ArtTalKat

I have a male Bc with a male terrier mix too Anyways, sounds like everything went pretty well? If the terrier is being a bit pushy with playing when the pup doesn't want to I'd separate for a time out and give something for each to stay occupied with. I usually also would say something along the lines of "That's enough" so eventually you can just say it and have the terrier come over for something else to do. That's what I did, but mine was the opposite way around. My BC harassed the terrier lol

From my experience with my BC, neither of the suggestions so far were helpful for us. Not saying they may not be helpful for you, just saying we tried both of those and neither worked in the slightest. Than again, Talon is a much "harder" border collie, yelling doesn't phase him in the slightest. When he's "in the zone" (the stare, crouch) yelling at him is more likely to make him lunge at the car faster in fact. For a while we stopped having him anywhere near cars at all, and honestly, it made his reaction more severe. For us the only thing that has worked is the first suggestion of Controlled Unleashed as well as impulse control/relaxation games. I would take him to the park so we could work a distance from the road and I'd stand and wait for eye contact and reward that. We got to the point that every time he would see or even hear a car he immediately turns and stares at me. I don't particularly care if he stares at me, I just don't want him staring down the cars. So he was allowed to look, but only for a second. It's still a work in progress, but his behavior is at a point were I feel comfortable walking next to a busy road without much concern for his safety. Like today, we went for a walk and other than a few glances at particularly loud buses/trucks and a few ear flicks, he just kept walking without any care about the cars at all. So for me, it was modified Controlled unleashed if he Lunges in the beginning I'd move away from the road. Not to really "fix" the reaction to cars, more to get him to a point I can get his eye contact again and we can try again with less pressure on him being so close.

This is something Talon had a horrible time with. He'd grab anything, and I do mean anything, from the ground in less than a second. It was way too late for us to say "leave it" or "drop it" for that matter. It was really becoming a dangerous situation, so we did a lot of "It's your choice" wit him like Sekah posted about. Starting indoors than we set up situations outside so I'd know where the piece of food was on the ground before we went out. Worked really well for us, now at the very least if he see's something super interesting he may stop to look at it or think about it, but it gives us enough time to respond accordingly. With most things he looks at it and than just leaves it there and looks at us.

Thanks for the replie, I haven't had a chance to read them. We are having a major medical crisis with Talon right now. So for now this is on the back-burner until we can get him healthy.

We've been limiting the types of food/treats he gets as he get's overexcited about foods easily. Then I'm left with no fingers and his eyes are bulging out of his head and his brain oozes out of his ears. LOL But that is a great idea! I just need to find something that won't attract the bee's as easily and that doesn't get Talon too overly excited. We've used other treats before in the past, maybe a hard cookie type thing might work! Thanks!!

So Talon has had a bad impulse to chase moving objects since he was a puppy. We've started impulse control behaviors as soon as we got him. He waits to get his food. He stays while we throw toys, roll balls, and other distracting things and only gets them when we tell him "ok" (his release word) "get it." We've been giving him an outlet for his chasing needs with balls and frisbee etc. These are all things that really helped out other dog (not a BC, but had movement sensitivities as well) but with Talon it seemed like nothing helped him with cars or bikes. We've got to the point he is fine with little kids running, with toys of any kind moving, other dogs running (he get's excited sometimes, but can redirect), birds, and cats. The problem is cars and bikes. I've made *some* progress with cars. What will happen is he will crouch, stare, then try to chase. We tried a few different thing, but I finally found something that worked. I'd go to my local baseball field which was next to a somewhat busy road and a very busy interesction. I stood at a distance at first, had him down and reward heavily as the car would approach and pass. This got rid of his "chase" part. We worked out way closer to the road this way, then changed the game. We then moved back and only rewarded when he looked back at me after the car moved on. I rewarded more when he looked before the car had gone all the way past and got excited. We again got closer and closer until we were on the sidewalk. And then we changed it to him down, the car would come, he'd look at me and I'd reward him but he'd have to get up and walk towards me (away from the car) to get the reward. This morphed into walking along the road rewarding him as we would walk and he'd give me attention. It seemed to work really well. We've been doing this for 4 days andhe's responding remarkibly fast, however I've been using kibble as a reward and I've run into a huge problem. The bee's are everywhere! If the bag is left open then they are immediatley four bee's inside the kibble bag. O_o I've had previously had allergic reactions to bee stings were I'd go into anapholactic shock (sp?). On the way homme from our last training trip a wasp got on my palm, likely from the food crumbs, and stung me. I ran away screaming lol as it flew around trying to sting me again. Luckily no reaction past the pain, hand swelling etc. But now I need a new training reward. I'm afraid of the bee's, too much to use food reward. I've always heard toys can cause more excitement when training for a calmer behavior. What is your guys experience? How did you work on the car/motion issues? What was your reward? Did toys help or hinder? Also, did training with one thing help another? so training for cars help with bike training easier?

