Help?

[Cassidy]

Ladybug is now 4months old. There are a couple of things that concern me. She knows a few commands, only That'll do, and Come here, and off. But for the most part whenever I try to train her, she only wants to play. She absolutely WILL NOT listen to anything I have to say, she keeps going for the ball and tries to shove it in my hands. If I take it from her she just goes and gets in her position to catch it. If there is no toy around when I try to train, she just sits there and looks at me as if she has no clue. This leads to my other question. Are ALL border collies smarter than the average dog, or are some just clueless?

 

Cassidy

[Guest pax]

In people years she's not even born yet.

 

She's not clueless, she's a baby.

[Guest WoobiesMom]

Yeah, she's a baby. Woobs is coming upon a year and he still gets all silly when I try to train him. This month's lesson is "calm down" because he sees the clicker come out, gets WAY TOO excited about the prospect of treats and starts presenting everything he knows rapid fire, speak-paw-other paw- down - box.... etc etc. Just trying to fast forward and read my mind so he gets the chicken. If I try to train w/o the treats, he loses interest.

 

Try one command and literally spend maybe 30 seconds on it. The second Ladybug gets it, click treat praise and done. Then build up in maybe 15-30 second increments from there. That's probably the extent of her attention span at this point.

[Liz P]

She is a kid, not a baby, and can learn plenty of commands. You need to go to a training class to learn how to get her focused on you. I had a BC fully certified as a therapy dog the day she turned 4 months old. My next BC passed it at 6 months, the earliest date she could be tested. Border Collie pups can easily learn everything an adult can, they just need shorter (5 minute) training sessions.

[Kyrasmom]

Also keep into account that as they are particularly bright and quick, they also get bored a lot quicker than other breeds.....you need to keep it short and interesting!

You'll be surprised at how much she's picking up even if it seems like she's just wanting to play...she just prefers playing!

Maria

[OurBoys]

Cassidy,

 

I agree with Liz. You should sign up for an obedience class. Ladybug sounds like a very intelligent puppy to me. She has you trained good. Obedience classes will teach you how to understand your puppy better and the more you understand her, the closer she will bond with you.

[sweet_ceana]

Maybe you can use the ball as a training reward (we do this with Ceana). Say sit, stick her tush on the ground and then throw the ball.

 

*** Oh yes and we tell her that it is "time to learn" before we do any training, this way she know it is not play time.

[Ruger's Dad]

4 months is old enough to begin learning the basics. You should be leash training and training her to sit and stay. I never went to any obedience training but I think that was a very good suggestion.

 

There are all sorts of tricks to teach while playing ball. While having her on a leash, step on the leash, tell her stay and throw the ball. It won't take a few times for her to realize she is not going anyplace until she gets the fetch command. Teach her hand signals by having her on a leash and pointing right or left and leading her in that direction. You can then use a couple of balls and direct her to the one you want her to pick up.

 

Your training is only limited to your imagination. Playing ball is a great time to teach tricks and obedience. Keep all formal training sessions to 10 minutes or less and always end them on a positive note. You need to treat your dog like she is the smartest dog in the world by giving lots of praise. Soon you will have the smartest and best trained dog.

[Kat's Dogs]

The others have all given good advice already. I also agree that you should go to some classes.

 

No dog, border collie or not, comes trained. It is ALL up to the trainer to teach the dog things. Including how to focus.

 

The pup is young, but not at all to young to learn. Keep sessions very short and lots of rewards. Going to a puppy class would probably help you get pointed in the right direction for training a pup. Some dogs are stubborn, but I believe that very VERY few are actually "clueless".