Lol
Okay forgive me for asking a dumb question but we are new to the breed. We recently lost our 9 year old golden retriever to cancer and have decided on a rough collie as our next family dog (have a deposit on a puppy ready to go around new year's!). Our golden was the first dog we owned as adults so he's the most experience we have had as dog owners. He was a typical retriever who loved fetch, frisbee, tug of war, swimming, running, chasing the laser point, and nose work where we would hide treats in the house for him to find on command. So what kind of play do collie's like? It sounds like we shouldn't bank on getting another dog who likes retrieving or swimming.
I've done a ton of research and officially decided to move forward and put a deposit down on a great breeder here in my area. Any tips or recommendations for raising a Collie puppy, or just stories about what it's like living with your Collie? January is a bit of a wait so I feel like I need to live vicariously through other people until then :D
Is there a particular harness that is designed to be gentle on a rough collies coat? I use a rolled leather collar but I wasn't sure if there was something in particular that works best.
Argh! I should have posted here a long time ago, but I seriously thought he would have grown out of this.
I have a 10 month old rough collie male who is pretty indifferent to humans. Had him since 12-13 weeks. Inside my house, he's pretty great with my family and I -- overall very affectionate and "normal." Outside? We do not exist. Only dogs exist. All he cares about while outside is dogs. And more dogs. Dogs dogs dogs. He can't concentrate on anything other than the sounds, smells, and visuals of dogs all around.
If a human tries to love on him, he just brushes right past them as if they do not exist. He couldn't care less about receiving affection from humans whilst outside.
He also will not accept even the yummiest of treats when outside. His focus is only on dogs.
I felt I did my best to socialize him with anything and everything, despite how hard it was during covid, but even as a small pup he did not seem to care for the affection of humans.
It's breaking my heart, to be honest. Every dog at the dog park will come to all the people for some pets/loving. My pup? Nothing. And when people try approach him? He just walks right past 'em.
My previous collie LOVED being the center of attention of people. He liked dogs, but his focus was people, especially children. It was almost the opposite problem, but I kind of actually liked the "problem."
Any advice? Can he still grow out of this? I know I should be happy he's not aggressive with dogs or people, but....ehhhh....this is super bothering me.
I really want to love my dog, but this is a big issue to me for some reason. :(
I have a 2.5 year old rough collie and need help differentiating all his different types of excessive barking.
First, he's a demand barker. We've had private training related to this and it did help for a while, but maybe we haven't been consistent. I basically wait for him to lie down and put his head on the ground and then I give him a treat to show him that he gets what he wants when he's quiet and polite.
He's started barking a lot in the evening 5-7pm when the whole family is home. I think he wants to play or wants more attention, so I wonder if anyone has suggestions for how to keep him occupied before I take him on his evening walk. We have chews and kongs, but once he's done those he's barking or demanding attention still and I want him to be chill until I can focus my attention on him at 7pm.
We usually put him in the crate while we have dinner and he has started barking in the crate. I sometimes put a sheet down to show him that I don't accept the barking, but he can just keep going and going.
He's been barking a lot on our walks. He growls at any person or dog we go past. He's not aggressive. If he actually went up to the person or dog he would be very friendly. It's like a growl to go up to people and dogs? I try to redirect him with treats - he's very easy to redirect and he'll keep eyes on me, but it seems like the only way to get him to stop barking or growling on walks is continuous treats and I've been doing that for two years. I want to work towards just taking a walk and not being so alert.
He flips out at cats and raccoons. He'll start barking in the wee hours at a raccoon in our yard. He wouldn't attack either. The one time he got near a cat off-leash he just barked in its face until I pulled him away.
He has useful barking! With the time change we've been taking walks in the dark and he sometimes gets into garbage I can't see. His barking is very useful to let me know he needs to relieve himself in the middle of the night when he has diarrhea. The problem is I don't know when he's barking because he REALLY needs to go poop, or if he's being a jerk and barking at a raccoon. Same with when he's barking in the house. I don't know if he's demanding attention or if he's asking to go outside because he has an upset stomach. So I'm definitely sending him inconsistent messages about when I respond to his barking.
My partner is anxious that we're upsetting out neighbours. We live in a row house and everyone can definitely hear him ba
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I have a 7 month old blue merle and he’s just started to get his longer mane floofs. How old was your pup when their coat fully came in?
We will also be having him neutered at 8 months if that affects it
And yes, I've read up about the breed and things of the sort long before I decided I truly wanted a collie. I'm looking for advice from real owners.
My 6-month-old rough collie, Atlas, is leash reactive. He lunges at people, animals, and cars. He has been reactive since he was 3 months old. He used to literally scream at people he saw on the street, but now he mostly just barks and lunges. I live in a fairly quiet suburban neighborhood with a fenced in backyard.
I think it's overstimulation instead of fear because all he wants to do is run towards the trigger. My neighbor, who was far enough down the street that I could barely see her, called out to me today while I was walking Atlas and all he wanted to do was go towards her. I decided to see if our training was paying off and went to talk to my neighbor, which I realize now was a mistake. He completely freaked out when we approached my neighbor - barking, lunging, jumping excitedly, and nipping at my neighbor's hands.
I have brought him to dog parks where he has been completely fine and friendly towards the people and dogs in the dog park. However, he will freak out if he sees someone outside of the dog park that he can't get to. He'll bark until the person greets him or walks out of view. I assume this is genetic and comes from his need to herd.
He also isn't the biggest fan of being picked up and refuses to be put on his back despite my attempts at desensitizating him at an early age. He has slowly gotten accustomed to being picked up but still struggles to even let me lay him on his side.
How do I tackle this behavior? I can tell he's overwhelmed when greeting other people and I'm not sure if I'm addressing it properly. So far I have been bringing high-reward treats (cheese and chicken) on our walks and having him sit and look at me periodically throughout the walk. I try to avoid people/dogs on our walks or let him get close enough to notice them and then practice sitting and looking at me. He's shown improvement but today's interaction with my neighbor made me feel like nothing has improved. I'm worried that the nipping is a precursor to aggressive behavior.
Hi there! Not sure if anyone can help me. But I’m about to get a rough haired collie puppy in a couple months (I am way too excited). But I was just curious on the grooming aspect. How much do you normally brush your collie out? (Is it just once a week?) How many times do you bathe them? And for actual haircut part is it just when the paw pads start to get overgrown? And a trim up of the booty hair and tail? And maybe the hair behind the ears? If you can let me know what type of brush(es) you use that would be awesome.
I appreciate any and all help! Thank you fellow collie owners!
I just adopted a 1 year old Rough Collie about 12 hrs ago. He is drooling everywhere and panting a lot. Is he just anxious/upset?
His old family had some major life changes and could no longer look after him. His was well love most of his life but his last few months had a lot of changes. Now he is in a new home and with a new family.
He is an absolute sweet heart and is immediately best friends with my Sheltie. He is obviously pretty anxious about the change but doing well overall. But what is with the drooling? I didn’t think this is common with the breed. He is dripping everywhere. Has anyone seen this?
We got our first collie about 6-7 weeks ago. He’s almost 5 months old. The reason I’m asking is because every time he lands weird or falls down while playing(typically jumping & changing directions with zoomies) he stands up and has a limp or holds his leg up like it’s broken. But after a few minutes of calming down, he’s totally normal again. He definitely tweaks himself when he lands awkwardly but it seems to be 10% pain and 90% show. Anyone else experience this?