I agree with a front clip harness and LAT game (I have the same issue with my BC, Talon, and bikes as we go running on a path that has lots of bikers going by all the time. I'm a pretty small person and Talon has some power, so I totally understand where you are coming from when you are getting dragged all over the place! It's frustrating and scary. If you go to the petstore, I do want to say I do not like the Premiere EasyFit Harness personally, and I really recomend you try it on in store and walk around a bit. I find it rubs horribly under the armpits, causing sores, as well as the front part just never fit very well for either of my dogs. Also, I find a lot of dogs can back out of them, even when fitted correctly, So since it turns the dog around when it pulls, this is a huge concern for me.

I play with my dog in disc dog as well and you really have to build up the endurance. My dog does the same thing as yours, when he get's tired he goes into a voluntary down. That's usually my sign that's he's pretty much done. Since I know my dog will keep going if the frisbee is thrown, even if he is exhuasted or overheating, I'll just keep an eye on him and how he's acting. If his tongue/lips/gums are getting really red that is a sign you need to stop now! Extremely red gums or tongue can be a sign of heatstroke and is very dangerous! When he goes into the down on his own, he probably stops panting because he is in "work" mode. My dogs does it too, it does not mean he is not over-heated, it likely just means he's getting ready for the throw. Personally, I have no problem playing frisbee with a 15mo old pup, but to each their own. I do, however, build up endurance with frisbee as well as making sure my dogs overall fitness is up to par. I don't know about herding, I've yet to do it. Does your dog get any other form of excercise? If not, then I'd probably just take it slow and build up endurance.

I keep pumpkin in stock and use it fairly often. It was used in conjucture with the chicken and rice, but also when we switched food in the first place to prevent upset tummies, but it didn't help when the food was added. I'm pretty sure the bag itself was tainted with something, as my terrier has been on the same exact food a few years before with no ill effects and he has an iron stomach. With him we can switch to any food, with zero mixing and he has always been fine. Doesn't even get diarrhea. When he's vomiting and severe diarrhea like that I know it's serious.

I rotate Blue Buffalo Wilderness and Earthborn. Both work great for me, though I'd recomend Earthborn over BB anydyay. Personally, I would stay far away from science diet. I had a horrible experience when I was low on funds and bought Science Diet for my dogs. Horrible diarrhea (worst I've ever seen), extreme vomiting, and lethargy. Took them off it for a few days, attributing it to changing foods, but the second they went back on it (slowly mixing it) they became ill yet again. Had to take one to the vet as he was so dehydrated even after drinking electrolytes. He couldn't even hold down the chicken/rice we gave him for another day or two after stopping science diet. Of course we notified the company, the place we bought the food from, as well as the FDA. So, really bad experience and I wouldn't ever take the chance with that company again. Every dog is different, my terrier needs grain free while my BC does fine with some grains. Blue Buffalo works great for me, but I don't recomend it often as a lot of dogs can't handle it. So it just depends on the dog as far as what works best.

