I have a Border Collie, and I’m a foster mom or Border Collie Rescue. I’ve trained, to date, seven BCs. Border Collies are not all equal. Some are extremely driven while some are not. The one thing that all of my BCs have had in common is a love of toys. BCs are intrigued by stuff that makes noise. Squeaker toys with the squeaker in difficult places will keep them entertained for minutes. Did I mention the short attention span?
The first thing I would do is take the dog to obedience class. Make sure you get your kids involved. The biggest problem I’ve seen with training is everyone in the family has different standards. Bandit, my BC, is always given the same commands with the same expectations. “Lay” always means lay down, not just sometimes, but always. “Down” means stop, not lay down, because that not the way he’s trained.
BCs are born to herd, They’ll herd anything. Please be careful with dog around neighbor kids. Borders are often surrendered to rescue because they nip the neighborhood kids. If your dog doesn’t understand that the kids are master, not prey, they will attempt to herd them. Keep in mind that the herding instinct is simply a modified hunting instinct, and that as the herd separates, the dogs become more aggressive, trying to keep the herd together. This often manifests itself in a BC nipping at kids when they attempt to leave the group. I don’t have children, so Bandit sees them as two-legged sheep. I took him home for Christmas once, and he started to become so nervous with my nieces and nephews leaving the “herd” one-by-one, that I had to keep him at a heal/lay for hours.This was not fun for either of us. Next time, I will leave him home.
Some suggestions for thing to keep your BC busy:
I hide dog bones around the house for him to find. I let him know I’m leaving with a standard command “I’m going bye, bye”. This means he can’t come. So he immediately he runs into a corner to pout and shoot me nasty looks. While he’s pouting, I grab a bunch of bones, and hide them. Since he’s pouting, he won’t follow me, but he knows what I’m doing. Also try fly ball if she’s ball-driven, Frisbee[sup]TM[/sup], or agility. If you have a lot of commitment you can have her Search and Rescue (S&R) trained.
BCs need exercise. I have found that there are few behavioral problems that can’t be traced back to boredom. I am amazed at the low number of people who walk their dogs. I am continually shocked by people who have huge or active dogs in a small back yard an make no attempt to alleviate their energy levels by walking. It’s good for you, and good for the dog.
Also walking is one of the prime training opportunities I have with the dogs. We have a huge empty field by my house. There I do a lot of off-leash training. Bandit is trained with all of the standard herding commands. He also knows “heel”, and “whoa”, None of these could have been trained without off-leash training. It also helped immensely with his S&R certification.
Every dog leaves my house knowing the basic commands, sit, lay, stay, come, no, and whoa. In addition, and for fun, they almost all shake, play dead (far more useful than you’d think) and up.
Good Luck. If for any reason you do decide that the dog is not for you, please contact a Border Collie or Australian Shepard Rescue in your area. We have very good connections, and will find the dog an appropriate home.