Collie Dogs

The original purpose of Collie Dogs is herding sheep and other cattle. To perform these tasks, Collie Dogs should be clever, responsive to training, and very agile. Nowadays, this breed is rarely used for its original purpose. Due to its friendly, sensitive, and affectionate personality, Collies make wonderful family pets and therapy dogs. Collies possess no traces of aggression towards humans and other dogs. They get on well with children and can be trusted with smaller pets. Since Collie Dogs were bred for herding and protecting the cattle, they treat children and other pets as a herd and feel responsible for them.

Collie Dogs are very energetic and need plenty of daily exercise to keep them fit and avoid excessive weight. About 60-80 minutes of active play and several walks a day would be enough. Collies enjoy retrieving and playing with a ball. Being very intelligent, they respond to firm and consistent training, but if the owner cannot show who the boss is, Collies tend to become manipulating and dominating. It’s a challenge to train a Collie puppy, but an adult and well-trained dog will make a good companion even for a novice dog owner.

Collie Dogs form close bonds with the family and will adapt to any lifestyle, if provided with enough exercise and interaction with humans. If left alone indoors, these energetic dogs soon become bored and may develop destructive habits. The ideal living conditions for the Collie is a large yard where they can run and play and a kennel or a place indoors where they can sleep at night. The Collie should never be chained or tied in the yard. A dog of this breed is an excellent watchdog, but it will not do any harm to the intruder.

This breed is good at a number of dog sports, such as obedience and agility. Specially trained Collies work as avalanche dogs, fire rescue dogs, and water rescue dogs that search and rescue people. They are also good at drug detection. The majority of Collies become good pets and eager workers, although Collie Dogs obtained from irresponsible breeders are often difficult to train and housebreak.