Molly Rose's BorderCollie Puppies

11/27/2023

Does your dog like the camera? Lawrence might be camera-obsessed.😁 He waited patiently for me to finish taking another picture so that I could take his. Show us your camera-loving dogs.😊

10/19/2023

Bowie 💙💙💙

10/18/2023

One year update! Everyone is doing great! We are so grateful for the amazing families who are loving these dogs.

07/15/2023

The puppies are NINE months old already! Lawrence and Molly are trying to beat this Oklahoma heat. We are ready for fall! They would love to see pupdates from
the rest of their crew.💗

05/26/2023

Our summer has begun, and we celebrated with a trip to the lake. Lawrence absolutely loved it!
What is your pup enjoying on these warm days?

04/14/2023

Happy six-months to Argus (fka Frederick)!🎉💙 He is loving life in Arkansas and absolutely adores his ball.🥎⚽⚾😊

04/14/2023

Happy six-months to Lawrence!🎉 He is loving life with his humans and his four-legged family too. 🐈🐶He loves car rides and balls.⚽🚙

04/14/2023

Happy six-months to Sasha (fka Beth)! 🎉 She loves her ball🥎, chickens 🐥 and the small humans next-door as well as her furry friends who visit often.🐕💗

04/14/2023

Happy six-months to Ashe (fka Meg)!💕🎉 She is loving life and graduated at the top of her puppy class. 🏅🎓She makes her humans so proud.😊

04/14/2023

Happy six-months to Nissa Rose (fka Jo)!💗🎉 She's loving life in Connecticut and enjoys the water and the park with her human.🐕💦🥏

04/14/2023

Happy six-months to Bowie (fka Theodore)! 🎉💙 He loves life out in the country and makes his boy so happy.🐕🐾⚾

04/14/2023

Happy six-months to Sage (fka Amy)! 💗🎉She is loving life in Texas keeping up with her herd of chickens.🐓🐥🐥🐥

04/14/2023

The puppies are SIX months old!! They are so big and beautiful.💕 Do you know who is who? Check out the individual posts that will be coming soon!

03/27/2023

BC ears are the best! 💗 How are your pup's ears looking?

03/06/2023

Lawrence got to visit his brother Bowie (fka Theodore) today. They had a great game of chase.🤣

03/04/2023

Brother/sister playdate with these two today. Super sweet reunion for them.💕

03/03/2023

They're finally here! We'll be sending them out to our puppies' families right away. Thank you for waiting so patiently.😊

02/28/2023

Here's the other goofball after he got all nice and clean yesterday. He's such a ham.🤣
What is your puppy up to today?

02/28/2023

When it's 72 degrees in February, it's bath day for the dogs.🌞
Hope everyone had a great Monday!

02/14/2023

Molly wants to wish all her puppies a very happy first valentine's day! They are also 4 months old today! Hugs and kisses to all her pups!💕🐶

02/06/2023

ABCA registration update for our families with Molly's puppies: There is a software issue and they cannot process new puppy registrations until it is fixed. The ABCA said this has never happened before. 😭
In the meantime, what is your puppy up to? Lawrence has decided the couch is his favorite. Molly knows better.🤣 How can you say "off" to this sweet face?

01/17/2023

BC owners: this is worth the read! Train those puppies early!

WE ARE re-running this feature by our breed expert on misdirected working instinct, and chase behaviour, in the Border collie, for newer followers or anyone who may have missed it:

MISDIRECTED CHASE BEHAVIOUR IN THE BORDER COLLIE

In the past I have tried to better explain what 'working instinct' really is in the Border collie; namely, a stronger and more genetically enhanced desire to eye, stalk, chase and herd or otherwise control moving things. And when these skills are in harmony with the purpose they were designed for – i.e. managing livestock – it is a truly beautiful thing to see, as viewers of our sheepdog videos on this page will know.

However, what some owners won't always realise is that this ‘working instinct’ - if not compulsion – in collies will not be exclusively reserved for livestock. It may be directed at absolutely anything that moves. In other words it is the INSTINCT in the dog to chase moving things that is most critical, and not the TARGET the dog subsequently chooses to direct it upon. Which, in the absence of aforementioned livestock, can become anything from traffic, trains, birds and cyclists or runners to leaves, water or shadows.

