rufftie Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 nova is my border collie rescue, so most of her history is unknown. i adopted her in dec '09. our best guess is under 2 yrs. old. she has just returned from a month of training from a very reputable trainer. he said he could of gone much further with her but she has no decent "lie down". she takes it as a reprimand instead of a command. he says she is a very soft dog and is afraid to come down to hard on her, fearing it will turn her off all together. it is my job to get this "lie down" down, so we can continue training. i'm going back to basic obedience. starting with her next to me, then moving further away. she is very good with close up work, it just hasn't transferred to distance. any ideas?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMSBORDERCOLLIES Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 nova is my border collie rescue, so most of her history is unknown. i adopted her in dec '09. our best guess is under 2 yrs. old. she has just returned from a month of training from a very reputable trainer. he said he could of gone much further with her but she has no decent "lie down". she takes it as a reprimand instead of a command. he says she is a very soft dog and is afraid to come down to hard on her, fearing it will turn her off all together. it is my job to get this "lie down" down, so we can continue training. i'm going back to basic obedience. starting with her next to me, then moving further away. she is very good with close up work, it just hasn't transferred to distance. any ideas?? I won't say too much about your reputable trainer who can not get a lie down on the dog and you can take from that what you will. If she is very soft and soft does not mean weak, then it is quite likely you don't really need a lie down on her, just a stop. If she will stop when asked or told, that is all that is necessary right now. Some dogs just absolutely don't like to lie down, it puts them in a submissive position in their mind and they are not comfortable with it. I say some because most are fine with it. If your dog knows what "stay there" or "stay" means then just get her to stop by saying those commands. If she doesn't know how to stay there, then teach her by pushing your arm and hand at her, walking toward her and saying "stay there". It is not necessary to have her on her belly when you give this command, and, in most cases, it is better for the dog to be on her feet anyway. Once she has her "stay there" or "stand there", then continue on with her training. I can understand your trainer not being able to continue with her training without some kind of a stop but I do feel that he/she should be able to recognize a dog that is not comfortable on it's belly and teach the "stand there" instead. You need to be able to stop the dog in order to teach a lot of things including pace, flanks etc. so you do need to be able to stop the dog where you want it to stop. Let me know how this works and if you need any more help with it and how your dog comes along with it.....good luck .......Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rufftie Posted June 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2010 thank you for that info. it just might give me a whole new game plan. i'm hoping that she feels more comfortable with me, as her caregiver, and as a woman, than she might have with her male trainer. we will work on lie down and stay, and see what makes her work best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMSBORDERCOLLIES Posted June 30, 2010 Report Share Posted June 30, 2010 thank you for that info. it just might give me a whole new game plan. i'm hoping that she feels more comfortable with me, as her caregiver, and as a woman, than she might have with her male trainer. we will work on lie down and stay, and see what makes her work best. I really wouldn't even try to train the "lie down" right now but just try "stand there" or "stay there" without the "lie down". In other words keep her on her feet but make her stop on her feet. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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