Finding ‘jobs’ for collie in prep for new baby

[Sep88]

I’ve got a lab/collie cross she’s a darling, but currently gets 3 walks/runs/bike rides a day. My husband has a running addiction, so the two of them have the similar needs😂. However, I’m aware that when the baby arrives we might not be able to give her quite as much exercise as she’s used to, at least initially. Planning on getting a dog walker, but wondered if I could tap into her collie side and give her jobs in the house to keep her stimulated. Currently her job is ‘ball’ and making sure no one gets lost when going to the loo!

I’m teaching her to tidy her toys, but does anyone have any other ideas?? She’s very used to children, and luckily isn’t a herder. Thanks in advance! ☺️

…And any advice how to manage an exercise addicted husband post partum is welcome too 😂

I have a border collie. Totally agree tire her out mentally if you can. Think about when you do this though. My dog works outside and does not work inside. On walks she is v switched on and wants to do things. We use the ball as a reward for other tasks like basic agility, walking to heel, good behavior in stressful situations (she isn't great near roads etc). So ball is a treat not a job. The job is being a really good girl and doing everything she is told on cue. We don't do rally obedience but it's worth reading up on it as the basic principles of teaching a dog to do various tasks at pace with lots of praise for doing well are a great way to make a walk challenging. Just asking for regular down stays at a distance and releasing before she is allowed the ball exercises the working urge.

Making walks more demanding keeps her more chilled in the house. I don't train her much in the house as if I did that would be a work place and she would expect the same kind of attention at home. Home is for chilling. You don't want her following you to the toilet when you are sleep deprived and carrying a newborn. Nip that in the bud now.

It's great yours isn't a herder. All of ours have been and have been round kids. Herding isn't inherently dangerous round kids in a well trained dog. They need to know stalking and herding are behaviors they do when told to (sheep balls and Frisbee are great for this) or will be called away from (this isn't hard to train, just interrupt as soon as they start to focus with a ball or treat etc until they get the message that paying attention to you is more rewarding than herding alone). I mention this because sometimes dogs get protective of the baby members of the family. If you see this start training a focus on you straight away and it should be fine. Things go wrong round collies and kids when people think it's cute that the dog watches the kid so closely, leave them to it, and as soon as the child starts toddling the dog starts trying to round it up.

Your DH needs a good running push chair and a guide to all local trails where he can run with baby and dog. If he likes biking too then there are running push chairs that double as trailers.

Forreals. A collie absolutely 100% does need a job, or bad things happen.

When u had my first my DSis' DDog decided his job was looking after the baby and letting us know if LO needed anything

Are you getting one of those pushchairs they you can run with so that when LO is a bit older, with better neck control, you can send all three of them out for a run?

Maybe sheep aren't needed. My DN's DDog lines up all DC up in the garden then looks very pleased with himself

Awwww I've got a lab collie cross too 😍 and although she is very chill and lab-like in many ways, she definitely needs Things To Think About and can run Very Extremely Fast when she feels like it 🤣

Scent work is a good shout and easy enough to work on in the house.

We also do lots of sit and wait on walks, we throw a ball and get her to wait before she chases it (as a result she has really good impulse control!) and play hide and seek with her too, either by us hiding or by hiding a toy.

She knows lots of toys by their name and can find and fetch the right one from a pile or from behind the sofa so that's another one you can work on inside the house.

Obligatory pictures please @Sep88 and @Cece92

She is beautiful and obviously very clever.

Our DDog (different breed) took about a year to understand the word "treat" 🤦‍♀️

She is a very lovely looking Dog but not blessed with much brain power unfortunately

Opening and closing doors. Turning on lights (if she is tall enough). Fetching things for you. Taking things out of the washing machine. Putting her toys away. Lots of stuff online about how to train these things - I had a rottie who could do all of them and collies in general are dogs who love learning.

Also, treat trails in the house, put treats in boxes, bags etc that she has to work to get to or roll them in a towel.

Our previous dog was a waggy fool in comparison 😂 But clever comes at a price - clever dogs really do constantly need things to do and things to think about! Or they do things you don't want them to do and think about things that make them anxious.

Buy them both a decent running buggy? Train the dog well enough and she won't let him sneak out of the house without the baby.

My dog likes to play find the treats. He will even wait ‘at base’ behind the sofa whilst I hide them. We do that on wet days.

I had a spaniel so not as intelligent as a collie but still pretty smart. He loved being asked to go and get a certain toy from his box, they all had names and he rarely got it wrong. He also used to take notes up and down the stairs to DS which was fun. I’d give him a note asking DS if he wanted a cup of tea or something then tell the dog to ‘take it to your brother’ and off he’d go and then come back with the reply.

He also loved boxes and envelopes so those filled with a few treats and hidden around the house were a big success.

Collie owners: get him to load the washing machine, fetch the remote and file your tax return. Dachshund owners: I mean, he does know what sit means, it’s just that he’s not really in a sitting mood right now…

This is so sweet

Accountancy?

This is my wee girl on her morning run!

Thanks very much for all the suggestions. Will definitely try and teach her to fetch Muslins and maybe I should try getting her to fetch a water bottle for me!

We do some ‘find it’ exercises already, but maybe trying to teach her the names of objects will add a layer of complexity. I’m still in the first trimester, so have plenty of time to train her.

Husband is all over the buggy research, and I’m hoping he will be able to take the dog out first thing, then (when I’m ready) I’ll be able to take her out in the evenings.

She is a really calm little soul and I think she will love having a baby around, I just want to work out what I can do now to make the transition as smooth as possible for all of us!

Thanks again everyone ☺️

Oh isn't she gorgeous 😍

She is lovely - the thing that helped with my rottie was target training. Once she got the idea of touching a target with her nose or paw, opening doors and turning on lights was pretty easy.

Nothing useful to add. Just going to say my clever old dog took a few days to learn how to unscrew a Kong wobbler!

I have absolutely missed a trick, my JRT is no use around the house.

The ultimate goal, surely?

Collies need jobs, that is treating it like a dog.

Was also going to say scatter feeding, used to turn a 1 second meal time into about 20 mins in the garden.

Tricks are great! I have a very high energy working mixed breed and on the odd day where we can't do as much I'll do 10/15 mins of tricks and it tires him out really well (especially learning new ones). And scent work games like people have said. You can get good online courses for both!

My DS at 7mths was sitting up and throwing a ball for my dog. Dog dutifully brought it back to him and the game would last for ages. (DS was walking by 11mths).

Agree with others, teach it to fetch items - from upstairs (for the exercise) bag, bottle, toy etc. Don't worry about germs. Apart from the v early days of course.