Being sociable and well-behaved with other dogs is not a must have of a pet dog.
Dogs shouldn’t have to meet every dog that happens to go past, they shouldn’t have to deal with rude behaviours, they shouldn’t have to be forced to interaction on lead or in a small space with dogs that may bark at them and tell them off or expose them to any unwanted stress.
There are definitely a lot of highly sociable dogs that tends to be tolerant of others behaviours, but this is not the majority of dogs.
It is like expecting every human adults or kids to want to socialise, interact and deal with every single person they may come across in their life, every single day.
The majority of dogs are selective in their social interactions.
The majority of dogs are not highly sociable with strangers.
The majority of dogs don’t want or need to go out and play with dogs every single day or be forced to interact with people they don’t know every single day.
Border collie even more than other breeds, have been bred to live in isolated farms and having to deal mainly with their own farm colleagues.
They have been used to interact with their human family and people that come frequently around the farm which is normally a small group of individuals.
It’s not that unusual for border collie, to be wary of strangers, to alert, or guard their property, to not be keen on forced interactions with humans that they don’t have a close relationship with and especially not wanting to be cuddled, stoked or touched.
When you get a breed you need to ask yourself if that breed has the traits to be the one suited to your lifestyle as not every breed has been selected to be everybody’s friend and ultimately are you ready to change your expectations if your dog turns out not to be the social butterfly you have expected to be?
Is you struggle with your dog social behaviour, we can make sure your dog become neutral to other dogs or people that they might be feeling like a threat now. I can’t promise they will be everyone’s best friends but we can help them understanding that the world is not out to get them!
