Week 5 (10 weeks old)

I am not actually through the entire week yet, I normally write his adventures on a Friday, however today I put it all on the blog! So I thought I might as well update you.

General Temperament
In the house:
Best week so far. Totally house trained (thank goodness) and happy as Larry to go into his crate. Feeding time is so much better too, he is sitting waiting for his meals now, and although I am still giving him large portions, he is still very very happy to take tidbits outside (for recall etc) too.

Sociability:
Wonderful! He is not running off to other dogs and people in the park, and seems to repsond so well to a 'leave' - yet responds equally well to a 'good boy'. I have started to not treat him for every time he does something well, 20% of the time he gets a scratch at the neck (he makes funny faces when you get the spot just right!) and a 'good boy'. The barkyness is definately less, but still there, continuing to distrupt him when he starts.

Trainability:
I haven't actually done much one on one this week (but it's not over yet) what with xmas and all, however I am not bothered by this. Both in the house and outside we are pretty much constantly training, if he plays with a ball I will ask him to 'leave' 'sit' and 'wait' or 'get it' (where he comes to me) and he is 100%. I know this will deteriorate with onset adolescent diliquentness, however I am enjoying every minute of his good behviour this week, I just love him to bits. So well rounded and a happy little fellow. Been reading about the Border Collie (oh-oh) and how they have a high startle reflex. He does actually, to several things, but he trusts me, this much I have learned. When he panicks or runs from something, I put it down (for example he was frightened of moving car wipers and my jingle bell wreath) ask him to come to me - praise and hug, then slowly show it to him from a distance (this involves me stretching!) and slowly make the movement or noise, then again praise. Doesn't have to happen in one day either. He was very very scared of the jingle bells (they are noisy) but I made a point to make a small movement with it everyday, over a couple days. He doesn't flinch when I pick them up now, will carry on playing with his toys/annoying the other dogs.

I am so happy with him, everytime I pick him up I squeeze him so tight. He is so cute, I wish there was a pill to make him stay this size forever. He got leggy this week and it a great size, I no longer feel ill when he is running with the other dogs (I was so frightened of him getting squished) I know as well that everytime I pick him up that there are only a limited number of times left before he will be too big to be doing that. What if I taught him to smoke - that stunts growth right!?!

Recall:
Much better from last week, in fact he is eager to come. Making the most of it just now, as I said I am sure he will go up and down, and then at 6 months be a little sh*t!!!

New Tricks:
Nothing fun, but the does 'wait' to cross at the kerb, and late at night when there are no cars about, off lead he will put the brakes on for the kerb, and then look at me. (Love him)

House Training
This title can come away now as he is house trained and seems to have bladder control overnight which is super!

Food Manners
Again this title can also come away as he is alot calmer around food now.

Lead Manners
Still pulling a little. Trying to think of things to do with him to stop that developing. Took him off the collar as I don't like to have them pull against it. The harness is more balanced, however when out walking 4 on the lead it is not easy to do training with pup. Must invest more time on this. I tried the gencon this morning, which he obviously didn't like but did walk on it for a bit. He looks ridiculous as he is so small and it is huge on him, but if it makes him walk more balanced then that's what it will be!

All in all I think 10 weeks might be the perfect age - all downhill from here!

Going to post pictures I promise!

Week 4 (9 weeks old)

Wow has it been a month already!
This week more than ever Louis has become an adult miniature border collie. We began proper free shaping, and for the first time in my life I free shaped my own pup to give a paw. I was so happy.
He is not diving into the food, and now waits for his bowl, he is not eating like a crazed starved street crawler either, and we started training more with a toy as well as food. He does a hand signal to ‘down’ now, and he has started to realise that sometimes when I call outside he doesn’t have to come! But I have been working hard to keep him interested, as I mentioned before, Louis had started to crouch and leap at Jaz, (in particular as Jaz runs back to me for me to throw his ball again) lucky for me everytime Louis did this unwanted behaviour, he was close to me and I was able to catch him in the act, a few times sticking my hand to catch him in the act of jumping at Jaz and making horrid collie noises (haha) my timing was perfect (luckily) and he seems to have got the idea that doing horrid collie behaviours is not on. Well for now anyway.

