• Bred for a very different lifestyle
  • Don’t forget genetics
  • Typical issues
    • chase
    • barking and lunging
    • frustration to movement
    • hyper vigilance
    • struggle with calmness
    • 12 o clock to you – can’t get back on lead
    • struggle to disengage
    • abnormal repetitive behaviours/OCD – perfectionist
    • noise sensitivity
    • stalking
    • running in wide circles
    • action prompting
  • Brain
    • strengths and weaknesses = personality
    • personality dictates response to situation – outcome
    • prepare brain for situations it will find itself in
    • building blocks – concepts
    • generations of breeding – will go self employed
    • farm border collie strengths can be urban border collie struggle
      • aware of novelty/unexpected experiences
        • herding =
          • managing movement
          • noticing subtle things – subtle cues from handler
      • movement is important and stimulating –
        • they manage movement
      • struggle with disengagement
        • they are supposed to stay on the job
        • need to engage with lots of things in order to control the sheep
    • train for the moment not in the moment
      • multiple games helps dog to generalise
      • e.g. feed every time bike passes, my stop reacting to bikes, but might start reacting to cars (no appropriate outlet provided) – play lots of disengagement and engagement games, dog finds it generally easier to disengage

Urban Herder Course

  • epilepsy
  • the job
    • control of movement as opposed to perimeter walkers – GSD
    • hill sheep – need learner, faster, leggier dogs
      • small – poor grass quality
      • hardier
      • flightier
      • fast
      • thick, corse wool
      • good mothering instincts
      • large areas
    • lowland sheep – dog needs to be heavier, greater presence
      • larger
      • heavier
      • slower
      • good quality grass
      • more likely to fight the dog
      • poor maternal instincts
  • Auld Hemp –
    • foundation sire for the modern border collie
    • sired over 200 pups
  • breed score calculated from
    • playfulness
    • curiosity and fearlessness
    • sociability
    • agressiveness
  • motor pattern
    • eye
      •  unique to BC
      • manipulate movement of livestock through pressure
    • stalk
      • eye and forward motion to assert more pressure to move
      • slow and controlled
    • chase
      • not a true chase – flanking
      • utilise movement to trigger flocking behaviour
      • flocking – predator avoidance
      • too much pressure breaks down flocking and sheep escape – collie out of control
      • dogs naturally flank one side better than the other, but can be influenced by training
      • dog balances shepherd
    • grab bite
      • pulling wool
      • frowned upon in trailing world
      • useful for moving bigger and more stubborn animals
      • scissor bite – snap, snap, snap, move back, shouldn’t damage stock
  • Herding
    • balanced with shepherd
    • combination of eye and flank
    • too much eye – dog becomes sticky and fixated, struggle to move on – pancaking
    • weak eye and more flanking – dog always moving with not much power
    • Genetics is the gun, environment is the trigger
      • caucasian shepherds kept away from livestock during critical learning period so that they never learn to chase – 3-5 months old
  • Instinctive drift
    • learned behaviour drifts towards instinctive behaviour
      • playing with balls, other dogs
  • Struggle with urban environment
    • stimulated by and reactive to movement
      • too much stimuli in urban environment
    • sensitive to sound
      • bred to listen and interpret whistle at a distance
      • bred with tightened senses
      • traditionally they would have been kept in a barn with little stimulus
    • high stimulation to low stimulation
      • high intensity work followed by low stimulation resting environment – decompression time
    • ability to focus entirely on job
      • won’t eat when working
      • won’t toilet
    • farm environment
      • unchains environment
      • habits and routines
    • sociability
      • would normally have worked all year round and be housed in a barn, unlike gundogs who would only work during shooting season and therefore lived in the house
      • shorter socialisation window as they were supposed to stay on the farm and would experience everything they were likely to experience at a young age