Collie Sports

Collies are a very sensitive breed. The boys tend to be goofy and silly, and the girls tend to be a bit more sassy, and just as loving.

When training a collie for dog sports the first and foremost consideration must be what style of training you use with your collie. Collies are very sensitive dogs and need lots of praise and positive reinforcement.

Collies who have experienced 'corrections' or negative reinforcement will usually become withdrawn and may shut down all together. Collies are very willing to please, and they want to be right. They are sensitive to your own emotions as well. Training with anger or frustration will only frighten your collie.

In order to have a happy collie that works well and has fun in all types of dog sports, you will need to use positive training methods. Clicker training works wonderfully with collies.

In example, when training agility, I was very stressed by the weaves. My blue smooth boy was my first agility dog, and he picked up on this a lot. It was years before we finally started to weave on a consistent basis. And even now, if I get stressed, eh still picks up on it.

So all positives for the collies!