If you want a well behaved Border Collie, then basic obedience training from the time it comes home is the key. Unfortunately, Border Collie’s are not psychic and do not come pre-trained, unless you are adopting an older dog. Even then, your expectations will be different to what the dog is used to so you will still need to put the effort in to have a well-balanced family member.

When training, you need to keep it fun and do several short sessions a day. Training should not be hard work. If you keep it fun, your Border Collie will go to the end of the earth and back for you. Be warned, if you feel you are getting frustrated end the training session on a positive note and come back later and try again....

Here are some tips to always keep in mind when training your Border Collie:

1. Always make your training fun. Yes, I may sound like a broken record but unless you do, you will never have true success. After all, the whole point of having a dog is to enjoy life together.
2. Make sure you have set goals in mind before you start any training session. This gives you something to measure your progress against and, if you have problems, you can analyse your progress and make the adjustments you need for success.
3. Show patience and expect to progress slowly. Anything else is a bonus. Learn to know your dog and work at its pace.
4. Keep training sessions short. A few a day for a maximum of 10 minutes will be more productive than one 30 minute session. If your dog has not done anything that warrants a reward, make sure you ask it to do something it knows so you can end on a positive note with a reward.
5. Do use positive reinforcement as part of your training. Use treats, a toy, praise, anything your Border Collie loves.
6. Do not be harsh or punish your dog for not understanding you. Take a look at yourself to see where you can change your training methods to help you and your Border Collie as a team.
7. Only teach one new thing at a time.
8. Be consistent with your commands. Always use the same words and actions and make sure anyone else in the household does the same.
9. It is important to get your timing right when you are training. Try to reward the instant your Border Collie does as you ask. Not a few seconds later.

Significance of Timing when Training

Positive reinforcement is the best method of training your Border Collie and the difference between those who are successful and those who are not, is often timing.

Border Collie’s are born with a natural instinct to please. Getting your timing right helps you tap into your dog’s natural instinct. You must always reward good behaviour, even with words such as ‘good girl’. Do not punish bad behaviour. Ignore it if it is not dangerous.

Your Border Collie is one smart animal and will soon learn to manipulate the whole household if you let it. For example, a Border Collie puppy loses its ball under the couch and you can see it is within reach if it works out how to get. Instead your puppy barks at you for help. If you ignore the behaviour, your puppy will either work out how to get it, or give up and find something else to do. If you get it when your puppy barks, you teach your puppy not to think for itself, and your puppy is effectively training you to do whatever it wants.

It is just as easy for your dog obedience training to go wrong if you reward your dog for behaviour you do not want. For example, you tell you Border Collie to sit and you reward and praise before it sits you a training it not to sit. It is the same for everything.

The window of association with something for your dog is only about 2 seconds. You need to reward within that time for complete success so your Border Collie understands it is that particular behaviour you want it to repeat.

Your Border Collie will soon work out what behaviour is rewarded and what is not and stop doing the behaviour it gets no reward for.

What is a Reward?

Rewards come in many forms for your Border Collie. Just being by your side can be a reward. Good treats, especially natural ones like shredded chicken are excellent. Just make sure you factor the treats into your dog’s daily food intake to make sure it does not put on weight.

Other rewards you can use in training include a favourite toy, a kind word, a happy ‘good work’ or ‘good dog’. Training is more successful if both of you are happy and relaxed. Spend training sessions bonding with each other having fun.

Through training you build up trust with your Border Collie puppy. Through trust and respect your dog is going to be much more open to what you want it to learn than if you are shouting, yelling, or even hitting your dog. Instil fear into your dog and, be warned, one day it may turn on you or someone else out of fear.

Take time to get to know and understand your dog. What it likes, what it dislikes, and what motivates it for what reason. Use this to your advantage to motivate and reward your Border Collie’s good behaviour.

Too often we may expect too much from our dog’s too quickly. You need to ensure your dog understands what you want from it in all situations so you need to ‘proof’ the behaviour. Once your training is successful at home, start proofing the behaviour outside of your home. Just because your dog knows how to stay at home, does not mean it will stay in the middle of the park.

Socialise your dog and practice your commands with new distractions so your Border Collie understands that you require obedience whenever you ask it no matter where you are or what is going on.