This dog is something else; he is a serious working dog with prey drive off the scales and a seriously high, misdirected herding drive.

That means he would chase just about everything; cars, dogs, birds, pushbikes - pretty much anything moving.

Lucky he's got seriously dedicated and committed owners who are determined to do put in the time and do the work required to give this lovely young boy what he needs.

Let me add here that his owners have had Border Collies in the past, but they have all been "show" lines with less drive, and they were assured by the breeder that this boy was a "pet line", well, if this is their version of "pet line", then I'll hate to see what their working lines are like.

They had also been through another trainer, before they came to me, and, unfortunately, their previous trainer really didn't truly understand what was going on with this dog, and could not offer any real assistance.

We started by installing solid foundation obedience and an "off switch". It is vital that these high drive dogs are taught to do nothing, as they will more often than not, be a nightmare to live with.

That done - it was time to take the show on the road.

Video, middle, left; This is his first session in public.

We worked him right next to two off leash dog parks, keeping him below threshold at all times as we do not want him to practice that behaviour.

Part of what we are doing is showing him that other dogs are boring, increasing self control through place work as well as long line work where we switch him from to high to low drives.

Finished off with giving him an outlet for his prey drive in a controlled manner incorporating obedience commands.

Video, bottom left.

Another milestone for this young, high drive Border Collie.

Last time he had a melt down as soon as he saw Zelic around 50 meters away, and we slowly got the distance down to around 5 metres.

This time, new environment, more distractions, but all the hard work is paying off, he was happy to work around Zelic nice and close, down to a distance of around 2 metres.

We did some work next to the skate park, then had him watch dogs go by both in front and behind him, all without any loss of control. This is what installing an "off switch" is all about.

The video shows the finish; some long line work with recalls etc before finishing off with some flirt pole work.

Lots of kids running around off camera, push bikes going by - but he kept it together.

Still a way to go, but the progress is outstanding - only shows what you can do in a relatively short time when the owner is prepared to put in the time and effort it takes when working with such a high drive dog,

Oh, did I mention that he is no longer lunging at cars? 😉

Another milestone moment; on August 1st, Buddy attended his very first L1 Group Class with 9 other dogs. The below video speaks for itself.