Lunabaluna23

Thank you everyone this is super helpful! I have been on the look out for a border collie group of some kind here in Rhode Island where we are currently living! Thank you all again so much!

Thank you both for responding! This was so helpful and is helping put my mind at easy a lot! I am trying very hard to get my own fears under control. GL- haha I guess your right there are non hyper BCs out there! I should be specific and say Luna was a very hyper and happy BC puppy! No signs of play behavior were elicited (that we could notice) but the pup defiantly continued to keep its face in Luna's face. Luna did kind of turn her face away from the pup while keeping her eye on him, however when the puppy ran over to greet/play with Luna she was in "place" - a command that means she is to lay down in that spot until she hears her release word, my husband was about to start working with Luna running through her commands and fun tricks she loves so maybe she was ready to start working and the pup coming over messed up her flow. My husband did give her the release command from "working" and being in "place" when the pup came over- but Luna loves to "work" and people please. Yeah I wouldn't call her aggressive by any means that she is uncontrollable or trying to hurt other dogs. She can walk by countless dogs who are on leash and out of control (and off leash too) and stay by our side and mind her own business its only during some dog-to--dog interactions we see her air snap and advance to warn off the other dog when shes done I guess CptJack- Yes I meant exactly that: "if you mean 'are willing to play with strange dogs, put up with rough play and/or puppies and extended face to face greetings' as opposed to 'exist near them without starting crap'. After being trained and more importantly us learning what to do she never ever started anything but has a low tolerance for immature, hyper, noncontrolled, overly rough, dog to dog interactions. She can walk by lines of dogs who are barking and pulling at close proximity without even noticing! And I think thats a great point that we control the interactions to a quick hello sniff and then be on our way.

Hi Everyone! I have a 3 1/2 year old BC named Luna who is honestly a part of the family. She is amazing with all people all ages! Especially with our toddler daughter. She is smart, pretty calm (for a BC!), and a major people pleaser. She is great with dogs she has grown up around and in the past has been great with other herding breeds and BCs. So to get to my main question I need help with: Are some BCs just "not good" with other dogs? Background: Luna used to be very hyper (like all BCs), had a hard time listening to commands, was super reactive on lease, not great at the dog park with other dogs (when they interrupted her playing ball) and was honestly super anxious. We sought out an amazing trainer who worked with her and more importantly worked with us so we knew what to do and those issues disappeared 150%. Flash forward to last spring I was out walking Luna with my 3 month old daughter and 2 huge aggressive dogs dragged their owner down the street and across the road (the lady was literally laying on her stomach psychically being dragged and got pretty injured) to get to us. The dogs initially went for the stroller but Luna body blocked the stroller as I pushed it away into the grass. Not only did Luna take the brunt end of the attack (3 punctures on her throat that needed stitching and one that needed draining on her leg) but I was bite several time and broke a bone in my foot from a bite. Luna and I hadn't even noticed them coming until it was too late. Luna and I both needed medical treatment but made a full recovery. Mentally however I am still working on not being anxious when out around dogs we don't know. Luna seemed to perfectly fine mentally, but with my fears our time out and about became less and we stuck to more work outs and walks in areas I knew we would encounter very few dogs. With all that being said, today we took Luna to a polo match (my husband is not anxious with her whatsoever and is super calm). Luna did amazing on and off leash, stayed with us 100% did not bark, or pull once, was able to walk all around weaving in and out of the crowds horses and other leashed dogs without any issues. My fears were gone... until a younger pup came up to say hello to Luna. They sniffed each other, got nose to nose, she tolerated that for about 2 mins, and then snapped at him and started to follow him teeth bare as he ran to his owners. My husband was able to quickly correct her, she immediately listened to him and that was that. Our family has mixed reviews on the subject. Some saying that she just "isn't good with other strange dogs especially after the attack. Others think I am reading into what happened way too much and its normal for some dogs to just not "click". Could this be from our attack still? Or has anyone else experienced similar BC behavior? Any advice would be greatly and deeply appreciated to help with my mental state and help me try to keep Luna and myself on the right track to healing. I want Luna to have the best life possible! Thank you in advanced!

Thanks everyone for all the advice I appreciate it a lot. Luna has a solid recall and when she was younger (5 month ish ) her recall was good enough to start the off the leash training which we did only in fenced in yards, and then moved and we stopped moving forward with off the leash training, because after the move she started to show sign of leash reactivity and a lot of fear driven behaviors from her change to a new place, so honestly the off leash stuff had to take a back seat for a bit for us to regain her calm state while walking. Now that she is back to walking calmly and is getting better (not perfect but better) the interest has peeked again to see about starting this, but like i said we only want to start this process once she is totally back to her old self with walking Thanks again guys all this information really helps a lot!

