03/01/2024
Another good article: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/9Ngpg9MhkPCdhAUy/?mibextid=oFDknk
TODAY OUR BREED EXPERT is exploring the subject of how and why collies have got the reputation as 'problem pets'
BORDER COLLIES – PROBLEM PETS OR PROBLEM LIVES?
As a breed specialist, a question I am constantly asked is, “why do Border collies make such ‘problem’ pets?” Often because such high numbers of these dogs seem to end up in rescue centres. They are also a breed most commonly cited as needing additional professional help with their different psychological or behavioural issues. Others may believe that they should never be pets at all, just working dogs.
But the trouble with this kind of wider labelling of collies, as a breed, is that they fail to take into account the number of dogs who DO make wonderful social companions. Especially once they are better understood, and managed, by the people who own them.
THE LESS ‘TYPICAL’ DOG
Because there is really no such thing as a ‘typical’ Border collie - in terms of a more standard personality, mental outlook, or mode of behaviour across the whole breed - there will always be collies who are easier, or more challenging, to own as social companions than others. Some collies are highly outgoing and affectionate, others more sensitive, nervous, reactive or neurotic. Or far more prone to a range of different phobias and fixations, or obsessively repetitive rituals of behaviour. Others still can be arch manipulators or bullies.
In each case it will be down to any number of different contributory factors; from how the dog is more individually bred, or mentally wired, and the type of earliest rearing background they came from to the quality of the lifestyle, socialisation and training they are given, and how well or not their owners are prepared to understand, accommodate and work with – or through – their own particular psychological demands, vulnerabilities or complexities as individuals.
And if any – or all - of those components go wrong you have a dog far more likely to be on their way to a rescue centre, or drive their owners to greater despair. So let’s look at all those different components now in a bit more depth.
WHERE YOU GET A DOG FROM
First, how a dog is more individually bred or mentally wired. Too many people have the idea that a Border collie will be the same basic dog, or product, regardless of where you get one from. Much like the same model of printer or TV you could buy online, only from different sources and at different prices. And they could not be more wrong.
For the collie puppy market, and indeed rescue collie market, can contain dogs who have come from very diverse genetic and rearing backgrounds. Dogs from purer working backgrounds, for instance, may have far higher levels of working instinct and drive, and if owners do not know how to better use or channel this, with the right levels of physical exercise and training, you will have a frustrated dog who redirects all these instincts and compulsions elsewhere; chasing all the wrong things or indulging in ever more obsessive cycles of behaviour.
Some dogs may be too in**ed, or descend from dogs with less sound genetic temperaments (i.e. higher tendencies towards aggressive or fearful behaviours, or more extreme neurosis), in which case again you raise your chances of having a more challenging dog to own.
THE EARLY REARING ENVIRONMENT
Collies who have been raised, during their earliest weeks, in more isolated outhouses, or even outdoor kennels, rather than inside a loving and caring domestic home, with plenty of human interaction, and daily domestic activity, will always be at some disadvantage as future pets, due to missing out on this all important – and highly formative - phase of their early social development.
When collies have spent too much of their earliest life as pups with other dogs, and far less time having enjoyable interactions with people, they can become far more fearful, or less trusting, of people later. When collies have been taken away from their mothers, littermates or wider dog family too early, their primary social imprinting process can become more confused. They can begin to relate more to people than other dogs, lose much of the former initial identity they had of being a dog, and knowing how to behave and interact like a dog. Then develop greater issues with other dogs later.
So everything that happens to any collie pup in earliest life will leave some later mark. And the most ideal earliest start for any collie puppy is to feel just as much at ease with the company of new people AND new dogs, due to the amount of positive time spent with both.
In the case of rescue collies, dogs may inherit significant trauma from their past backgrounds, particularly if more deprived, unstable or abusive, that may then get processed in some way in their later outlooks or behaviour. And it can take some time and great patience to get them through this to a better place.
ACCEPTING THE NATURE OF THE DOG
The fuller evolution of Border collies from purely working dogs to pet dogs, which only really began around the 1970s-80s in many countries, is still also very much ongoing. And in the process there are always going to be dogs less able to make the mental adaptations required to switch from one role to another due to ‘genetic lag’; i.e. the dog’s whole genetic ‘working wiring’ is still less able to adapt to the newer demands being placed on them as pets.
We also need to be more accepting of the nature of these dogs as a breed, ‘warts and all’, and the inherent genetic aspects of themselves they are less able to change.
For too often there can be owners today who want the benefits that come with the collie ‘working’ mind – like extreme intelligence and learning abilities, hyper-responsiveness to commands and singled-minded focus on set tasks – but not the other traits that may come with these. Like hyper-reactivity to sensory stimuli, more obsessional fixations with movement, or lower social ability or awareness. When in truth they can all be part and parcel of the same dog.
Too many collies today are also still tragically falling through the gaps of being bred to work, but then proving not suitable for the task, but also not that well suited, genetically, to being a pet either.
THE COLLIE SPECTRUM
It is also my belief that collies have their own spectrum, as a breed, relating to their more individual genetic temperaments, or more specific strengths and vulnerabilities. And where they fall on this spectrum of traits will dictate everything from how easy they are to own to how they should be trained or managed on a daily basis.
It is also no coincidence that collies with the soundest social temperaments – i.e. low tendency towards any kind of nervousness, aggression or fearfulness – tend to come from genetic lines of dogs who are all exactly the same, and vice versa.
So this should always be uppermost in your thoughts when choosing any collie pup. See or meet as many of the pup’s immediate relatives as you can to ensure they are all pretty socially outgoing and biddable. Because I cannot tell you how common it is for people to get collie pups from parents who had far LESS sound temperaments, and for them not to think this matters too much – BUT IT REALLY DOES! Or even pups from parents who were never physically met, and then wonder why they have greater problems with their dog later down the line.
Of course, there will still always be some element of luck involved, when it comes to how your own collie turns out. But still the more thought you put into the type of collie you get in the first place, the luckier you tend to be. I have owned Border collies as incredibly rewarding social companions for the greater part of my life and also bred and raised them. In that time I tried to teach them many things, but what these incredibly special dogs taught me, in return, was always even more valuable.
Meanwhile, everything you need to know about getting a collie puppy or rescue dog appears in my book COLLIE PSYCHOLOGY and a fuller outline of The Collie Spectrum, and how you can assess where your own dog falls on it, in terms of more individual ge-netic temperament, appears in BOOK THREE of my BREED APART trilogy – BEHAVIOUR: INSIGHTS, ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS:
All text © Carol Price 2024
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/product-category/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/ In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://www.4mymerles.com/product-category/books/ In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html
