About training a border collie mix (1 year old)?

Question

I am trying to train her (Judy), but she isn't getting some stuff. She knows "come" and "stay" really well, thanks to my other dog, who knows the command "come", so she followed her, and she knows it now :) but she isn't getting sit very well. The place where we adopted her from said she knew sit, but apparently she didn't. I keep trying to train her, but she wont sit, so how can I do it? And any other cool tricks I can teach her a little later on to impress people? I heard border collies were smart enough to do that :D thanks

Answer 1

How are you trying to train her to sit?

Border Collies ARE very smart, which is exactly why they don't make great dogs for novice trainers. They are too specific. If one time you ask them to sit with your hand up in the air, they will not sit again unless you have your hand up in the air.

With that being said, here are the ways I have taught my border collie all of the things she knows:

Sit: Have the dog standing in front of you. If the dog is not standing in front of you, step in front of the dog. With a treat in your hand, hold your hand in front of the dog's nose with your palm facing upward. Slowly lure the dog's nose upward (with the treat in your hand) toward the dog's eyes, then over the dog's head, toward the dog's back. When the dog is looking far enough up, the rear end of the dog will go down. Mark the behavior (a marking word should be established and conditioned before the training begins) and say "sit". Then reward.

Repeat this for five minutes twice a day for the rest of the dog's life. (Does not have to be repeated for five minutes, but must be repeated daily, when the dog is already familiar with the command, both verbally and by signal).

The reason your dog may not be sitting is because she was taught a hand-signal "sit" rather than a verbal "sit". We teach dog's to sit via a hand-signal at the Humane Society I work at because we don't have enough time to verbally teach them "sit". The hand-signal in the situation I just described to you would be hand open and palm facing up.

Down: While the dog is in a sitting position, take a treat in you hand and put it in front of the dog's nose. With your palm facing down, lure the dog onto the ground. The dog should naturally go into a down position. Mark with the marking word, say "down", then reward. The hand-signal for this is the hand open and palm facing down.

Repeat for five minutes twice a day for the rest of the dog's life. (Does not have to be repeated for five minutes, but must be repeated daily, when the dog is already familiar with the command, both verbally and by signal).

Stay: Place five or six treats on the ground a few feet in front of the dog and ask the dog to sit. Mark and reward for sitting. Ask the dog to stay. Slowly pick up each treat off the ground, mark and reward the dog for staying. You do not have to repeat the command "stay" between picking treats off the ground.

If the dog breaks away from the sit, physically bring the dog back into a sit. Continue until the dog remains in a sit while you reward with the treats on the ground.

This particular trick is especially useful when you don't want the dog to immediately grab anything and everything that falls on the floor. My dog now ignores food on the floor because she knows she will get rewarded if she does.

Repeat for the rest of the dog's life.

Once you have covered the basics, I would suggest you move onto some type of doggie-sport. Rally-O, obedience trials, flyball, disc and agility are all great border collie sports.

Thank you for rescuing a dog! There was a sweet little border collie mix named Shadow at the rescue I work with for quite awhile. She recently went home to a new family and a new life. All of us were thrilled. If you have any questions, feel free to message me. I allow messages to be sent to me via my profile.

Also: Check out some links below. Some pretty cool stuff to do with your dog!

You may also want to consider researching the Canine Good Citizen test and taking a class to prepare yourself for that. Anyone would be jealous of a dog that can hold a down-stay for two minutes without the handler in sight!

EDIT: If done properly, you should not have a problem with your dog only responding to you when you have a treat in your hand. After your dog is comfortable with the nonverbal signals you are giving her, start working without a treat in the hand you give the signal with. Take a treat in your OTHER hand, let her smell it, then give her the nonverbal signal to either sit or lay down. If and when she responds, mark and reward. Repeat until your dog does this comfortably. Then move onto not having a treat in either hand.

It will also help if you work on eye contact with your dog. Take a treat in your hand, let the dog smell the treat, then put your hand (with the treat in it) in the center of your forehead. The dog should make eye contact with you. Mark and reward.

Another, better, way to do this is stretching your hand with the treat in it far away from your body. The dog will follow the treat and will eventually look you in the eye. When she does, mark and reward.

Continue VERY often. Whenever you give your dog a treat, ask for eye contact unless you are giving her other commands.

On marking words: To teach a marking word (clickers, I find, work best for this, but you can also use "yes", "good", "great" or whatever word you find is best), have a pile of treats with you. Say the word, then reward your dog. Repeat over and over. Eventually, you will find your dog pays more attention or "perks up" whenever she hears you say that specific word. This "marking word" is used to tell her she has done something right.

