Rachel Rodgers
So, for the latest update on Matilda – the main focus over the last few weeks has been getting her out to see people, children, traffic and other dogs, and starting to lay down some of the life skills we’ll be relying on later. On the whole, she’s doing really well out and about, and … Read more
A monitored approach for collie puppies Most puppy socialisation checklists are built around exposure: get your puppy to see, hear, and meet as much as possible, and tick it off. For many puppies, and for collies particularly, that approach on its own can backfire. Collies are, as a breed, more prone than most to sound … Read more
Week two has been all about getting Matilda out into the world — the car, car parks, a garden centre cafe, more visitors, and the start of proper traffic work. And Matilda found the pond!!! It’s also thrown up a couple of good teaching moments, so I’ve woven in a bit of the theory behind … Read more
So, Matilda has been home with us for five days now, and I wanted to get it all down while it’s fresh — partly for my own records, and partly because I think it’s genuinely useful for anyone bringing home a puppy of their own to see what a considered first week actually looks like … Read more
If you’re currently searching for a border collie puppy, you’ll already know how hard it is to find one that’s genuinely, thoroughly health tested. I found this out the hard way myself. I’ve been looking for a puppy since March, and what started as a straightforward search turned into months of research, disappointment, and a … Read more
We’ll soon be welcoming a new puppy into our home, but she’s not been easy to find. I’ve been searching for the last five months. Ideally, I wanted one from sheep working lines, because I’ve got sheep of my own that I wanted to train a pup to help me with, after losing my wonderful … Read more
Peppe is a 17-month-old entire male border collie with stunning markings. His caregivers contacted me when he was a border collie puppy of just 8 weeks old, within days of his owners bringing him home. They wanted to make sure they did things the right way from the very start, and that care and desire … Read more
There is a lot of confusion around what can cause traffic chasing in border collies. Many behaviourists, trainers, and owners still believe it is caused by the instinct to herd, rather than it being a fear-based behaviour. This confusion often means that owners are given the wrong advice about how to help their collie overcome … Read more
Pattern games help build confidence, giving the dog agency and helping them to regulate their arousal in a wide range of contexts. Using pattern games as part of counterconditioning and desensitisation really helps to boost these training techniques. These games don’t involve giving the dog any cues, so we are not forcing them to … Read more
Once management is in place (see “Collie car chasing management and setting up for success“), training can focus on changing emotional responses to traffic and helping dogs to regulate their arousal and learn to practise new behaviours around traffic. We ALWAYS, with every training technique listed here, carry out this training at a distance from … Read more