Housebreaking a male Border Collie!!!!!! Update pg 6.

[chele]

Yes. Male. Border. Collie. ARGH!!!!!

I'm the first to admit Border Collies are too much for me. I prefer a laid back dog. But, our 11 week old puppy, Patches, is hubby's dog. He was devastated over the passing of his 14 y/o BC mix, Skeeter. When we met Patches he walked right up to hubby, threw himself down and onto his back for a belly rub. That was it, he was sold.

The breeder told us Patches is an aggressive dog, but went on to say at feeding time with the other pups. He's a good pup. The intelligence just shines out if his eyes. Very sweet and very charming. Very high energy. He is ADHD on speed. He plays with ALL of his toys, he has about 20.

We have only had him a week. He holds his bladder all night. We take him out about every thirty minutes, or when he acts like he needs to go. He has gotten good at going on the command, "go pee". Then he will pee the minute we bring him back in the house. Never in the same place twice. I use white vinegar to clean with.

The dogs were in the back yard while we went to Church. He peed (on command) before we brought him in. In the past hour and a half he has peed in the house twice, been taken out twice where he peed once. We have him blocked into the livingroom so we can keep a close eye on him.

To me it seems like he's ADHD. Just playing then without a thought he pees. We urgently tell him " no" and most the time he stops then we tell him "need outside?" and out we go. One of us takes the dog, the other cleans up the carpet. IF we ever get him housebroke I will shampoo the carpet.

Is he marking?? At 11 weeks?

If he had a UTI wouldn't he pee at night?

Help? I just don't remember it being this hard to housenreak a puppy! I don't want to have him ruin the camper so I really want him housebroke before we go camping the first weekend of June.

[rainy029]

I have a Australian Shepard that is a year and a half. Basically the same breed as a BC. She was going outside regularly by 4 mths during the day. The nights took a little longer. She would wake me up AFTER she went potty to go outside. But all was good at about 6 months.

[BCSnob]

Our two will have a big social outting tomorrow. We are giving herding demos and I'm expecting that while grandma Peg and aunt Nell will impress the crowds with what they can do on the sheep, Grant & Lee will steel the show with their charms during the Q&As.

We run our adults alongside our UTV for exercise and the boys enjoy wathcing them run while they ride in one of our laps. I think they would prefer to run with the big dogs but they are not ready. Right now our boys would get lost in the waist deep grass in the fields.

[kellem]

Our BC pup's took a couple of months to totally house break.

I've owned many dogs over the years and BC's are by FAR the best dog's I've had. They have a wonderful personality and crave just being a part of the family.

They need exercise and once an adult are the most obedient dog you'll find.

Mine goes Kayaking,backpacking,mtnbiking,camping,fishing and to school to pick up the kids.

And get this....He'll even lay below my tree-stand without batting an eye while I'm hunting then tracks my deer after the shot.

Yes,be patient with him. You'll be well rewarded 🙂

[chele]

Well, he goes on command, and he seems to empty his tank completely. He goes to the door and throws himself at it.
He peed right in front of me during a really loud thunderstorm, but I forgive him for that, because it scared the pee out of me too!
Thankfully he has only pooped once.
He will lay on his belly, stretched out, then lift a leg a bit and pee!!! He still does his dribble thing while playing - but not always. We might go a day without having to clean a pee spot.
Patch thought he was was too cool to come when called, so he is on the leash to and from the truck. He is a perfect angel in the truck and at the ranch. When George does not go to work Patches is a demon! I've started breaking him to running with my bike. He is so young though that I am being careful with his joints.

[BCSnob]

We watch both of ours when they are outside to ensure we know they have emptied their tanks. Does yours not empty himself outside when he goes (a little here, a little there, etc) or is he too busy outside with other things to empty his tanks and you thought he did?

Ours are running to the door to go out (they don't wait long at the door) but ours still go inside sometimes, typically because we are not watching them closely enough. My wife had to clean up smeared poop on the tile floor in the mudroom earlier this week. A ram lamb got out of the barnyard and she thought putting him back would take very little time; so she left Grant and Lee loose. The chore took longer than expected and by the time she got back they had pooped and then stepped in it spreading it around the floor.

Lee has decided that "catch me if you can" is a fun game to play (I don't play it); now he drags a long line every time he goes outside. This has changed his attitude about coming since we can enforce it. Without the line he would look at us when we called (even while offering a treat) and then run the other way.

[chele]

Just a little update. Patches has trained us pretty well, so we are much better at anticipating his toilet needs. He is, however, nowhere near housebroke. He is still perfectly happy to pee on the floor, even if he just came in. We take him out to be sure he goes! He has been to the vet. No big deal, if he ruins the carpet before we finally get him housebroke I'm going to get new carpet!

[chele]

Just a little update. Patches has trained us pretty well, so we are much better at anticipating his toilet needs. He is, however, nowhere near housebroke. He is still perfectly happy to pee on the floor, even if he just came in. We take him out to be sure he goes! He has been to the vet. No big deal, if he ruins the carpet before we finally get him housebroke I'm going to get new carpet!

