Boundaries

[ItsADogsLyfe]

I'm curious if this is a Border Collie trait? My dogs respect boundaries even if there is no fence. Where I used to live we were on a couple acres mostly fenced. There were a few very low spots where they could almost have walked over but they never did. Occasionally the hay delivery guy would forget to close the gate after delivering my hay and when my daughter got home from school and let the dogs out she didn't notice the open gate. They never went out it. At my shop now there was no fencing out back. In front of the shop is a fairly busy main thoroughfare. There are two ways to get out front from the back lot, none of the dogs have ever gone up there. They could easily have gotten off the property out back where there was only a partial fence along the very back. Only Mike took off one night and i'm sure it was after a cat. He came back about 1 hour later and although I drove around and called and called he just came back on his own. I'm sure he had that cat in a corner and was staring it down all that time. Aside from that one instance, none of my dogs used to even go near the open sections of land back there. As soon as I fenced in the sides they run the fence perimeter but still stay way back from the unfenced sections. Its like when there is a fence there they feel comfortable about their boundaries, but with no fence to guide them they stay back so not to cross the invisible one. At my new house the other day, which I don't live there yet, they went running and when they got to the end of my property, which is bordered by a small private road, they all stopped and looked at me. They'd go across the road in other places where it was fenced on the other side of the road, but not where there was no fencing on the other side of the road. After I told them the boundaries in the unfenced section, they don't cross them. All 5 of my dogs do this, even the young one not yet 1 yr old. I think this is great, although I never leave my dogs to run unsupervised anyway, but I'm impressed they do this.

So is this a Border Collie thing? I can't say any of the other dogs I've owned through the years would do this. Especially not my weimaraner who would jump the fence any chance she got, or hold it down for the less athletic dogs to walk over so they could join the weim on her outings.

[RaisingRiver]

The neighbor's BC will come and visit us even though he KNOWS he's not supposed to cross the edge of his yard and even though he is fenced 90% of the time (he jumps it too) and even though he also wears an invisible fence collar nowadays, he still shows up from time to time. Fortunately, he doesn't have to cross a busy street.

 

My BCs respect my yardline outside the fence because I trained for it.

[red russel]

My ACD knew his property boundaries. Wouldn't cross them and wouldn't tolerate intruders.

 

dave

[border_collie_crazy]

I have 2 BCs and 3 "others"..I have found the BCs WAAAAYYYYYY easier for unfenced boundries. for the "others: my Terrier cannot be unleashed in an area that is not fully fenced, period. my Retriever is pretty good, but when distracted will not hesitate to cross the boundry, and my Collie X doesnt give a rats patoot about boundries..she is only usually good because she prefers to hang around me. my BCs on the other hand were extremely easy to boundry train, I can let them go anywhere without even telling them where the boundry IS and that will still respect the boundry lol.

[desertranger]

Neither of my dogs will cross an unfenced boundary unless given instructions to do so. It took time to train them to do that but works flawlessly. I don't have to worry about Jin bounding out the door to visit with dogs on the street anymore.

[ejano]

Ladybug respects her boundary lines for the most part..she knows what's hers and what's not. We thought Scotty did as well until he ended up dead in the road. Don't put too much faith in the "door stoop" dog theory.

 

Liz