Everyone makes mistakes when training with you Border Collie!
I thought to write you some insight about a lesson I had yesterday with one of my Border Collie students.
I know that a lot of you in here struggle with your Border Collie chasing problems and to find the right training method.
One step forward and two steps back, it always feels like there is not a smooth progression!
You may still not have found the reason why your Border Collie is chasing cars and so even thought you try everything you read around and everything your trainer is telling you, you still don’t understand why your Border Collie goes crazy in one place when at home or in the usual field he is doing fine with the exercises you are working on!
We are not going to go deep into the fear vs prey drive on this post as I have a series of webinars coming for that, but when you consider the behaviour you have to consider also what emotions is hiding under that behaviour.
So after yesterday’s lesson that wasn’t as successful for a few reasons, we had 2 weeks break due to me injuring myself and not being able to walk for a few days and last week because of the heat, I had to stop and rethink on what could have gone better?
For sure as an instructor, I underestimated the role of these two weeks break off not seeing my students.
My programs involve keeping in touch regularly to adjust training and solve little problems but I can’t force people to update me and if it doesn’t happen I don’t know what going on but also owners might not see that things are going wrong as in the big picture things have improved so much already!
Lack of regular guidance and corrections (to the handlers) and accountability have a huge impact in how successful the progression on the training is.
Second, because I underestimated what said before, I changed environment for the lesson. We met in a busier place thinking the dog was ready for it and went straight for a walk!
What should I have done differently? Being a completely new environment and being busier then expected even though it was raining, I should have done most work near the car, without actually going for a walk on the tow path.
Only if the dog was showing me that she was ready we should have gone for that walk.
She has been much better not reacting to noise and sight of cars, allowing bikes and joggers to go past ignoring them but yesterday something new happened… a BOAT! Yep, even a boat on the canal was too much and too scary so she kicked off starting the trigger stacking so we had to go back to the car park and work on calm on a big of grass away from the main tow path.
So after yesterday’s lesson, these are my tips for you:
1. Consistency is key.
2. Guidance is key.
3. If something doesn’t work, stop and replan.
4. Introduce to new environment slowly
5. Having success in one environment doesn’t mean that the dog will automatically do the same in a new one. This is for EVERY training you do.
6. Don’t presume, plan ahead.
If you need help with your Border Collie, get in touch by booking a FREE phone call following this link.