Strangely enough, he was a little cocky last week, and this week seems to have calmed down - when meeting new dogs he is ‘normal’ not too alert, and not worried, just fine. Nothing much has happened that I can think of to change his behaviour, but obviously pups go through lots of stages, this week being one of the calmer, I ain’t complaining!

I have decided from now on to write a summary of the weeks happenings under headings, so you don’t get bored, and also because I think it will be easier to read (see - always looking to get better...)


General Temperament

In the house:

Not a fan of doing nothing, started to chew on his basket a little, but interrupting with a game and then ending with giving him something more suitable to chew on (pizzles are his favourite this week!) Started to play a little more with the adults (or rather they have started to play with him) now that he is a little bigger and more interesting!

Sociability:

Much better when meeting dogs out, not as barky as last week. Although still full of confidence. Goes up to dogs and other humans with ‘waggy bum syndrome’ – showing submission, seeking social acceptance – all good signs.

Trainability:

This is coming on. Waited with the click for offered behaviours and he got the idea. Free shaped a ‘paw’ and over a few days he is lying down, putting his head down (not sure if this started with a ‘ok tired now mum’ look but as soon as the click came the head came up!) A problem I am encountering more is the dog (not just pup) unable to distinguish whether I want an offered behaviour or listen-and-do-what-I-ask, but working through this to help them. Especially putting a word to ‘free time’ (I have been using ‘what-you-gonna-do?)

Recall:

Got a little worse outside as he has realised he doesn’t have to come back. But making sure I go to him and show him how fun I can be (hard work when you don’t feel like it), but it only takes a few ignores for the pup to get the idea that ‘come’ means ‘nah don’t bother, there is no consequence’ There always has to be. In my public training life I am starting to tell people that there are only a limited number of times that we can use the dog’s name, so we have to make every one count.

New Tricks:

Paw, roll over and ‘down’ with raised hand signal (previously been to bring hand to floor)

House Training:

Going ok, could be better but I am so lazy. If mistakes happen it is always my fault, plus at this time of year the doors are closed and it is cold out there. No number 2’s for a few days in the house, but there is pee in the crate when I return from work, so perhaps not got the bladder control quite yet. It will come.

Food Manners:

Really coming on. He has taught himself ‘self control’ – that is that food comes to him when he pauses, and then increase the time delay. He was diving into everyone’s food bowl at tea time, a nightmare as I don’t want to feed pup first, but he was going to get his face bitten off! Ate in the crate at first and given him lots to eat at meal times to the point where he will leave some. Not recommended long term, but I hate it when dogs eat so fast! So short term it takes away the scarcity if there is lots of food (obviously). He had been dashing through the door to the kitchen after a walk, which was cute but this has diminished too now that the meal thing isn’t such a big deal. Will start to give normal portions now that he ‘waits’ for his bowl (as opposed to jumping about and making noises like a lunatic) and also feed with the other dogs.

I was training together with my sisters pup last night, who just about had my fingers off. So I realised that Louis is doing really well, takes tidbits softly and doesn’t try to rob you just because you have food. A few minutes spent with the other pup also had her pausing to get the food. It’s just what works isn’t it – that’s all they know.

Lead Manners:

Louis wore a collar for the first time this week, and it took one walk for him to accept it (he wasn’t impressed). However in the last few days he has started to race to where ever it is he thinks we are going, so I can officially start to teach him good walking manners from now. Pulling against the collar is not good for posture, so until we have it sussed, he will be back to walking with the harness which is better for balance (at this age).

