Border Collie Special Considerations
In a household with children, both children and adults need to be educated on how to deal with the peculiarities of a household pet with intense herding instinct. To a Border Collie, a child is a sheep, and when a child runs, it streaks in front of it to cut off its escape. A natural reaction for a child is to become frightened and run faster to escape the dog. The Border Collie perceives the child/sheep as being uncooperative, and escalates its herding efforts.
The herding instinct cannot be “trained” out of a Border Collie. Children need to be taught not to run from the dog. This is successful with older children, but may prove difficult with a younger child.
What Is a Herding Instinct?
A herding instinct is a behavioral trait bred into the Border Collie over several hundred years.
The Border Collie’s herding style is gathering/fetching and it herds by circling livestock and bringing it back to its handler.
A Border Collie tends not to use force initially, but when non-physical methods of moving stock don’t work, the Border Collie will escalate to increased force – barking, nipping, and eventually gripping and biting in its attempts to manage stubborn livestock.
The Border Collie’s herding abilities are amazing. View the video of Border Collies at work below.
Border Collie Intelligence
Having a dog as intelligent as a Border Collie, while delightful, can present its own unique challenges. They are very perceptive, constantly thinking and figuring things out – like how to open gates and doorknobs. Commands need to be very specific, as a slight variance will be perceived as a “different” command. Life with a Border Collie can be compared to life with a gifted, but very young child.
Exercise Needs
Sheep herding requires physical stamina and endurance and can entail day long running across miles of farmland. If you can’t provide work for your Borer Collie to do, you do need to find another outlet for your dog to channel his boundless energy, and you need to have the time to do something with your dog every day.
