Anyone have a purebred Border Collie?

[kimmom]

We have a pup who is 9 months old and we are having quite the time with him I am wondering for others how it went with training for them? We had a border collie/blue heeler cross before but dh had him and did all the training before kids. We have a farm but I feel bad cause our poor pup seems like he already needs a job! So many people have warned us they can go crazy without their minds being busy. For those who have them how many hours a day "work" or exercise do you find yours needs?

[SoulCakes]

It really depends on the dog.

We just got a new border collie puppy. He's our second border collie, third shepherd (we also had an aussie). This puppy is by far the mellowest of the bunch. He's currently 15 weeks old and so far we take him for about one long walk a day, which is meeting his needs. For now. The other two were much more "wound up" at this age, and were already needing more stimulation. So it depends. If you think he needs a job, though, he probably does.

What is your dog doing? Is he destructive in the house, barking excessively, etc.? If you live on a farm it seems like he should be more or less fine, exercise-wise, but regardless he does need some solid training for basic commands/manners. Border collies are as smart as they come, which means both that 1) they take to training easily and they usually love working for treats, which stimulates their mind and produces a well-behaved dog and 2) if they don't have sufficient training, they can easily make up for that lack of mental stimulation by manipulating you. An untrained, unworked border collie is no fun for anyone.

It's hard to say more without knowing what your specific issue is, but why not just start with throwing a ball or a frisbee for an hour (ideally, or at least half an hour) a day? Border collies don't need sheep to work, necessarily - there's also flyball, agility, or just plain chasing a frisbee. Basic obedience training is already a must, so why not have fun seeing just how much your dog can learn? Whatever it is you choose, try to have fun doing it and you'll find that you'll want to do it more often, meaning you, your dog (and the entire family) will be happier.

[mom0810]

It honestly depends on the breeding of your BC. The English/Australian dogs (show lines) are much more mellow and need only an hour of running/walking/playing to be happy each day. Then, they will come in the house and lay at your feet for hours, and be calm.

The working lines, the farm dogs so often seen here in the U.S.... the "American" lines as they are called by those of us who show... are FAR more hyper and crazy and will climb the walls if they don't have a job to do. All day. All the time.

I can't live with the latter, it would drive me nuts.

Without knowing the breeding of your pup, it's hard to say. Perhaps getting him in to some agility training would be a good idea. Obedience is always great... 15 minutes of using their mind is equivalent to running a mile in terms of how much it tires the dog out.

[hildare]

Hi! We have an older border collie. He's a good old dog, you'd never know his actual age from his attitude.
I second what the PP's said. Our border collie adored the frisbee.. When they're young, they seem to really need not just exercise but to learn new things.. I don't know what it's called, but there's a sport with them where you teach them to "dance" with a frisbee. If you have free time or a kid who can work on this with you, that would be lots of fun for everyone- the agility training is good but more passive for the family. You could also make up random tricks to teach the dog, such as playing dead on cue, striking weird poses with certain words, etc.
what we actually ended up doing, though, and it seemed to work out well in our world, was getting another puppy and a few kitties. he then devoted lots of time to rounding up the kittehs. good luck!

[rhiOrion]

I grew up with a BC, and she was an awesome dog. However, I don't think she ever got the "job" she needed. She would play with a soccer ball all day long if you'd let her. She loved to hide behind trees (or anything she could find) and stalk the ball. She loved to herd the ball.

But in my experience with her, her lack of a real job left her with some pretty neurotic behaviors. Moderate to severe thunder and loud noise phobia. And a very high NEED to chase flashlights and bark at any light that flashed on the ceiling (like, light reflecting off a watch). We couldn't even have turned off flashlights out, because she'd sit and stare at anything that even resembled a flashlight for hours.

She was a great dog, though, and she was overall pretty happy with her lot in life, I think. She loved to go outside and play in the back yard with my dad.

It was also my experience that she was willing to overwork herself. She'd literally play until she was dangerously tired/dehydrated/etc if we didn't put a stop to it.

I remember her being relatively easy to train to do tricks, but she did go through a HORRIBLE chewing phase. Nothing deterred her. Here's a hint, though... don't try spraying pepper spray on the table legs to get her to stay away. You'll just have to evacuate your house. My mom learned that the hard way