Week 3 (8 weeks old)

Louis socialising with other pups

I had an incident with my last pup that made me realise that puppy bones are rather soft and big dogs can hurt them easily, without meaning to. But by 8 weeks Louis had doubled in size and I was feeling much happier about leaving him out with the rest of my pack now for example when I was in the shower.
He was getting the idea that he was the lowest member, and had a healthy respect for the other dogs space and belongings (in dog language, possession is nine ninths of the law). I was also getting brave enough to let him go up to strange dogs in the park. I had been picking him up which I don’t normally recommend, but to explain: remember Louis already had many dog-dog encounters, with dogs that I know well. Most dog owners don’t have this, I am extremely lucky (if nothing else my dogs are well socialised!) Firstly I have three adult dogs, then 3 older dogs that stay over during the day, and 3 adolescent dogs that live next door and we see them all daily. Not to mention all the dogs that come to my classes too. There is a danger with strange dogs - we don’t know them from Larry. They could be grumpy, nippy, barky, humpy... any of these things could give a young pup a fright and put them off.
From listening to other people, it only takes one negative experience at a young age to establish a negative connection in a border collie. However in saying that, there is a lucky loophole; should a pup have many many positive experiences, then over time a minor negative one will not do any harm at all. I have my own experiences to prove this. Dogs that I term ‘bombproof’ have been so well socialised from a young age (even over socialised) that getting bitten by a nasty dog doesn’t put them up nor down (except to wards the offending dog, who probably will be avoided!)
So when I say I picked Louis up to avoid strange dogs, this was for protection. During week 3, Louis was showing signs of being a very confident little dog, in fact apart from his size and puppy breath (love it!) there was nothing much pup-like about him in his attitude. He actually started to run up in front and bark at approaching dogs over-confidently, so it was time for him to learn the world of new, strange dogs on his own.
Annoyingly what also happened during week 3 is that Mr. Confident also started to crouch and leap at my dogs. I say ‘annoyingly’ as I was not expecting this behaviour to be coming out for another month or so! The collie-ness had begun. (Isn’t this what the whole experiment was for!?)
My worry is that despite playing the role of ‘brilliant dog trainer’ (haha) little Louis will still become my worst nightmare; the staring eye, the crouching, the herding – yup your typical crazed collie. I have been recommended by better dog trainers than myself, that I should be walking Louis separately from the rest of the pack to make sure he doesn’t become a ‘pack dog’. Most of us have dogs because of the relationship we have with them. Pack dogs however don’t care much for people (when they are outside). You can tell a pack dog a mile off – on the lead he is staring at the other dogs, desperate to get off to join the rest, and off lead they follow the pack and ignore your every pleading call. Nothing much wrong with that if you don’t mind it, however it can be dangerous. For example one pack dog sees a cat and goes off, and the other pack dogs follow. Those that are more people orientated can be stopped, but the pack dog’s biggest priority is being part of the pack, and going where the pack goes. I definitely do NOT want Louis to become a pack dog, but that is the worry if he constantly walks with us.
To counteract this I take food and a ball with me and constantly call him back to me for a reward. When he crouches or stalks another dog I have to catch it every time, and interrupt the behaviour. It’s not easy!
I say it’s not easy because if I were to keep telling him off for the behaviour he will start to dodge me as I then become a negative factor. Instead I have to refocus his energy on something positive (like playing with the ball or tug toy). An easy way just now is to have him on a harness and long line so that he is with me and can’t get too far away when he does the annoying collie stuff.
More positively I have been doing more training, and he learned ‘turn around’ and ‘crawl’ as well as good ‘stay’ and ‘wait’ commands during his 8th week of life.

Much to my annoyance people keep asking what he is, as he still has the generic round puppy-head, however as I said his attitude is that of a dog, although his body is still puppyish. I can see the intelligence and cheekyness in his eyes however, and he doesn’t get away with much for all his cuteness – otherwise I just know we would have major trouble with this one!
Two final notes. His mouthing is getting better (it was really hurting for a while) and ‘no’ or screaming in pain didn’t stop him. (It’s what I tell dog owners to do.) It is hard as they don’t mean anything by it, it’s just puppy stuff, however it is extremely painful! So what I did instead was to bite him (controversial!) It was worth it though just for the look – he was so surprised. I bit him on his snout, not very hard just enough to make him take notice. He got the idea though and is alot softer with his teeth.

The last thing for this week is that I had comments about what I wrote about the border collie on my page about Breeds. I said that they weren’t cuddly dogs, or lap dogs (or couch potatoes!). I still stand by this for now, from my experience (and Louis is the same so far) the border collies I have met would rather play, than get cuddles or a belly rub.

