Maureen Guse has lived in Hanna in La Porte County her entire life. She currently works as a Veterinary Technician and Assistant at the Morthland Animal Clinic and has worked there for over 22 years.
She previously worked in the floral industry for over 25 years, but after a while got really burned out on the holidays. She decided to make a change.
“I’ve always enjoyed the medical aspect of the animals and taking care of animals,” explained Guse.
She began working with border collies when she got her first border collie dog. One day, her husband sat a dog in her lap and said, “We need one these.” And that’s when it all started. She had no idea then how far it would take her.
When she began training her new pup, she turned to her neighbor who knew all about them and he helped her get started.
Guse learned quickly that border collies were a lot more than meets the eye.
“They are very intelligent. They are a bit of a project. It’s basically constant training. They are very smart and can outsmart you,” said Guse. “You never stop learning with them, they are always teaching you something.”
Border Collies require a lot of walking and constant work. Guse has done some minor horse training in the past and says that Border Collie training is not as difficult, but does require a lot of body movements and blocking. She likes it a lot more compared to horse training because, “You don’t tend to fall off a dog,” she joked.
When asked what advice she would give someone looking to welcome a Border Collie into the family, Guse said “Well, I’d give them a little warning first. They are very active dogs. They take a lot of energy and mental work.”
“If you don’t keep them busy they will go off and find something to do.” And that something is usually not anything helpful to the owner.
The training consists of a lot of “brain games” says Guse. “They have to think. They are very thinking dogs.
Guse says that the goal is to keep them busy and tire them out. Working on Border Collies mentally is harder on the dogs than any physical work. If you send them outside to round up the sheep for a while they ultimately come back unphased.
Guse has about 11 dogs that she is currently training, a few of those dogs she takes to Stock Dog Trials. Stock Dog Trials are basically the sheep dog version of dog shows. The trials are only open to border collies.
For those interested in owning a border collie and training one, Guse warns that it’s easy to getting pulled in really quickly.
“Once you get into border collies, you find out you have to have land, you have to have sheep, you have to have a camper to go to the trials,” she said.
One of the many perks of training border collies is all the traveling. Guse has traveled all over the country for trials. In October, she has one in Wisconsin and one in Ohio.
When asked how many dogs she personally owns, she said only one. “That one pretty much consumes me!”
Guse currently only trains about three days a week and on the weekends, because of her current Vet Tech position. She hopes that when she retires she can do it a lot more. “If I could, I’d do it every day.”
If you are interested in owning or training your border collie, Maureen Guse is available for training services. You can reach her at gusem@frontier.com.