My apologies for this thread going off track so much. As with all dogs, they will need training to know what to do and what not to do. Be prepared for mistakes. As you have read, there have been success stories with border collies. I have one dog which I think is a border collie mix (he has short black hair with a white chest with black ticking) he is about 8 years old and a two year old yellow lab/mix. Both of them have been active dogs and neurotic if kept cooped up for too long. They are also very willing to please. Especially the younger lab, Daisy. They both know when they do something wrong. I used this to my benefit, as they are very smart. When they showed too much interest in chickens, chasing and barking, they were given a stern "no!" and they would stop, at least for a while. The process wasn't without heartache. They severely maimed one of my pullets which eventually died from her injuries. It was a learning process for me and i'm more the wiser today because of it. Prepare yourself for "learning" experiences and don't let yourself get too discouraged by mistakes. I, now, let my chickens free range with my dogs. My dogs even respect the kittens we got this spring. They just needed to know that the kittens were not to be toys and they're welcome on the farm. Everything else is fair game for extermination (predatory animals and other vermin). Our dogs have turned out to be quite the pets and they are loved by us. I wish you best of luck on your training adventure. As for your methods, there is plenty of literature available to you, stories on this site. There are plenty of good methods and, remember, each dog is different and has different needs. It's a shame that it too often becomes an argument. I wish you the best of luck.
