easier to blame faults in our dog's intrinsic character (e.g. they're naturally more stubborn/wilful etc.) than the quality of our own training.

EARLY MISTAKES
In my experience, the two commonest mistakes owners will make with recall training is not laying down the foundations for good future recalls in their dogs early enough - of which more in a moment - and letting a dog off a lead BEFORE their recall training is complete. You always train excellent recall responses into dogs first, THEN let them off the lead, as long as those responses remain reliable.

Anything else has a greater capacity for disaster. For you give dogs ample opportunity to learn, instead, the rewards of persistently evading your control once off the lead. Which can then become the main lesson they learn and take into future walks with you.

EARLY BEGINNINGS
Recall training should begin with puppies from the moment you get them. Before beginning it, you must also have the clearest idea in your head about what you wish to achieve. First, you want a dog who more constantly keeps their focus on you - which will always make them easier to recall to you in any situation - and second you want a dog who finds returning to you, on command, a consistently rewarding experience. If you get both these early basic elements right, and keep working on them daily, you have the perfect foundations for a dog with excellent recalls later.

My earliest recall training actually just involves walking around with pockets full of treats and waiting for a puppy to focus on me and follow me, of their own accord, to get one. Next, you need to put specific words and sounds to the actions you wish to keep perpetually encouraging and repeating in your dog (i.e. watching you and coming to you).

So every time a puppy focuses on me I say ‘watch’ and reward this, and every time they come to me I will say their name and a specific word in a specific tone – like ‘come!’ – and constantly praise and reward this. These words/specific voice tone then become the basis of their recall cues or commands later.

It is VERY important to understand that the only thing you want to perpetually reinforce and reward in your dog, in early recall training, is more ready focus on you, and coming to you, of their own accord. And the more consistently you name, praise and heavily reward such responses in your young dog, the more ingrained or automatic they should eventually become. You will also use your same special recall sound or cue just before you give your dog their meal, or a toy or treat, or go for a walk, or anything they find intensely pleasant, ever further motivating your dog to come quickly to you when they hear it.

NEXT STEP
Next, once this is all going well, go out in the garden with your dog on a long training line, and try recalling them to you with your special word(s)/sound in the same way several times; praising and heavily rewarding them with toys or treats for any speedier responses to you on command. If they won't come quickly try running away from them more excitedly, and getting them on the line to follow you, like it is all one big game. Stick at around 5 to 6 good recall responses then leave it until the next training session.

You never want your dog to discover there is any alternative, or better, course of action than returning to you when called. Nor do you want them to feel more persecuted by too many recalls one after another. Always finish a good recall session with much praise for your dog for returning quickly to you, and a lovely treat, toy and game.

Only from this point can you then try testing your recall training when you go out. If your dog still shows consistently good recalls when out, and off their training line, not only is this a credit to your training but your dog can have ever more freedom out on walks. If your dog's recalls rapidly deteriorate once off the line, he or she must go back on the line again to stop them further worsening, and to more gradually also improve them again with further training.

It is also vital to teach dogs how to maintain good recalls, even in the face of ever increasing surrounding distractions, like other dogs or people, or things they might otherwise want to fixate on and chase. Recall training should also be constantly ongoing throughout a dog’s life; remembering to keep rewarding them, with treats or a toy, every so often on a walk whenever they check back to look at you, or come to you, to keep their motivation to keep repeating these actions high.

WHY RECALL FAILS
Commonest reasons why recall responses fail in Border collies – or indeed any dog - is first, because all the detailed early groundwork of recall training, as I previously outlined, has not been adequately completed, to the point where more constantly watching you and coming to you when called become more automatic, or conditioned, behaviours in your dog, even before you leave the home environment. If the behaviours have not been conditioned strongly enough into your dog, earlier on, this means other distractions may rapidly override your training, in their head, once they are out.

Another classic reason recall fails, as earlier mentioned, is down to owners letting dogs off leads before they have got good recalls, then yelling at them to come back while they ignore you, because they are distracted by something else. As dogs quickly associate what they are doing with what they are hearing, all this does is teach your dog to ignore you to the sound of their name being called. Also keep remembering your dog’s NAME is not a recall command, in itself. The only thing that’s a recall command is a specific word or sound you have consistently trained your dog to associate with returning to you.

Do not try to recall a dog while they are intently sniffing something on a walk, or locked in some kind of more intense encounter with another dog, as their ‘hearing switch’ will be off. Wait instead for that moment when the dog’s attention lifts off the scent, or other dog, and returns your way, if only for a fleeting second – and then try recalling then. If a dog will not respond to a recall command the first or second time it is used, that command is likely to have lost its effectiveness or value, due to the all-important association between the recall action/sound/reward getting weakened in some way. And you may need to begin your recall training again with an entirely different sound or command.

BEING GOOD TO BE AROUND
Getting cross or annoyed with dogs who take their time to come back to you also greatly deters them, in future, from coming back any faster to you another time. Dogs also quickly get wise to owners grabbing them more suddenly by the collar, to put a lead on and go home, and get very good at dodging these attempts to catch them another time. But ultimately you have created this problem via allowing your dog to associate recalls - or returning responses to you - with more negative, rather than positive, experiences.

I hope this feature has made people aware of how much of a 'science' good recall training in dogs can be, how early on you must start the basics of it with dogs and, as well as consistently rewarding good recall responses in dogs throughout their lives, how easy it is to corrupt the same responses by our own less insightful actions or behaviours.

Meanwhile far more on all aspects of collie focus, recall and control training appears in the SECOND book (red cover) in my BORDER COLLIES: A BREED APART trilogy: ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS AND LEARNING. For more details on this book and others in the series:
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/product-category/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/ In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://www.4mymerles.com/product-category/books/ In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/
All text © Carol Price 2023

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