Week 2 (7 weeks old)

The second week was mostly a continuation of the first.
The changes I observed was Louis being more adventurous at being away from me, and being much more into toys and chews. Instead of following me from room to room (which I had let him away with to see if it would stop) he was happy to play with toys or chew away on an agreeable medium. Learning from other people’s experiences I was still very wary about letting him meet strange dogs, however my classes provided an excellent place for socialising with adolescent dogs and of course lots of people.
People generally don’t see young pups of this age as they are not allowed out until the course of vaccinations. Very briefly on this subject I have witnessed more negative issues because of lack of socialisation than ever seen a pup with problems from being out so young. I highly recommend that pups get taken out as soon as possible. Even if their feet never hit the ground, carry them places to meet lots of people, see and hear lots of everyday sounds. The younger the better.
Louis’ training was not as intense this week every couple days I would do a session with him. The most important thing was his name and there was no issue with his recall. A pups brain at this age is taking lots of information in.
What I realised was that he would not choose to go to sleep. If something was going on he had to be there, whereas my past experience with pups taught me that pups will tell you when they are tired, I had to remember to confine him to his crate to make him rest. I learned this the hard way, one night we had a bit of a fall out. He had come with me to classes and then we went out on a last walk at night with the gang. Louis started to pick up what looked like stones to me and I told him ‘no, walk on’ he kept doing it (I think now that it was salt that they had just thrown down for the frost). After chastising him by pinching his scruff, he went right back to doing it again. I picked him up and used my voice, stronger this time. Again I put him down and he went back to doing it. He wasn’t hungry, it was like he had gone mad, he knew what ‘no’ meant. Again I lifted him and this time an angry ‘no’ and held his snout. He struggled and got angry (fighting me) and I held him tight until he calmed. Then put him down and he ran off! I called him and he kept running, so I caught him up (he was only tiny) and asked him to come to me, he took off again. I was worried at this point, either he was playing up (at 7 weeks?!) or he had gotten a fright from me. I decided to ignore it, I picked him up and brought him home. He collapsed in his crate and fell asleep. It dawned on me that he was absolutely exhausted and I guessed he would have forgotten all about the incident by morning. I was right, and strangly he didn’t try to pick up the salt (or whatever it was) again. I decided that I was doing a little too much with him, and that I would leave him behind for our bigger walks and he could come out around the park once a day.
It is one of those things I look back and think why did I need to take him everywhere? It was a bit much for him, but I learned my lesson. He had stopped crying in the crate now, which had been moved to the living room, with the rest of the dogs. And he didn’t bat an eyelid when we left him alone.

Week 1 (6 weeks old)

This pup was to be clicker trained and free shaped where possible. (See my main website for clicker details.)

Louis learned to sit on a hand signal on day two, and then to lie down the day after. He also learned to ‘touch’, ‘stay’ and self control (where food/toys come to him if he is quiet and patient). My immediate observation was that he had a longer attention span than most pups this age, and he loves! his food. Training was easy and he got the idea very very quickly.

On day 3 Louis went to the vet for a health check and got the all clear, although he was small for his age, he was in proportion and not underweight.

By day 4 Louis was happy to run on the ground outside and venture a little way away from me at the park. He was also sleeping the whole night through, although I was waking him up to toilet just in case.

Just short of being with us a week, he got his first chicken wing. I crated him and left him alone, no dogs present so he could take his time. I was on the computer and heard a strange noise coming from my bedroom. Going to take a look, I watched him look up at the curtains, which were slightly moving with the open window, as they did he growled at them and continued chewing away. I went to take the chicken wing and he growled at me and ran around the crate avoiding my hand. Now I had been waiting for this behaviour, but never in a million years would had I thought it would be displayed at such a young age! I laughed and went to the kitchen to get some ham. I sat for over 20 mins swapping the wing for ham, and then handing it back again until I could take the chicken wing without him avoiding or growling at me.

