It is an exciting time bringing you Border Collie puppy home and introducing it to your friends and family. Just be careful not to overdo it in the first few days so your puppy does not become overanxious. 

Before you bring puppy home you should have already puppy proofed your home. If not, get down on the floor and check your house out from your puppy’s level. Is there anything there that will tempt puppy and need moving out of harm’s way?

The best thing is to move anything puppy can chew, and destroy or will hurt it. Once puppy grows up you can move all these things back to their original position. You are only putting these things away for a short tome while you train your Border Collie puppy to have good house manners.

Bringing Puppy Home

You need to remember that while you want your Border Collie puppy to be part of your family, it is still an animal. It will take its cues from its environment. If you give your puppy free range of the house, you teach puppy it is in charge.

Dogs are instinctual and their natural instinct is to live in packs. You and your family are your puppy’s new pack, and if puppy can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, it soon learns to become your pack leader. It is much easier in the long-term if your puppy learns boundaries as soon as it comes home.

First Night Home

Many people make the mistake of locking their new Border Collie puppy in the kitchen or laundry overnight. This is distressing for a new puppy that has just left its littermates and mother, and puppies like to sleep in a den. A good breeder would have given you a piece of rag that has the smell of its siblings and mum on it. Usually this is part of the a cloth that they have been sleeping on in their bedding. The familiar smell will help your puppy settle into its new bed.

Using a dog crate is a great idea. Some people think this is cruel but it actually gives your puppy a sense of security and a safe place all of its own. When you buy your crate make sure it is big enough for your puppy as an adult and do not buy expensive bedding to put into it. Puppies are notorious for chewing and beds are good targets.

Do not just put puppy into the crate, lock the door and walk away. Put the crate up in the living area so it becomes a familiar part of the furniture and leave the door open. Many puppies are just too curious and will just go into it on their own; others will need your help. Encourage puppy to explore the crate by leaving a toy in there and play in it so the crate becomes familiar.

When your puppy goes into the crate, praise it and give it a treat.
I always name the crate so there is a word association when I want them to go to the crate.
I keep it simple, and my command is “in your crate”.
It does not take a puppy long to associate the command with its crate, especially if it receives a reward of some sort every time it obeys you.

Do not put puppy’s food or water in the crate as it will only spill.

Once your Border Collie puppy is familiar with its crate, close the door.
Puppy will whine and paw at the door, even barking and yelping to demand to be let out.
This is normal. Ignore the behavior and after about 10 minutes take puppy our and carry it outside to ‘go potty’.

Most puppies will just relieve themselves wherever they so carry your puppy outside and put it down where it should go. By using words like ‘go potty’ you are teaching it to relieve itself on command. Of course your pup will not understand at first, but once you repeat the process a few times and give it a treat, and lavish praise, it will soon understand what the words mean.

The first few nights can be very difficult for everyone.

Move the crate to your bedroom at night so you can hear your Border Collie if it needs to go outside for the first few weeks.

Once locked in the crate, your puppy is likely to howl and bark the house down when you first leave it there.

This carrying on can go on for up to an hour, even more for dominant puppies.

• Do not react. Ignore the behavior.
• Do not tell your Border Collie puppy it is alright.
• Do not yell at puppy to stop.
• Do not open the crate door even if puppy is jumping on the sides (unless the situation is dangerous).

It is really important that you do this at this age because if puppy wins the battle now you are most likely to lose the war.

Your puppy will only do this for a couple of nights if you ignore the behavior and soon realise it is not going to work and just go to sleep.

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