Working
Bearded Collies rarely make good family pets unless they have some
activity (like obedience training, agility or working trials) to occupy them, as
they are highly intelligent dogs with a very strong working instinct and don't
take kindly to inactivity and lack of mental stimulation. They are not normally
great with young children as they are very boisterous and tend to knock them
over. They also love to herd and chase and young children will do when there is
a lack of other suitable prey, ending with the children getting their ankles
nipped and clothes torn.
The Working
Beardie, being of a dominant nature, is prone to bully and harass other dogs in your
home, especially if they are small or very quiet, unless they are stopped at an
early age. Even then, there is a chance they will single a weaker one out
to constantly bully, this is part of their nature and is virtually impossible to
avoid.
They
tend to herd and nip children running and playing and will
chase anything that moves, including joggers, motorbikes, cars, horses and other
dogs, again unless stopped early and the behaviour challenged in the right
direction. Again, even with careful training and handling, this is part of
their natural
instincts and will be extremely difficult to stop. They are
constantly watching for any movement and are so quick to respond, that they will
probably have gone chasing before you have turned round and called them.
Above and right are two pictures of Sparkle using her skill from 13 weeks old.
If you take
the time to ensure that your WBC puppy is not allowed to bully your
original dogs, with the help of the other dogs in your home, they will
hopefully learn their
place. If this is to happen, the other dogs need to be dominant enough to
put the puppy in it's place EVERY TIME it tries to bully. If your
own dogs are not mentally or physically strong enough, you could begin to have
problems.
Our own adult
dogs have had a hard time putting Sparkle in her place and have needed to be
much harder on her, than on any show-bred beardie puppy we have introduced into
the pack. Even our alpha bitch Rosa, who is a very dominant bitch herself,
had problems putting Sparkle in her place. Now Sparkle has learned where
she is in the pack and we have sorted out her biting, grabbing and evasive
behaviour with us, she is coming on very well. Even now, given half a
chance, she will bully our disabled bitch, Echo, who has
a back injury and cannot defend herself which
makes her an easy target.
SPARKLE TRYING IT ON
WITH OUR 4 YEAR OLD DOG
(AGE 8 WEEKS)
Your children
and other family members must be competent enough to put the puppy in it's place
quickly and teach it not to mouth, grab, chase and bite. We have
had to work very, very hard to make Sparkle into an acceptable puppy who will
fit in with us and our pack of beardies. We have had to be very dominant
with her, stop her biting hands, grabbing clothes, guarding food, leaping at
peoples faces, trying to dominate us and our dogs and use evasive action every
time we wanted to do
something with her. She has been hard work and even now at 17 months old
she is still learning acceptable behaviour.
STOPPING SPARKLE GRABBING CLOTHES WAS
NOT EASY!
(AGE 9 WEEKS)
After all
this hard work, she is pretty good at listening to what we ask her to do and trying to
please us, (most of the time), instead of deliberately being difficult and biting to stop us.
She enjoys her training sessions and loves to occupy herself by playing with her
football. This helps to channel her herding and chasing instincts in the
right direction. Left and below are two pictures of her playing, she is 13
weeks and 5 months old.
Working
beardies need an awful lot of socialising with people, traffic, livestock, other
dogs and everyday situations they will meet when adults. If this is not
started as soon as your puppy comes home (by carrying them out before they are
allowed to walk), you are extremely likely to find you have a neurotic dog who
will bark at everything and won't mix well with other dogs or cope in normal
situations.
It is
essential that you attend training classes with your WBC puppy, not just for
training, but for socialising and to learn how to behave with
other dogs.
Even
though Sparkle was very well socialised, attended puppy training and
socialisation classes, weekly dog training with our adult dogs and was
socialised round many dog shows, she can still be very difficult and
aggressive with
new people and unable to cope in new places.
These dogs
may look very cute and innocent as puppies,
Cute little
puppy asleep
but beware....you
are taking on a very primitive, strong willed dog, with a high level of
intelligence and a very strong working instinct, along with a very bold and
brave character. All these traits are essential for the job which the WBC was bred for and are needed
to cope with the aggressive and stubborn Scottish Black Face Sheep and
difficult Highland Cattle.