However my concern went to owners out there with similar problems. I have had a few collie cases now of food guarding behaviour, some rather dramatic ones too. What does the average person do when confronted with a tiny growling pup? Questioning a fellow dog trainer we came to the conclusion that the pup would either be left alone or have the object taken off him – we weren’t sure which outcome was worse. However I feel from seeing this behaviour displayed at such a young age, clearly when it gets to 5-10 months old (by the time people call me for help) the behaviour for growling when food is present is so engrained, that is unlikely to be eliminated altogether. The best we can hope for is management of the problem, in a border collie anyway!

At the close of the first week I was seeing dramatic changes from what I first saw. Louis had come to a few of my classes to show off his newly learned skills, and had had more dog-dog encounters than your average dogs meets in his first year of life! He was meeting lots of children and people, and starting to wander off to people, as his preferred subject, but had a pretty good recall too. He had started playing with toys and barking, his energy level was amazing for being so small. He would happily play all day without sleep, something I found odd, as most pups spend alot of time sleeping. And to think, most people don’t let the pup out until 14 weeks, that would be 6 weeks of him trapped in the house – madness!

Day One

Louis came to live with us one cold rainy Saturday afternoon. He came from working parents, born on a farm. I wanted to choose an easily accessible pup, from somewhere the average collie-wanting family might go to.

I have always wanted to have a dog called Louis, so the name was chosen even before I saw him. Fortunately it suited him very well. Truth be told he was most likely to be the runt of the litter, he was tiny and the last one left, and my first impression was that of a scrawny, timid pup. Instinct told me that a pup like this one might become fear aggressive, however after thinking it through, and watching him play with the adults, I decided that he wasn’t as frightened as I first thought.
There is big a difference between fear and submission – the latter being desirable in a workable border collie. Both his parents were actually quite nice specimens, dirty - as they were working stock, but appeared healthy, weren’t too young, and didn’t appear to be hyper (but then I am used to seeing collies raised in pet homes - this pairwere mentally satisfied - working dogs). I made the decision to take him.

He was happy enough curled up on my lap on the drive home, but then got the fright of his life being dumped in the shower (well he was from a farm!)
Meeting the rest of the pack he seemed a little overwhelmed, but soon got the idea. Within 4 hours on that rainy Saturday he had learned his name. It was a good start.

Books will tell you to not take a pup into your bedroom as they will become dependent blah blah blah. However at a young age pups scream, not because they are satanic little creatures that want your attention now now now, but because of an inbuilt mechanism that tells their brain to scream when alone so that a parent will be able to find them and know something is wrong. So to me, taking a pup from its home, mother and familiar surroundings and dumping it in cold isolation (like your kitchen) is downright cruelty. Especially on the first night. What I prefer to do instead is crate the pup right next to the bed, and when the pup screams, I don’t say a word, but my fingers go down there for comfort. You might find they settle alot quicker this way, all they want is reassurance that you are there.

Raising my first ever Border Collie

It may surprise you to know that I am not a Border Collie fan. Your question will surely be ''then why are you choosing to raise a Border Collie pup?''
Most of us are aware that the Border Collie is the 'smartest' type of dog in the dog world. Less of us are aware that smartness doesn't always make the best pet. Sadly some people go out and buy a farm Border Collie thinking that a dog is a dog.
I am a dog trainer (http://www.dundeedogtrainer.co.uk/) and have been involved with many Border Collie cases, and they are on the increase. Mostly resource guarding or herding-the-children issues, but in all cases the owners call for help because of their bad or problem dog. I woke up one Saturday morning and the thought came to me that I should know more about this working dog, and what better way than to raise my own, and keep a diary of his progress, which would hopefully help me to understand and therefore benefit future clients and their dogs.

So 'Louis' was to be my experiement - a glimpse into Border Collie, and a test to find out whether I too would fail at raising a well-rounded Border Collie.

As we dog trainers joke; there are dogs then there are collies.

This is not a totally vaild experiment; I have experience with training many types of dogs and of course would be training and socialising this pup from day one. Also he is just one individual and could be a fluke.

The purpose of writing this diary is for you, if you were to come across the same road blocks when you’re raising your pup (any breed, but obviously especially a border collie).