Josh V Writes: I just wanted to ask you if you could give me a few pointers that I could send on to my family because we just got a 6week old Border collie today (Tuesday) and I'm leaving for Toronto tomorrow morning. She is quite the energetic dog and it seems like my parents haven't really looked too much into detail about how to raise a puppy. I was just wondering if you could send a few pointers my way??

Answer:

Hey Josh. I've just listed random points as there are many to consider:

A. Never let the pup out of your sight. The longer the pup is doing something that you do not want him doing, the harder it will be to put a stop to the behavior.

B. Do not swamp it with toys. If there are always toys lying around, your pup will get bored of them and start looking for something else (furniture) to chew on.

C. You might want to think of buying a crate for the dog. (Night time, quiet time, anytime the dog is sleeping he should sleep in the crate. (After meals, pups will usually want to sleep)

D. When I brought Luther home, something that worked great for me was keeping him on a leash for the first three months. By doing this, you constantly know where your dog is, and you can monitor, his every move, therefore catching unwanted behavior and putting an immediate stop to it.

For house braking:

I am assuming that you have a house and will be therefore wanting to teach your dog to go to the bathroom in the yard:

Instead of plastering the floor with newspaper and rewarding the dog when he goes on the paper, just get whomever is watching him to take him outside every 30 mins. to one hour. (immediately after eating, or drinking.) By rewarding the dog for going to the bathroom on paper, you are confusing him. You are teaching him that it is ok to go on newspaper and as well as outside. For a dog that is a lot of info, just choose the yard method, it'll save you time in the end.

Most important thing of all: Do not punish your dog for something that he does not know is wrong! Bad habit to get into. I know having a pup can be very frustrating at times, remember they do not know what is right and what is wrong, therefore just be patient and attentive.

Praise your dog when he does something worth being praised for, eg. bathroom outside, being quiet in his crate.

If you need to punish your pup one very effective way to do this is:

Place one hand over the muzzle and the other over the back of the neck. This mimics the mother grabbing the pup. Gently exert pressure while uttering "no" in a meaningful voice.

Make sure the pup is exercised a lot! Border Collies are a very energetic dog and need to have some release or they will go crazy! Good luck, give your parents my email, they can email me anytime.

Josh V Writes:

One more question: if she starts biting stuff like the blanket or whatever, how should we discipline her?? Thanks again. See ya.

Answer:

One little trick that you can use is to: scent discriminate between what she can mess with and what she cant. To do this, just put a little dab of vanilla extract on all her toys. Over time with constant supervision, she will learn to deferintiate between what she can mess with and what she can't by the scent. If she bites anything you do not want her to bite, punish her in the same way, immediately using the above method.

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