Collie mental stimulation?

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Lucy_Nottingham

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Ok, I think tis pretty well accepted on this forum that collies are bright little b**gers! and therefore, along with the oodles of exercise, they need mental stimulation too!

beau is 9mnths old, and currently is happy with a toy and a good old play around now and then, then will settle down and sleep until next energy boost or walk.....

however I am worried that as he gets older he will need more and more stimulation!

So what do people who own or have owned collies do to solve this?! When he gets to a year old I am going to start taking him to agility classes (I think) to see how my unco-ordinated oaf gets on with that!

Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
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Thanks!
 
Agility is a great way to tire a collie out mentally, mine can go on a walk for 3 hours and by the time we get home are ready to go again, but give them 30 mins agility training and they will actually sleep!!!
I quite often do what is called free shaping, mine are clicker trained and I will often just sit on the floor with the clicker and a box of treats and see what they offer me, they will generally go through their reportoire (?) of tricks then start to look for something new to try to see if that gets the desired effect - I have taught stand on a box, in a box, lie down and head/nose touches to the ground, put things in a box etc this way.
They all love it and fight over who gets to make the clicker click!!
Even just doing something before they get their toy gives them a job to do - ie turn left/right, down, wait etc.
It's endless what you can do with collies as they find everything interesting!!
 
ahhh ok, so just playing and teaching new tricks is enough?!

He enjoys learning new tricks (then going round the park showing everyone!) so thats good!

He is too young atm to do agility apparently as he is 9mnths old but only 3mnths left to wait!
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He is the same about walks! its like OMG TIRE OUT!!!!!!!!!

Mine is not clicker trained as he is not REMOTELY food driven and so I didnt think I would be able to achieve this sufficiently well to make it worth while! (stupid not food driven dog!) This also means Kongs amuse him for only so long!!!

Grr

Will try random trick ideas though! Id like to start teaching him how to move away from me in certain direction (i.e. away, and come by) not to heard just to teach him too see if I can! (maybe see if my boyf would like to take him to the farm to see if he will herd, once its reliable.) But don't know what people think of this?! Can a collie herd and be a pet, or is it mostly one way or the other?
 
I'm finding a herd of 120 dairy cows to send in for milking twice a day is more than enough to tire mine out!
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Not sure everyone can give their collies some cows to play with though, but I recommend it.....providing you can cope with the "oooo let's roll in this sloppy poop" mentality!

We had to send our heifers out to their summer grazing this morning. It was 4 hours after she'd helped to get the cows in and she was still noticeably tired. That said, they do go quite far from home as they're not brought up and down daily of course. The milkers start off in the fields closest to home and gradually graze the fields further away......which will build her fitness more gradually.
 
hehe my collie goes on runs with my dad every other day for a hour and half he is a year old and blue merle so even more loopy and is starting agility and does obedience this keeps his mind thinking and challenging him and he doesnt get bored either!
 
ye im thinkin of maybe taking beau to obedience classes over summer just for a bit more practice prior to asking him to jump fences and what not!
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I start mine on obedience classes at the youngest possible age they can go - 12 weeks with the ginger no-nuts in my sig. They start training on sheep at 5-7months depending on their strength and only very lightly, they stay on that until they have basics and start agility at around 18 months. I've done that with 6 dogs now and the only way I can knacker them is with a quad bike over 1400 acres!
 
Damn, dont have a quad bike......... also a prob as dont have the 1400 acres!!! (do have rather large parks that we happily charge round like a nutter!!!)

Wil be hoping to find agility classes a.s.a.p! Prob near boyfs house at weekends as I will be spending most of them there!
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We did puppy obedience classes, however I think we will prob try to do some others as well shortly, just to improve our behviour a little more!
 
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