[chele]

Yes! That is just what we need a dog to do. Load bulls, and help with the alley. I think dogs could be a real help when we round up cattle too. It's getting harder to find mounted help. We have some rugged terrain so the cattle have lots of places to hide. They also use the terrain to get away from us. A well trained dog could help with that.

[BCSnob]

Our neighbor has cattle and needs friends to come help him bring the cattle in from the field and push into the cute for worming. We simple stand at the gate and send a dog.

We can load sheep onto a trailer simply by having a funnel around the open trailer (parking the trailer next to a building, or using a fence line, or using gate pannels) and then have a dog bring the sheep to the mounth of the funnel and then push them onto the trailer. A trained dog makes managing our sheep so much easier.

Lately we have been "strip grazing" a pasture using portable electric fence. There is no water within the strip, so we use a dog (or two) to move the flock (about 180 ewes & lambs) from the strip to a water source, back to the strip, and from the barn yard at night and the strip during the day. Google maps show our strip grazing from last summer: Strip Grazing Meadow You can see at the map marker the most recent strip and then to the east you can see two previous strips where the grass has greened up.

[chele]

Thanks for the links BC! We've seen sheep worked; there is a guy in town that used to do the sheep trials. He also used to use his dogs at the Dodge City Days mutton bustin' so we saw them work there. There is another guy in town that raises and trains BC's for cattle work but I haven't really seen his dogs work. I think it would be really handy to have a good dog working the cattle, especially the hulls. I hate bulls.

Do you do agility with them agilitygirl? (Sorry if I'm asking a really stupid question, I'm good at that) I think that would be fun!

[chele]

Sorry BC, I must have been typing when you posted!
I do not allow him to bark at my horse at all! He is uncertain for sure. Blue, my horse, could care less. It is kind of fun to see Blue snort at Patches! LOL So far he has shown no sign of running the fence between them and is down to barking only when Blue is in the back yard grazing. Yes, we ARE that redneck 🙂

Unfortunately, nobody pays any attention at the ranch and worse yet, my husbands Dad/partner has a Kelpie that barks at the horses (not the cattle).

Hubby spends a lot of quiet time with Patches in the truck. He is a very good boy in the truck, even on his first ride home! In the evening typically they get home about time for the evening feeding. This is followed by intense play by Patches as he is reunited with each.and.every.one.of.his.toys. (seriously!) then a nap. Outside then playtime with us. Outside then bed.

I think treats are a good idea. Hubby's voice is deep and gruff. If he raises his voice it sounds harsh. Patches can completely ignore him, drives him nuts. He really needs to get a good recall on Patches.

I agree on the clicker training, actually. I keep my tone friendly, say "Patches, No!" followed by "Good boy" so he knows he made the right choice. He does pretty good for me which drives hubby crazy. Skeeter was so intuitive she just knew what he wanted and desperately wanted to please. Patches is not Skeeter. He is a clown, full of life and looking for adventure. Very spontaneous and ADHD. Pleasing his human is not his first priority. He does best with positive reinforcement and he would rather be yelled at than ignored.

It's mostly all good though, he is so much fun! He does somersaults and zoomies with his squeaky toys. He's pretty good at fetch, but not obsessed (Thankfully!!!) And when he is sleeping he is adorable.

I play "Toesies" with my dog too!

I just love dogs 🙂

[agilitygirl]

Francesca Knowles wrote:
And as is well known, Borders herd by nipping at heels.

Pretty sure you mean Aussies and Cattle Dogs herd by the nip. Border Collies herd using the "eye" and force of will. Want to see that in action, come visit me, lol. BCs will bite and hold the wool of sheep that do not respect the eye, but that's a last resort. BCs that are around children will circle. Typically, either clockwise ("come bye"), or counterwise ("away to me").

I have two BCs. Love the intelligence.

[BCSnob]

The closest sheepdog or cattledog trials I can find to you are 3-4 hrs away. These are events where you can see just how much these dogs can do once trained.

Here are links to our event calendars by livestock
USBCHA Sheepdog Trials
USBCHA Cattledog Trials

There are events held on a ranch in Bartlesville, OK.

[BCSnob]

How much time does your husband spend with your pup when your pup is calm? I too find it frustrating to bond with a pup when the only time I see a pup is when it is "wide open"; hard to make a connection when the pup cannot focus on me. Your husband needs to carry a small stash of treats with him at all times when around the pup. When the pup comes to him (on its own or when called) he should dispense a treat. Your pup won't take long to learn that your husband is the dispenser of good things. I also like to find a special game to play with each of my pups that they like to play; it's our game played during our time. With my first dog we played tug with him loosely holding my curled finger with his canine tooth; with others I play keep away with a toy with me pushing them away while they try to get in to grab the toy. With my Peg I try to touch or grab her front paws while she dances around trying to avoid being touched.

All I can tell clicker training does is teaches the human timing to correctly cue the dog when it has responded correctly thereby cuing the dog when correct response has been given and removes emotion for the “marking” of correct behavior.