In a working environment, a shepherd will not only introduce a dog to sheep when they are still very young, to ensure they become their chosen moving target to eye/chase/herd etc., but they will also put in the necessary training required to control the dog's movements towards, or around, the sheep. Including the speed and direction at which they approach them, stopping them and/or dropping them in a 'down' to the ground when necessary, or calling them off the sheep and back to them.

LOSING CONTROL OF THE CHASE INSTINCT
What can so often go wrong with pet collies, is that the dog is not deliberately trained on to the 'right' moving target - like a ball, in the absence of livestock - to work and fixate on more exclusively when young, or given the right level of control training that a sheepdog would get to better check their approach towards moving things. Meaning not only that the dog's chase instincts escape, instead, on to all manner of other less appropriate moving things, but once this happens you have no way of being better able to stop it. And a collie may only need to chase 'wrong' things of this kind a few times in order to begin ingraining a progressively more addictive habit.

The control training required means exercises like 'DOWN ON THE MOVE' - where you drop your dog into a down when they are running towards a chase object - and also the 'MID-CHASE RECALL', where you not only drop your dog into a down as they are running towards something, but then immediately recall the dog back to you. I work on all these exercises with my own dogs from a very young age, and you may usually need to begin training them with your dog on a long line before they become more reliable. When well taught, however, they really provide you with the basic brakes and steering on your dog.

Ongoing ‘focus’ training – where the dog is continually taught to return its focus to you on command – can also be vital for collies to better control chase behaviour.

THE GOLDEN SECOND
Too often owners may also miss that 'golden second' just before a dog is about to chase something, and they are still able to stop them if they intervene quickly enough with DOWN and WAIT commands (providing of course your dog has already been taught these). So instead the dog has greater time to lock on to the chase target ahead, and once they have become more fully committed to a chase, and/or you have no better training in place at this point to stop them, it is too late.

Sometimes things that move but also make a far louder noise - like traffic and trains - can bring more defensive chasing behaviours in dogs, because they unnerve them, and their default behaviour when anxious/frightened is to go on the attack. Interestingly, I have also found in my own experience that collies who are exposed to things like loud traffic and trains when they are really young - i.e. as young as four or five weeks old - do not become traffic or train chasers in later life. So this is something breeders might bear in mind. I take my own puppies out daily to see trains/traffic/dustcarts etc. from around a month old, carrying them in my arms. And none of them ever became traffic chasers, despite having past relatives who were.

So basically we can see that by replicating the way a shepherd would work with a sheepdog - i.e. making sure the most appropriate moving/fixation target was picked for a dog early on, and then getting in place all the right training to control the dog's movements round this - we have the best chance of controlling our own collie's chase drives, too.

Meanwhile, anyone who wants to know far more about the kind of control, focus and anti-chase, training I have outlined for collies in this feature will find it covered in the SECOND book in my BORDER COLLIES: A BREED APART trilogy (RED COVER), which also explains how you can redirect a dog off a 'wrong' chase target, and on to a more suitable one you can better control - like a ball: https://performancedog.co.uk/.../border-collies-a-breed.../
And in the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/
In Canada from https://www.4mymerles.com/product-category/books/ And in Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/
All text © Carol Price 2023

01/16/2023

The puppies turned 3 months old on Saturday! Lawrence and Molly would love to see how big everyone is getting.
Lawrence is loving car rides and thinks he needs to go everywhere the humans go.🤣

12/27/2022

Argus (fka Frederick) found his perfect home in Arkansas.💕

12/25/2022

Molly Rose wants to wish all her puppies new families a very merry Christmas! We'd love to see what the puppies are up to on their first Christmas, so comment with a picture if you'd like.🎄🐶💗

12/24/2022

Bowie Blue (fka Theodore) found his best boy just in time for Christmas! They are going to have a great life together.🎄🐶💗

12/23/2022

Sage (fka Amy) found her perfect family in Texas. We are so happy for her 💕

12/17/2022

Nissa Rose (fka Jo) arrived in Connecticut and is loving her new home.💗

12/15/2022

These three sweet boys are still AVAILABLE and looking for homes for Christmas!!! 🎄🐾

Head over to our page for me details.