I am border collie sitting for two weeks and need a little advice from collie people please. He is about 18 months old and is a rescue boy. His owners are going away so I am having him for two weeks rather than putting him in kennels. I have never had a collie before, I have had GSDs but never a collie so this is all new teritory for me. He has absolutely no social manners at all. He wants to play but doesnt know how to play pollitely with other dogs and doesnt even know how to great them nicely. I have him on a long line as his recall is not great and this also means I can control him around other dogs. Myself and OH took him out today for a couple of hours and he was improving as the walk went on and was greeting other dogs much nicer but of course doing it once doesnt mean it is cured. We are going shopping tomorrow for a basket muzzle so that he can meet other dogs with out the fear of him nipping them. He has been attacked a few times now which of course has not helped with his manners at all. When he was first rescues 6 months ago he didnt have a clue how to play. He now does in the house but has no idea how to play outside. Any help would be appreciated, thanks
I know you want to help but I wonder seeing as you only have him for 2 weeks and there is no guarantee that your friends will carry on the same way then I may be tempted to manage the situation for the two weeks rather than think of fixing it the dogs life at the moment has been turned upside down, he dosent know you and dosent know that his owners are comming back Personally I would not bother at all with him meeting dogs at the moment unless you know the dog and he is friends with the dog or at least very collie saavi dogs, collies can sometimes not be liked by other dogs because they dont greet and play like other dogs unless other dogs have shown them how to greet I would just work on getting to know him, possibly do some clicker training with him, work on getting him to look away from other dogs (its the hard eye that can freak out other dogs) reward him for being calm around other dogs (at a distance) to work and do tricks with you reward any kind of calming signals like head turning or sitting But collies learn things really quickly and can take a long time to unlearn them
If you are only dog sitting for two weeks I think the best thing you can do is lead walk him on regular intervals and not bother with the rest TBH. It really is his owners who should be doing all that you are asking about, the best option would be to ask them what they have done and what they want you to concentrate on. I have collies and TBH they don;t like playing with other dogs at all they stay in their own pack, its not uncommon for a collie not to play/be dog savvy, a lot of them like to have their own space and not bothered. Just have fun on one to one walks (well with you both of course ) chances are he will prefer that;-)
We had a Collie cross for a week whilst his owners were on holiday and he was really hard work! He was nippy and jumped up at people on walks given the chance and was just too high-energy for us! You just have to manage them for the short time you have them. It is not up to you to train someone else's dog in my opinion but just to take care of it and exercise and feed it. Good luck! I hope you won't be as glad to see the back of your temporary dog as we were Indy!!
