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Border terriers were bred to accompany a hunt and go to ground after the fox. They can be strong-willed and very independent. My previous dog was an obedient German Shepherd and when I got my first Border I was expecting to be able to train her just as easily. However, she had other ideas.
(Read a funny story about house training a dog - A German Shepherd called Moo Moo)
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Warning bells started to ring the first time my Border Terrier Puppy ran away from me in the park and leapt into the river. She was rescued by a passing stranger who managed to grab her from the water and then put her on the riverbank. She shook herself and and trotted off as though nothing had happened. She was about three months old at the time.
I firmly believed that dogs needed off-lead exercise so I continued to take her to the park and she continued to do whatever she wanted. Once she had an idea in her head, calling her was a waste of time. One day she went through a gap in the park fence and into someone's garden. Then she managed to climb up onto the roof of their kitchen and waited to be rescued by the owner who heard me calling her. Another time she got through the fence and ran along a railway line leaving me panicking the other side of the fence because I could hear a train approaching. She came back to me just before the train appeared.
My Border Terrier has chased police horses, stolen gloves from another dog-walker and run off with them, interrupted a game of football by taking control of the ball and running off with it, gone into the river to have a scrap with a German Shepherd.
Although she would not come back to me when I called her, she would run from one end of the park to the other if she spotted one of her (human) friends.
At home, she will shred any towel or sock that she finds. Someone gave her a soft toy thinking she would just carry it around with her like their retriever did. I took me ages to pick up all the stuffing once she had finished with it.
She has trained me to reward her with a treat for coming to me. So now she will get something she shouldn't have, come and show me and then move just out of reach. When I give her the treat she drops the object. She is particularly fond of bringing snails in from the garden and starting to crunch them in front of me, knowing that I will give her a treat so she will leave them.