So, we went to the local pet store about three weeks ago looking for a dog. We knew we wanted a larger dog like a lab, German Shepard, Huskie etc. Well, this little white, black and brown fluff ball caught our eye. It was a non registered Border Collie female about 10 weeks old. I read a-lot about Border collies in the past, and really appreciated their intelligence and constant energy. I have two young boys who are full of energy, so I figured after we all fell in love with her in the little meet and greet area, we'd buy her. It took our new dog, which my son named Riley only three days, and she was sitting on command. Well, that's where the obedience stopped. She now pulls on the leash almost to the choking point. She bites my kids ankles, eats the cats poop, attacks the cat playfully, and displays agression when we come near her food. I read Cesar Milan's book and decided I wanted to be the "pack leader" and make the dog realize that Humans are dominant and Riley is submissive. Then I entered one of hundreds of Border Collie websites, and realized that most dogs, except for the occasional wolf are not pack animals, and Cesars approach, while effective in most cases isn't the right way to go about it. Clicker training [0] was listed as the most sucessful method of positive reinforcement [0] for all the dog species I read about. Unfortunately, I didn't see any results of clicker [0] training Border Collies. I contacted a karen Pryor certified Training facility www.clickingwithcanines.com [1] and spoke to Steve the owner of the facility. He feels confident he can train my dog well. I spoke to him on the phone for 35 minutes, and he is loaded with knowledge. So, if anyone at all is interested I'll update this blog with the results of training. My orientation is tomorrow night, march 26. I'll update in a weeks or so.

In the mean time has anyone else had experience with a Border Collie as a family dog?