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.