Bringing home a 1 year old border collie

[ruralliving19]

This weekend, we are bringing home a 1 year old rescue border collie and I am so excited but we have never had a dog before, so I wanted to check with others more experienced that what we've got planned sounds okay.

She seems very sweet-natured and has basic obedience training and is house trained.

I'm a PhD student so I can work from home most of the time. I have to go to a hospital appointment on Tuesday morning for a couple of hours but other than that, I can definitely be at home all day for the next few weeks. Eventually, I plan to work up to being able to leave her for up to 3 hours but use a local dog daycare for 2 days a week.

We know that she needs lots of exercise and mental stimulation and we plan to do one 1 hour plus long walk with long lead and eventually off lead running around the local dog walking field and two 30-45 minute walks on lead a day. Plus obedience training and agility training and trying to train her to have 'jobs' in the house. We've bought plenty of puzzle toys and a trick training book as she seems to love learning tricks.

She's never used a crate so I wasn't planning to crate her, but to put her dog bed in the kitchen and leave her in there with some toys, a kong and the radio on when we do have to go out for a short time.

At night, she'd also be in the kitchen in a dog bed.

What have I not thought of?

[adaline]

Goo luck - collies need a lot of stimulation and get bored easily!

[Rosa]

Our Collie stopped liking Agility( he got bored) so he now does more obedience training and also hunting things out - he loves it both outside and inside. We will try agility again in a bit - We are lucky as he has never chewed a thing apart from his toys . We rotate them when we go out , always leave the radio on . We also change the route regularly on walks . Weekly we head to the beach , or a big open area where he can really run rather than the regular walks - As for sleeping he decides , he has his bed which stays in the same place but he moves around .

[Detoxpup]

Have you seen her interact with other dogs? New dogs and dogs she knows?

[fivedogstofeed]

Give her time. Act normal - don't make too much fuss, let her follow you around the house, don't plan loads of visitors or too many outings, but let her settle and work out your routine.
If she's come from kennels she may well enjoy the peace and quiet of a home a sleep a fair bit to start with.
Collies are amazing and well done for rescuing one! I am fostering two at the moment and they can be so much more chilled than people expect :)

[Iwantdaffodils]

I strongly agree with not making too much fuss- for any rehomed dog not just collies.
Regular meals and walks and a calm environment will help her settle in.

I had a lovely collie cross years ago who came to me at that age. I had to make a point of going out and leaving her every single day for the first few months as she was very clingy, not for too long, but to prevent separation anxiety.

She was an absolute joy in spite of being very nervous to begin with. Hope your girl is the same.

[ruralliving19]

Thanks for the replies. I have walked her and she was excited to see other dogs and jumped up a bit but sat and stayed when I told her. Will tell my kids not to fuss her too much!