Doggy Chronicles – Advice from Alan

My friends Alan and Andi have a similar breed and they know our pain. It has actually helped keep me sane, knowing someone else I know has been through this. Here’s a nice email I got from Alan today.

Hey Alanna
Border Collies are *great* dogs! But they are really challenging. We
unwittingly brought one home from the shelter. It’s sorta like having
an idiot savant.

The four things a happy border collie needs in order:
1) Exercise
2) Structure
3) Food
4) Affection

Toss-up on 1 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 4 but you get the idea.

They need serious exercise. That will likely be the answer to half your
challenges. They care more about exercise than food. When Ocho was a
year old we ran her an hour in the morning and an hour again at 5. Wear
her the hell out and you’ll probably skip the bratty part.

Border Collies can also have a sort of extended adolescence. So while
other dogs will lose a lot of drive at 1 or 2 — border collies are
often still nutzo at age 4 (although less puppyish and chewy etc). The
upshot here is – don’t wait for her to grow out of stuff or you’ll be
sad. Also keep her dog-socialized (a mistake we made) – because they
can get focused on working and then get dog-bitey as they get older.

They also need work. Jobs vary — gathering and chasing rocks,
shuffling cats — it won’t be hard to find something because there are
so eager and obvious. But, it’s better to guide them to stuff you can
live with – otherwise they’ll write their own job description and it
won’t have your interests in mind. With the lab part you can probably
get her fixated on a frisbee at which point it will be easy to wear her
out.

Structure is good. Be confident, orderly, and alpha. This is the best
kind of love you can give them.

They love love love to train. Killer trick dogs. Ocho will jump on
rocks, target your left hand, roll over, find people by name and all
kindsa stuff.

So with the bratty part — ignoring probably not so good. Kong’s might
be – but Ocho didn’t care about food until she was 6. I would suggest
working on teaching her to lay down and stay in a specific spot when
she’s getting fussy – and/or to be able to get certain toys by name.
She’ll get better at it and you’ll be able to focus her away from stuff.

Hope this helps. I know it can be really tough. Don’t despair! She’ll
be your favorite dog ever. She’ll just also be the most work. And then
if you n Tom ever think about kids — you’ll be in for a cakewalk 😉

Cheers
Alan