Dixie_Girl Posted June 5, 2009 Report Share Posted June 5, 2009 I have two Border Collies bred from working open dogs. Jackson could possibly go further than he has, I am holding him back. Mainly due to lack of breath on my part. Skip is afraid of sheep, wants nothing to do with them. Also totally ignored my chickens. Jackson will herd anything herdable. I believe if I put him with goats, he would herd them, cattle same thing. He immediately began herding the chickens when we got them. Skip is great to teach tricks to, he understands that I want him to do something for no particular reason. Jackson will only learn tricks if there seems to be a reason for them. IE, the find it game. If he finds the toy, he gets to play. Skip tries to entice Jackson to play with him by getting a toy and prancing around Jackson with it till Jackson can't resist and starts chasing him. But as soon as Jackson gets the toy, he runs under his bench (his safe hole, so to speak) and then nudges it to me, if I am at the table, to throw for him. Yesterday, Skip ran outside with a toy and Jackson only went as far as the porch. I watched Skip play bow, and prance around until finally Jackson gave chase. Again, as soon as Jackson got the toy, in he came to his bench. Jackson "seems" to have little confidence around the other dogs. Like he's not sure what he should or shouldn't do. But if I put him in a new situation, he seems confident that I would not allow harm to come to him. When he is working, he is over the top confident. Skip gives the impression of being confident, but when confronted with something new, he's scared to death. What I want to know is, is there a corralation between the working and not working, and their other behavior, or do I just have weird dogs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCjetta Posted June 5, 2009 Report Share Posted June 5, 2009 My BC sounds a little like that - she just doesn't like playing with other dogs, she wants to play with me. Our aussie has to pester and pester for her to finally give in and play with him for a minute or so, and if there is a toy anywhere that she can see or find, he doesn't exist and all she wants is to bring the toy to me for me to throw. For her, playing with me is way more rewarding than playing with him, or any other dog. For the aussie, playing with another dog or chasing the ball and then taking it off to destroy is more rewarding than having the person interacting in the play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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