Border collie chasing and barking at other animals

[posh]

I live on a lifestyle block and have kune kune pigs. My border collie goes crazy when she is around them, chasing and barking at them. Does anyone know how I can stop this behaviour?

[KOPcaroline]

Hey posh,

Can you try to bring her around the pigs on a lead? That way you can correct her when she tries to run at them?

Bring her to their pen, and have her sit. Give her praise when she's calm and listens to you, and gradually get her closer to the pigs. As soon as she starts to get excited over them, give a sharp tug on the lead, say "no", and tell her to sit again. Repeat until you can get pretty close to the pigs and still have her under control, then try it off lead. If you have her off lead and she starts to run after the pigs, get her out of the pen immediately and tie her up somewhere to calm down.

For barking, try teaching her "speak", or to bark on command. This is a general practice that helps most dogs who bark unnecessarily. By learning to do it on command, and getting rewarded for only doing it when asked, the dog becomes trained to not bark otherwise.

It'll be a gradual process, after all, border collies are working/herding dogs, so its in her instincts to run after stock. However, border collies are super smart dogs, and train well, and usually enjoy it. So stick with the routine of having her around them in a way you can control, and she should get it soon enough.