Mia - cover dog in our 2018 Calendar"

Mia was farm bred, sold as a pet to a couple in a flat who worked full time. She did not enjoy a domestic life. Assessed and re-homed as a sheepdog, she is doing well.

Our cover girl was bought as a puppy from a farm near Motherwell in Scotland by a young couple from Glasgow.
They had thought carefully about bringing a dog into their lives and had even looked for (and found) accommodation near to a dog park so when they got their puppy there would be facilities nearby for exercise.
They saw an advert for a litter of Border Collie pups and from the litter picked Mia. nitially it all seemed to get off to a good start. Mia was growing rapidly and they had some basic puppy training in place. They had done some research on the breed, were well informed and were taking the whole business of dog ownership very responsibly.

Then, out of the blue, when Mia was around 10 months old, their landlord told them that he would no longer be allowing pets in his properties. They tried to find alternative accommodation but kept coming up against a 'no pets' policy and sadly came to the conclusion that Mia had to be re-homed and contacted us.

Mia was brought into BCR by her very regretful owners, along with her puppy leads, toys and other possessions.
She was already a big pup with potential to grow into a large dog if she was ever to catch up with the size of her ears. On first impression it was clear she had reached the point of being too sharp and unruly to live in a house in a built up area.

In the first few days in our care she showed us she was a dog that needed some sort of mission and purpose to take the edge off her growing frustration. Our first job was to offer her a chance to try some of the various disciplines available to her until we found one she was keen on and then allow her to develop her skills in that direction.
One thing was very clear. If she was to realise her potential she would be better doing so in a quiet environment where she would not be over stimulated by her surroundings and with more space to work off her excess energy.

Our first assessment on any dog we take in is with livestock. Young pups, adults and oldies all get a chance to show us how they react to sheep. It's important to know that so we can aim the dog in the right direction.
We are not trying to turn dogs into sheepdogs. That is their choice. We offer them the chance.
You can't make a dog work at something it has no interest in but if it does want to herd it would not be happy in a home where it couldn't. The other side of the coin is to find out if a dog is a liability around livestock. That is just as important.

On her initial sheepdog assessment, Mia showed a great deal if interest in our sheep.
Her old owners had been able to tell us where she came from so we made enquiries with the breeder and were not surprised when we found out her background was from a strong herding line. He was not surprised she was showing interest in  working either.

She had left the farm she was born on as a very young pup and had never seen sheep but as she grew she had shown some herding behaviour, nipping at people feet and ankles as they passed. She also flanked from side to side when out walking and sometimes dropped at a distance and stared intensely at other dogs approaching.
If her instincts had remained subdued and had not developed any further it may have been possible to overcome these behaviours and settle her down as a domestic companion but the root of her frustration was due to being driven to follow these instincts without the opportunity to fulfill them- until now.

Mia was enjoying her new quiet surroundings. She had secure space to run free, paddocks where she could train to work the sheep and the companionship of people and other dogs all day. She enjoyed being outside, relished the company of other dogs,  loved people and all her frustrations melted away as she relaxed into her hereditary sheepdog background.
Still under a year old she played hard and responded well to training, exploring her instincts and honing her skills.

It's not our job to train dogs. Normally we leave that to the people who take them on.
However in some cases it is necessary to untrain them and point them in a new direction in which case some initial training in that direction is required to get them started.
To be a useful stock herder a dog needs to be able to think for itself and know when to follow it's instincts rather than blindly obey an instruction.

Instinct plays a huge part in herding behaviour and good sheepdog trainers know that they need to give the dog space and allow it to learn from it's mistakes offering guidance rather than discipline.
A good dog handler knows that there are times to give a dog its head and allow it to make its own decisions on what needs to be done in order to achieve the result required.

Domestic dogs are trained to be obedient and follow commands to the letter so they need to be freed from these constrictions if they are going to herd.
There are some basic commands a sheepdog does need to respond to but problems arise because some words used in obedience training are the same words used in herding - but for a different result.

Individual shepherds and stockmen may use their own choice of words or whistles to get the dog to go left, go right, stop still, lay down, go back, move slowly, walk forward, give the sheep space and stop what your doing and come to me.
These are the main things they need to achieve and there are accepted general commands but flexibility is the key.
We don't train because if the dog goes to a home where different commands are used the dog has to learn over again.

Mia was picking up these skills very quickly and it was becoming increasingly difficult to see how she could ever have fitted into an ideal family pet in the long term. We see a lot of dogs in these circumstances and they inevitable suffer from behavioural issues because of the conflicts that arise between lifestyle, environment and instinct.

We started looking for a herding home for Mia and an application on our books was from a very large farm in a spectacular location in Herefordshire near the border between England and Wales.
A couple with years of experience handling and training Border Collies wanted a dog to help work their sheep but also to be a companion when off duty and allowed to enjoy some home comforts in the farmhouse.

Although they were busy people (farmers don't get much time off) they drove to Yorkshire to meet Mia and see her around our sheep. Taking on a new sheepdog is an important occasion and people will travel long distances to get the right dog.
They already had older collies and it was important that any new dog fitted in and got on with them so they all came.

It went well. Mia showed her prowess and got on with the other dogs. They all traveled home in the back of the pickup for the obligatory 4 week trial period.
The couple thought Mia was a fit pup with good character and hoped that her relationship with the older dogs would allow her to pick up some of the skills needed for working their stock in their environment.

The adoption went through. Mia showed a preference for working with the wife and to this day enjoys the kind of freedom that all Border Collies would love to have, along with the opportunity to have a fulfilling career.