chrisandgabe

I'm so happy for you that you've had some success, and do hope it continues. I am quite leery of any fix that happens "instantly", especially when dealing with fear or trauma. Best wishes to you both.

There's an app called click stats that will both make the clicker sound and take data on your training session. You can also use a marker word or clicky pen.

I usually teach stay by giving the dog a series of treats, and using a release word. It's typically 5 treats. Dog sits in front of handler, handler puts up hand like a stop sign, says "stay"(once), and then feeds the dog a series of 5 small treats (or half treats), and finishes with a release word like "take a break" and encouraging the dog to move/break the stay after the release word. Repeat a few times. Then, start spacing out time between treats (adding duration). When dog has success with that a few times, begin by doing a little rock step back and coming back in to treat the dog (still 5 treats). As the dog has success, add in more distance between handler and dog, or distraction, or longer durations. Make sure the dog has success each step of the way, and keep using the release word to mark the end of the stay.

Gabe is pretty similar in this way. With people he knows, he's incredibly affectionate, snuggly even. With new people, he starts out aggressively barking, and eventually gets curious and goes up to people in this kind of conflicted wants to meet them/is terrified of them way. I work with him a lot on staying calm away from people, and not doing things that invite pets/attention/things I know make him uncomfortable. As he gets more comfortable, we work on people throwing treats to him, or throwing a ball for him that he brings back to me and I pass along to the new person to throw.

I really like teaching a nose target (touch), and when Gabe's getting a little nutty, he'll have to play the "touch game" and follow my hand on one side, other side, behind me, under leg, etc etc. We also like trick training! We've done "raise your paw", "roll over", "what does a cat do?"( weaves in between my legs), "where's gabe?" (comes up in between my legs and sits looking up at me), and started some work on paws crossing and general paw targets. It's both fun, and gives him stuff to do with me when meeting new people that he's not happy about.

We both work full time and adopted gabe, our presumably border collie/Australian shepherd mix (but maybe all border collie) at 2.5 years old. We think we are a good home for him, but he's definitely not for the "casual" dog owner. I wake up almost 3 hours before I leave for work to walk him (approx 1 hour and we work on leash skills and reactivity), sometimes a little training session in the morning too. My husband and I have staggered work schedules so he's home earlier than I am, takes gabe for another long walk, and they often run in the yard or do some work out there. We do a lot of trick training. Weekends are all about the dog. I sometimes take him herding, and more recently am teaching a class where we take a pack of dogs on a trail walk on weekends to work on socialization in that setting. I offered to teach the class because my dog needs it. We are currently on vacation with Gabe and found a state park to walk through this morning, and plan a lot more "what to do in the hotel" things than we would otherwise so we can be with him. Find some hobbies you can do with your dog, and start to love training. Also praise and reward your dog for being calm. Stick around these boards, they're a great resource. Enjoy your dog and all the things he will teach you

Gabe's been learning to roll over for a while now, but has seemed to still need a lot of physical cuing in order to be successful. Last night, for the first time, I was able to stand up and give just a verbal "roll over", and he did it! And then moved right along to not needing the "down" cue first, could be told to "roll over" and he would put himself down and do it. My husband came into the room and saw him do it and asked "wow, when did he learn to do it without help?" "About 2 minutes ago". He learns a lot of stuff, and this isn't the first trick he's learned, but he had a tough time putting it all together, so it was cool to really see that moment where he went from kind of knowing it to really knowing it. My brother seemed to be videoing, but totally failed. We'll try to get some video soon!

Even if the daycare staff are alerting you to this behavior, and interrupting it as often as possible, you don't know for sure that they're interrupting immediately, every time, and I'd guess that the staff:dog ratio isn't conducive to them being able to do that. You need to be working through this with your dog. She doesn't have 1:1 attention at daycare to interrupt her when she's starting to get overstimulated before she's nipping at other dogs. Even if they're interrupting her, what are they doing next? How are they encouraging her to calm herself down? Or are they just interrupting and then letting her go back to play? Socialization isn't just exposure to new things- it's exposure + positive experiences. A dog that is that overstimulated isn't having a really positive experience. The group I train with runs "Puppy Club" once a week- off leash socialization for puppies 6 mos or younger. They play, get some exposure to new and interesting objects, and we sit around and talk puppy problems when puppies need a break from play. It generally lasts 45 minutes, with breaks, and around that point puppies are overstimulated and it isn't "good" play anymore. I can't imagine a 4 month old puppy being able to do a day of daycare and not losing their brain. I would instead look for a puppy kindergarten class or something that has a little bit of play/socialization and also obedience work, and work with your puppy on impulse control things like staying, leave it, etc. and use these to help her maintain her brain around overstimulating things. As she's heading towards your boyfriend's ankles, interrupt her and give her something else to do. You can also have her drag a leash in the house so she's easier to interrupt and redirect when he's around. The digs on doggy daycare here aren't to say you're not doing your best as a dog owner, just a different way of looking at the daycare experience for dogs. I think daycare is really oversold for its benefits of socialization, when small, better monitored interactions would probably serve more dogs much better. I've found the people here to be excellent resources, and know the quirks of raising border collies incredibly well. I do hope you take some of this advice in the spirit it was given- to help you eliminate this behavior from your puppy. Best of luck, and we all love puppy pictures!

I'm so happy to read this thread. Our labradoodle got bathed regularly, and groomed every other month or something. Gabe gets bathed when he stays at my friend's farm, and she does a hose and shampoo when she returns him. I'd be okay with him coming home with no bath, but she bathes all dogs before she sends them home. He hasn't been there in a while, and I was just feeling like a neglectful dog mom for not bathing him, but he doesn't look or smell dirty! So now I'll give myself a break, and be grateful for his Teflon border collie fur.

Get well soon Gibbs!

Yes, thanks for mentioning this. A young dog in our former neighborhood passed away this way.

I don't mean to keep beating a dead horse here, but I think it's pretty risky to be continuing to put him in situations that might end in a fight or attack. By continuing to go to the beach with tourist dogs around, which has been an issue and caused problems in the past, you are leaving the door open to another fight, another attack, another issue which sets you back a great deal in helping Elwood feel safe. Were these "big American staffys" dogs you knew and knew were completely bomb-proof with other dogs? So you knew without a shadow of a doubt that if your dog started acting negatively towards them they would just ignore it and walk away? I'm not sure it's possible to know this 100% with any dog. What kind of control did you have over this meet and greet? If there's a dog you know he has good interactions with, I'd start with LOTS of good interactions with that dog, and slowly expand with dogs you know have a pretty good chance of having good, positive interactions with. I'd be really cautious with unknown dogs.

Oh what a cutie. If only I thought Gabe would allow another male in the house...

In "How Dogs Love Us" Gregory Berns talks a lot about how he trained the dogs to lie still in the MRI machine. It was one of my favorite parts of the book!

The dog I raised from puppy-hood was my labradoodle puppy, and he never developed any real issues as he got older. Went through typical bratty adolescence, but was in general a well-balanced, social, well behaved dog. Except for that time I discovered he loved chasing deer more than ANYTHING and he took off in the woods. We had proofed recalls against a lot of distractions, but not that one, and clearly it was too much. He was social enough that he found a person walking their dog in the woods and walked back to the field with them, and went home with our neighbor. I read a book once called "Juvenile Delinquent Dogs" and it might be useful for when you inevitably hit the "my dog is a wacky teenager and I want to cry" portion of their life. You will come out the other side, but adolescent dogs are tough.