Note: This article was previously published at www.cratesandcribs.com. It has been revised for publication here.

I recently received an email from a colleague out of state, in a quandary over a client who was looking at euthanizing their one-year-old Border collie due to incidents of nipping. They currently have four children, and the dog is nervous, and has nipped people on several occasions. From my understanding, based on the email thread that we exchanged, the dog has not caused any serious damage, and all bites where on a Level 2 of Ian Dunbar

Just less than 14 years ago, I got my first high drive puppy, the Border Collie who came to be my second Heart Dog, Claire. She was spunky, happy, sensitive, and learned faster and better than any dog I

I have been remiss in writing for a couple of months due to a variety of personal and business challenges. Hopefully, I

Teaching your High Drive Dog to have some impulse control

I recently met with a client with a very high drive dog, whom she is training as a service dog. The large, adolescent dog is pretty much everything that I look for in a sports or working dog: high interest in interacting with humans, great play drive, good energy level and mental alertness, and she appears to have a decent structure. Yet, the owner is completely frustrated. The dog has a hard time focusing on her in the presence of distractions (did I mention the dog is an adolescent?) and does not seem able to relax when she needs to. She appears to be always on edge in public, and this has her owner at wit