That puppy as an
adult, using her evil eye look.
Unfortunately
there have been many Working Bearded Collies who have ended up on rescue,
and still are today, through no fault of their own. These dogs were sold as family pets, were not
mentally stimulated or properly habituated to family life, and therefore became frustrated.
This frustration often came
out in rounding up the children and nipping their ankles. These dogs are
not suitable for novice owners, they can even be hard work for the most
experienced handler!
Many of these
WBC's coming onto rescue are as young as 7 or 8 months old and came from
families who couldn't cope with their natural behaviour, or who didn't
understand the breed.
When these
dogs were re-habilitated, re-trained and re-homed with experienced and
knowledgeable people, they were usually OK and did very well in their work.
Working
Beardie puppies must be taught their place right from day 1 by
both human
and canine members of the family. They must not be allowed to get away
with any kind of bullying, aggression or show of dominance, but this
must be done using the correct training methods.
If WBC
puppies or adults are trained using aggression, they will either use aggression back to
their owner/handler, or become very unresponsive and difficult in their everyday
behaviour and go out of their way to make life difficult for their owners.
These dogs
are very clever and work things out so quickly, they will soon learn what works
and what doesn't and how to work their way up the dominance ladder to stop you
doing what they don't like, if you let them.
As previously
mentioned, they are big chasers. Working beardies will worry small pets,
such as rabbits and guinea pigs, unless you teach them quickly not to and that
is not always easy. WBC's have a very strong instinct to chase and herd
and this has been bred in for many generations and will not be easily removed.
SPARKLE WORRYING THE GUINEA PIGS
(AGE 12 WEEKS)
On a good
note though, if you fully understand the breed, know what you are taking on and
are an experienced dog owner, the WBC can be a wonderful dog....not easy, but
wonderful.
They are
highly intelligent and will learn very quickly, therefore usually by showing
them something once, they remember it. They love to work and will be only
to pleased to learn obedience, agility (when old enough), working trials/tests
and farm work, they love searching and will follow a track for miles.
These dogs would also make fantastic search and rescue dogs.
SPARKLE LEARNING SIT AND WAIT SPARKLE LEARNING DOWN STAY
(AGE 9 Months)
(AGE 14 WEEKS)
SPARKLE RETRIEVING HER TOY
(AGE 9 WEEKS)
SPARKLE LEARNING RETRIEVE
(AGE 12 WEEKS)
Sparkle is
now 2 years old and has done very well with her training so far, here are
some of the exercises she has learned:-
WAIT
WATCH
STAY, BOTH
SIT AND DOWN
RECALL
RETRIEVE
ROLL-OVER
TOUCH A
TARGET
LEAVE IT
SEND AWAY
SCENT
SEARCHING
HEELWORK,
ALL 3 PACES
TRACKING
DISTANCE
CONTROL
WALK BACK
REVERSE
FINISH
WEAVE
THROUGH LEGS
POSITIONS
ON THE MOVE
Sparkle
(far right) at
training classes age 12 months
So, if you
have the knowledge and experience to deal with this extremely intelligent and
active breed, you will have a wonderful working dog,
who will give their life for you. The WBC is a very loyal and loving dog
and if you build a good bond between you, the WBC will be a friend and companion
for life.
Please feel
free to contact us if you have any further questions or are interested in a
Working Bearded Collie, we will be only too pleased to chat with you.
They
tend to herd and nip children running and playing and will
chase anything that moves, including joggers, motorbikes, cars, horses and other
dogs, again unless stopped early and the behaviour challenged in the right
direction. Again, even with careful training and handling, this is part of
their natural
instincts and will be extremely difficult to stop. They are
constantly watching for any movement and are so quick to respond, that they will
probably have gone chasing before you have turned round and called them.
Above and right are two pictures of Sparkle using her skill from 13 weeks old.
After all
this hard work, she is pretty good at listening to what we ask her to do and trying to
please us, (most of the time), instead of deliberately being difficult and biting to stop us.
She enjoys her training sessions and loves to occupy herself by playing with her
football. This helps to channel her herding and chasing instincts in the
right direction. Left and below are two pictures of her playing, she is 13
weeks and 5 months old.