I usually take no offense to those kinds of things from people. Sometimes people just like feeling superior in any way they can. I was once told by a lady at the dog park that my border collies ears were not "real" border collie ears. I of course replied with "His ears fell off one day so we glued on some german Shepherd ears, thought it was better than prostetics." She was not impressed but my boyfriend and I had a great laugh from it. lol Also if it helps, my BC has a pretty short, but still rough, coat as well. I think it's gorgeous

I also say start now! I know what you mean about the area and finding dog classes, but luckily seattle area has a ton of dog things! Very dog friendly area. Portland I hear is just as good too. I agree, start talking to breeders and rescues, at the very least to get to know them and see what you like/don't like. Oh and early congrats on finishing your degree soon!!!! That's exciting! I've heard this before, but it has not been my experience at all. I generally find if they allow dogs at all, they generally allow a max of two. The problem in this case would be the weight limit. Finding a dog friendly rental with higher than a 20lb weight limit can be a bit tough. >_<

Talon isn't the biggest fan of any dog that is overly pushy/jumpy and wants to wrestle to play. But he is not overly pushy about telling them to stop. Our biggest problems are definitely labs who just don't seem to understand "I don't want to play like that" and let good enough alone. Luckily, Talon isn't a BC who hold grudges against the other dogs (so far). If they leave him alone he is fine running along with them, it's when they go back after him (jumping on him or being generally pushy) that he'll give them a few warnings again, but he seems to not want to escalate things ever. He's only been in a fight once, but it was onleash with someone with a small terrier mix that they thought it would be a grand idea to rush up on us from out of no where and let their over-stimulated dog bite Talon's feet. >_< He did have a small issue with a husky once. It kept trying to push him around and be a bit of a bully, but once they had an understanding that Talon didn't want to play that way they played really well chasing each other. Boxers tend to leave him alone in lou of a lab or another boxer lol

Talon is my first BC and he's still young, but I think the biggest thing I wasn't truly prepared for was all the fear periods. He just finished up what I hope to be his last (or second to last) fear period, but I wish I would not of pushed him to say hi to people/dogs he was scared of when he was younger and scared. Take it slow and easy and go at the dogs pace would be mine.

Thanks for the help! I'm glad everyone thinks it's a fear period, as we can, and have, worked through those before! I'm honestly feeling much better today. Also, my boyfriend took him to the dog park today while I was at school. I had no idea he was going to do that, when I got home they were gone. I didn't know until he got back. >_< But, everything aparently went super well. My boyfriend said he seemed to do just as well as he's done before, he didn't have any problems with the other dogs at all. In fact, he met two dogs on leash (bad boyfriend) and he did fine, no reactivity at all. Even though that's not what we had planned to do, I'm glad it happened. As it lesson's my fear that he's going to be terrible with other dogs. I also think I *may* know what caused the aggression with my instructors dog. The barking seems to freak him out a lot. He get's very unnerved. So for now he never meets dogs on leash, unless we know the dog (I've talked to my boyfriend about this and he agree's) and we will slowly just work on ignoring dogs when they are barking and trying to get up his confidence there. gcv_border, I agree. I was not happy about the dog being there during the class, it was very disruptive. The funniest thing was it was the worst behaved dog there, some of the others were whining a bit but not like that. Well, I guess unless you count Talon's freak out. I was not very happy about the instructor lately at all. Being on your phone for the first 10 minutes of class is NOT OK in my opinion. I won't be going back. We are going to focus on obedience and socialization for now anyways and leave agility for when he's older. I think we are going to sign him up for a obedience class in september, hoping his fear period will be over, and get his CGC, then do competitive obedience. If it turns out it's not a fear period and he just has issue's period, then the obedience class will help us get him around more different types of people, which we are currently having difficulty with. Currently, we found throwing treats on the ground in front of him instead of just handing them to him helps him redirect his attention very well. He was able to walk by 2 different guys without even a second glance. He's not 100% or even nearly, but I can see improvement little by little, I think this is a fear period.