happy pets. Happier you
Reactive Border Collie Specialist
Helping Border Collies stay calm in a busy world.
Breed-specific training and support for owners who are done guessing. If your Border Collie is reactive, intense, overwhelmed, or impossible to switch off, you are in the right place.
Hi, I'm Ellen, the trainer behind The Urban Herder.
I’m a Border Collie specialist trainer and behaviourist, focused on helping reactive collies thrive in real life.
Not in a controlled training field. Not in perfect conditions. In the places you actually walk every day.
I specialise in the unique challenges that come with the Border Collie brain:
Reactivity and lunging
Car, bike and runner chasing
Environmental scanning and fixation
Frustration and over-arousal
Inability to switch off at home or on walks
Predatory and herding drive in everyday life
My work is force-free, science-based, and built around the dog in front of me, not a generic programme.
Because training doesn’t need to feel chaotic. It needs to feel clear.
Two ways to work with me.
The Calm Collie Method
A structured 12-week coaching programme for reactive Border Collies.
If reactivity has taken over your walks and your confidence has gone with it, this is the most supported way to create lasting change.
Everything is personalised around:
✔ Your dog
✔ Your triggers
✔ Your environment
✔ Your lifestyle
You stop guessing. You stop constantly managing. You start building calm behaviour that actually sticks.
The Collie Collective
The monthly membership for Border Collie owners who want ongoing support, structure, and a community that actually gets it.
Inside you’ll find:
✔ Monthly training plans and challenges
✔ Live Q&As and goal-setting sessions
✔ Expert guest workshops
✔ Herding games and predatory play outlets
✔ A community of owners who understand what you’re living with
It’s the place you go when you want progress to stick, not fade.
Border Collies don't struggle because they're bad dogs.
They struggle because they’re working brains trying to cope in a pet world.
And generic dog training advice doesn’t account for that.
Walks shouldn’t feel like a military operation. But if you live with a reactive Border Collie, you know the reality.
You scan the environment constantly. You avoid busy times. You cross roads, change routes, and brace yourself every time another dog appears in the distance.
And when your Collie reacts, barking, lunging, fixating, spinning, chasing, it feels like you lose them completely.
It’s exhausting. It’s embarrassing. And it can make you feel like you’re failing.
You’re not.
You’re just living with a breed that feels everything intensely and reacts fast. There’s a difference.
office@theurbanherder.co.uk
Why Border Collies need a different approach.
Border Collies are bred to notice movement, control environments, problem-solve, and react fast. That’s what makes them extraordinary working dogs.
But in the wrong environment, or without the right outlets, those same traits become reactivity, anxiety, obsessive behaviours, chasing, over-arousal, and a dog that cannot settle.
You don’t need a stricter approach. You need a smarter one, built around instinct, nervous system regulation, and the reality of modern life with a Collie.