cow dog doesn't understand agility

[Myrna]

My border collie is an excellent working cow dog. He does everything from penning to gathering to driving, however; he will not do simple commands such as "sit". I want to start training him in agility but am at a loss as to how to begin. He is with me 24 hours a day and is very well behaved. His "cow commands" were just learned as a pup and it was way too easy. Now I want more I don't know where to begin. Can anybody give me some guidance?

[Tomi Jo]

Hi Myrna,

I would suggest going to an obedience class, it's a lot easier to work with someone who can see what your dog is doing than explaining it all over the net.

One thing I can tell you is that if you see your dog sitting praise him and tell him "good sit!" You can also coax him into a sit with a treat and gentle pressure on his rear-end. Once the butt is down give lots of praise. Always try to be specific about your praise.."good sit" "good down" etc. Some of the commands can be tricky and you may have to use different ones if your dog already knows "down" as meaning "get off the couch" "get off me" or if you use a "down" in your cow work.

Praise, consistancy and repition are the key things to training in my opinion. Along with patience and having fun with it!

Hope this helps some.

 

Tomi

Albion, IN

[Myrna]

Tomi,

[Myrna]

Tomi,

Thanks for the advice. We are too remote for obedience classes, but I started tonight with the praise suggestion. We haven't tried the sit yet, but will let you know how that goes. I just know that Riley is so smart, if I just knew what to do, he would do it. This is really frustrating for me and I don't want to pass this frustration on to him. Thanks again and if you think of any otherlittle suggestions, let me know.

Myrna