30/07/2022
TODAY OUR BREED EXPERT revisits the problem of misdirected chase instincts in Border collies, which can be an issue for many owners
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 he or she is 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, 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 he is running towards a chase object - and also the 'MID-CHASE RECALL', where you not only drop your dog into a down as he/she is 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 he or she has 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 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/ #
All text © Carol Price 2022