Answer 2

It sounds like when you say "train" you're really focusing on tricks--that's fine--it's just that my answer will focus mostly on the trick side of training (rather than obedience or behavior). Here's the thing with a BC--she loves work and she is bright so easily bored. So the more you push her physically and the more you stimulate her mentally, the better and faster she'll learn. 1. On the clicker, it's not enough just to have it, it's important to use it well. You have to start by "loading the clicker" (if you don't know what that means then I suggest you go to the clicker website below). Then you need to make sure that you are marking the exact moment your dog does something right. Otherwise the clicker will just confuse her. But a clicker is absolutely the most efficient way to train an animal (they're used to train horses, cats and dolphins as well as dogs). I know you're skeptical about the clicker right now. Well, on the website below, read about the "100 uses for a box" game. It deals with using a clicker to shape behavior. You can put a box on the floor and in 20 minutes have a clicker savvy dog stand in the box, put it on her head, turn it open side up (or down). I did the same thing with a rocking chair. I know another trainer who taught her dog to push the ball with his nose. 2. Start with behaviors that she already does. If she likes to crawl or roll over than teach her to do those things on command. Always end with a success or win. If she won't shake her paw with you, than end with a nose touch or sit so the last thing that happens in her training session is that she gets a treat and enjoys some success with you. That's critical so she views the training as fun. It's not surprising she'd be following your hand motions or body language--lots of dogs focus more on that than verbal commands. So if hand signals work, than use those. 3. Break behaviors down into pieces. If you're teaching how to roll over, first you teach a "down" then lure a roll and then combine the two. There is a great book by Donna Duford that focuses on tricks and is clicker friendly, also very positive focused. 4. Whatever you do, make it fun and keep it short. The Silvia Trkman website is for one of the best agility competitors around. Her best dog is a Pyrenean Shepherd (much like a BC). She has some amazing tricks videos on that website that will both inspire you and give you some ideas for things to train on.

Answer 3

Borders are very smart dogs and can do just about anything. Have you considered checking out a local basic obedience class. This will help with the sit, but also with a lot of other basic commands that will help her in life and can be life saving in certain circumstances.

As for sit, have her on a leash, give her name and the command "sit". At this point, pull straight up above her head with the leash. Often times, as the the leash goes up, the head goes up and the butt goes down. If this does not work, make sure you do not put any pressure on her hips to force her to sit - no dog is built for any pressure on their joints.
If she does not respond to the collar, then run your hands down her back and around her tail, and give slight pressure behind her back knees - at the same time pulling slightly on the leash. This will bring her to sit on your hand, and that's okay. Usually it only takes one or two times and they will respond.

Others may tell you to use a treat, show it to her, and then raise the treat over her head so she naturally sits to look at it. Yes, this will work, however, I have seen too many dogs who are treat trained that will not listen if the treat is not in sight. Most folks do not know how to work with a dog to eliminate the treats, and the dogs do not respond without it.

It's your choice, either way, when the dog sits, make sure to give them lots of verbal and petting praise to tell them that they are doing what you want them to do.

Answer 4

Border collies are extremely smart. Get her attention with a meat chunk/treat and let her smell it. Then put it just above her head and as she looks up pass it further back and eventually she will have to go to a sit position to get the bite.
As she does down say "sit" and praise her. Repeat the motion until she get the idea that to get the bit she has to sit> I've taught my angel to look at a printed sign saying "sit" and he can sit when he reads the sign. He will respond to the work, the hand signal and the sign. At first you may need to push down on her back side and prevent her from backing up. NO SIT.... NO TREAT.
My guy used to run up to someone new and do his....sit, down, high five and all ten and then run to me for the treats. Like..... see what I did Mom, .....now pay me!!!

Answer 5

hold some food in front of her nose , make it something she likes and then gradually lift your hand up and make sure she follows it, move it back alittle over her head and the natural reaction will be to sit. you can then give her hte food and keep repeating. I would recommend either going to the library for some training books or take her to a good training class.Check the class out first as you want to feel happy with the trainer, also look on the web as it will give you some more tips

Answer 6

Do you walk the dog on a leach? This teaches that you are the "top" dog in its "pack" and it will understand that you are to be obeyed.
To teach sit, hold a treat above its head just out of reach. It may jump to grab it or it may sit back with paws up to get the treat if you hold it just right. Do this while commanding "sit".
Give the treat if it sits properly.
Some advocate pushing the rump down while holding the treat up.

Answer 7

Stina said it all!!
Your going to have years & years of great fun & companionship with a border collie....great choice:)
Everyone woop woop for border collies!

Answer 8

when shes sitting give her a treat and say sit ,thats how i trained my 1 year old yorkie