Here’s a few equipment you must to have as soon as you purchased your Border Collie puppy. All Border Collies will need a collar and a leash immediately upon arriving at their new home. Have a new collar fitted so that you can get one finger between the dog’s neck and the collar.
Day-to-day collars are available in nylon, cotton, and leather. Your Border Collie should have a collar with an ID tag that provides your name, address, and telephone number; you can also include your dog’s name.
The collar also includes a handy place to hang the Border Collie’s most current rabies tags, a requirement in most jurisdictions.
Training Collars
A secon
d type of collar will be necessary when you begin training your Border Collie for Obedience. These collars are most commonly referred to as “choke collars.”
Training collars are not used to restrict air intake in the trainee, but to correct him when he does not respond immediately to a command. You will find that training collars are available in a variety of sizes and qualities.
Buy the heaviest, best-made collar you can afford—you will not need one of the training collars with spikes on the inside; Border Collies learn quickly that such a collar is painful.
They will also learn that Obedience sessions are to be avoided if you use such a collar. Stick to the standard stainless steel or chrome collar in the correct weight for your Border Collie.
Remember when you put the training collar on your Border Collie that there is a right and wrong way to perform this simple task. The collar will have a ring at each end. A loop is formed with the collar by looping it through one of the rings.
One ring will have the chain of the collar passing through it; the other will be clear. It is the ring through which no chain passes that should have the leash attached to it. The free ring should be placed to the right side of the Border Collie’s neck.
All this placement information may sound trivial, but an ill-placed training collar can bind and choke the dog. It will take only one or two instances of choking for any dog’s enthusiasm for training to wane a little.
The Leash
A good leash, another necessary equipment, is critical to controlling and training a Border Collie. Like collars, they are made of leather, nylon, or cotton. Unlike collars, the first leash you buy for your Border Collie may well be the last if it is well constructed.
You will also find some with leather or nylon handles, chain bodies, ring, and clip. Some trainers do not particularly like chain leashes because of the noise made by the links when the dogs move.
Leashes typically will be about 6 feet (1.8 m) although some Obedience trainers like them much shorter. Talk to your Obedience trainer about his or her preferences.
Tattoos and Microchips
You can have your Border Collie tattooed in an inconspicuous place so he can be identified if he gets lost.
If you wish, you can have him chipped. A microchip can be inserted under his skin with a hypodermic needle.
If your Border Collie is stolen or wanders and is recovered by a local pound or humane shelter, he can be identified by a simple wave of an electronic wand.
