Border Collies and their Work Motivation

[Jedismom]

Jedi is 4 yrs. old now and I continue to learn about him. Though I don't know why this latest should surprise me so much. I mean I always knew he was brilliant.

 

I've been doing nose work with Cadi for some time now. I chose this for her because she's always been nose driven with a high prey drive. She loves to do it because she's motivated by food and to use her nose. It took her awhile to go after the smell of birch, which is a requirement for the 1st level test. We had to pair that smell with food for a really long time before we took it away and expected her to find the birch.

 

I received my new kit in the mail a few days ago, because we needed some extra practice for the odor tests at the end of this month. I decided to practice some too with Jedi and see how he did. Ummm...wow. Night and day on the learning curve and Cadi is no slouch in the intelligence department. I let him watch for a few minutes while Cadi went first. Then I let him have a shot. I hid the food. Found it in 2 sec. and came back with a look like "What else you got". Ok, I'll pair it with birch scent then..find it...4 seconds later, "Really, what else you got". Ok then, I won't pair it. I'll just put out birch and elevate it even. 6 seconds later..."Seriously?"

 

I realized then that Jedi was so eager for a job to do that he didn't care about the food. Once he realized what I wanted from him he went at it very enthusiastically and got the job done. He is motivated by work and since we don't have any sheep, this will do for now. I haven't seen him so excited about something in a while, so I went ahead and registered him with the National Association of Canine Scent Work and he might be taking the test at the same time as Cadi at the end of this month!

 

I so love border collies, their brains, their humor, their intensity, and their work ethic.

[gcv-border]

That sounds like fun for both Cadi and Jedi. Good Luck in your test.

 

Jovi

[zenotri]

I so love border collies, their brains, their humor, their intensity, and their work ethic.

 

they are just the best! Aren't they!

 

Good luck, sounds like Jedi is a natural.

[urge to herd]

Shoshone took her first Nosework class at age 14. She loved it, would prance around as much her little old lady body would let her whenever I even touched the kit.

 

She took classes until very close to the time she passed away, and was a huuuuggge favorite amongst the hoomans. I'm very glad we found Nosework!

 

Gibbs likes it, too.

 

Ruth

[PSmitty]

That's so awesome! Good boy, Jedi.

[rushdoggie]

Awesome!

 

You know, they come with their own set of unique stuff, but sometimes it almost seems like cheating because they do learn stuff so easily.

[mum24dog]

Shoshone took her first Nosework class at age 14. She loved it, would prance around as much her little old lady body would let her whenever I even touched the kit.

Ruth

 

Failing eyesight, failing hearing - but the nose still works.

I realised that when my 13 year old shot off half a mile across the salt marsh to an invisible dead porpoise.

[mum24dog]

Awesome!

 

You know, they come with their own set of unique stuff, but sometimes it almost seems like cheating because they do learn stuff so easily.

 

Some of them do - some are not so well endowed in the brain department. I don't think it does the breed any service to generalise;Joe Public already thinks they train themselves.

 

I think Agility is the only thing our BC is best at amongst our lot. Problem solving? Leave it to my sneaky little mongrel bitch. Nosework? Leave it to any of them except the JR whose only real talent is barking. Obedience? Again, any of the others but the JR. He hasn't even worked out that if he gives his Kong to one of the other dogs they aren't going to throw it for him, and then he's too scared to get it back.

 

He's willing though, I'll give him that.

[MaryP]

Yeah, I often tell people who think it must be such a challenge to live with a border collie that I like my border collie because, basically, I'm a pretty lazy person. I don't have to put in a lot of effort to train new things because he catches on so quickly and is so eager to try and figure out what I am asking from him. Then, once he figures it out, he's so eager to try and continue to perform it to my approval. Though he comes with his own set of challenges that my mixes don't, there is just nothing that compares to a border collie.

 

I've never done nose work, but it may be something I could try with Skittles. I always struggle to find things I can do with him because of his numerous issues. Glad to hear that Cadi and now Jedi are having fun with it.

[rushdoggie]

Some of them do - some are not so well endowed in the brain department. I don't think it does the breed any service to generalise;Joe Public already thinks they train themselves.

 

Really? I have owned a lot of dogs, of several breeds and a few mixes, and the Border Collies were all the quickest of any at figuring training things out.

 

That said, the BCs were not always the smartest(my Siberian bitch was a super clever girl, and very analytical) but they all took a lot less time to "learn" something I wanted to teach them...how to track or do scent discrimination, how to retrieve a dumbbell, how to weave. And they are always the quickest to generalize the behavior.

 

The problem was, and always will be with our Border Collie friends, is that they learn a lot of things you don't want them to learn equally...they seem to crave learning especially when young. And I think that's the message I would pass to JQP. Its not so awesome when they figure out how to dig up he rosebush to carry it around, and generalize it to every yard they get to.