Hi Y'all! I have a cute little BC (all 33 lbs of her!) named Luna! She is 11months old this month, and I have had her since she was 9 weeks old. I wanted to know more about letting BC's off leash to walk... Mostly how you train them to do it (if you need to train them to do it all) when is the best time (age wise) and places to try it for the first time? Things like that. I live in Charleston SC so we have lots of dog friendly beaches and open grass areas that are great spots where dogs can be off leash, but I will admit I am a littler nervous. Not just about Luna taking off, but also with other dogs, cars ect. I know that I can not have this mind set when/if I try off leash walking because I defiantly do not want her to sense my tense feelings. At thanksgiving she was off leash in a large yard that has no fence but y husband had her engaged in playing fetch so I was happy to see her not go off anywhere but I know that that is different from walking off leash! Any advice would be amazing and very appreciated!!!! Thanks guys!!

I see what your saying and that is a really good point. One that I did not originally think about. Part of me is also wondering if BC can get stressed out in an environment with lots of different kinds of dogs having very different play styles? A lot of her "friends" (playmate pals) tend to be other working/ herding /hunting dogs of different (or the same) breeds because they all love to run ad play chase/fetch with each other and honestly because their owners and myself can talk about things we are going through that are in common. One of her playmates is a golden BC mix and she was advised by her vet not to go to a daycare setting because she just got too over whelmed. Has anyone else had this issue?

Evening everyone! My husband and I have been contemplating... is doggie daycare a good outlet for border collies? Our 10 month old BC has gone to a local daycare a few times and seems to sometimes get "in trouble" for herding or being "bossy". I mean she is a BC, or course she sometimes herds and can be bossy! I just wasn't sure what kind of experience anyone else has had or any good advice! Thank you guys! V/R Amanda

Best of luck and lots of healing for you and Gabe!! That is a really difficult situation to be in. Hang in there ! It will all work out!

Thanks everyone this has been really helpful! A behaviorist came yesterday for our second session and he said most of what you all have been saying as well, the attack happened during a fear phase and that along with our unexpected move to SC (at 6 months of age) has thrown her for a big loop. He also told me that I am just as anxious as she is (tense shoulders, and just all around nervous, which I was surprised to hear but it is dead on, I am just as worried as she is) The behaviorist took the leash for a while as we walked and she became a different dog, we even had a big black lab get loose from their yard? house? we aren't sure (IDK why this has happened to us so much!!) and charge at Luna and the behaviorist and he stayed perfectly calm, and Luna was calm, relaxed, they greeted each other and started to play! IT was incredibly ! He also taught us about the "look at that" game and much much more. To clarify my post from above just a little, we have had much less of a problem with her being dog friendly off leash than on. We had those two incidents i stated above with her off leash, but she does have a little "pack" of dogs she plays with regularly where we live and does fantastic with them. The behaviorist is also wondering if the daycare was observing her behavior correctly at the daycare and plans to make a visit with luna to observe her there in the future. Like you were saying CptJack we are seeing some improvements just from the two weeks of behavior training, but it is not linear we have good days and tough days. GCV-Border we are seeing some improvements though, she is not as "bossy" and I m taking mush more control of our walks and I can see her body language get more and more relaxed as we walk each day.

Hi Everyone ! I am new to this sight and my husband and I are new Border Collie owners. Our BC is an 8 month old beauty names Luna, after my favorite Harry Potter character Luna Lovegood! We got Luna when she was 9 weeks old from a breeder/farm in Maryland. We did tons of research before we decided on a BC. We were prepared for her energy level, her intelligence, her need for a challenge and her need for a job. Once she was cleared by a vet we got into puppy training (puppy school if you will!) and she mastered a 7 week course in 3 weeks (I am sure you are all not surprised owning BC yourself!) My husband and I work with Luna everyday on command, on her jobs, getting her energy out. We have always followed through with everything we learn from her training. And then our sweet loving BC started to change... Luna went from being super friendly to everyone and every dog while on leash to very reactive on leash. It started slow and now has exploded in our faces. But she doesn't only get reactive with other dogs, its bikes, trucks, pumpkins on the street, trash cans, trash bags, her reflection,ect. The issue truly boiled over when Luna was at the dog park doing one of her "jobs" (playing fetch) and there was a puppy at the park as well. Now usually, as in up until now, Luna just ignores the puppies or playful dogs all together and just keeps "working" but for some reason this day was different. She corrected the puppy after he bite her ear too hard and caused her to yelp, but then she started circling him and going after him. I corrected her behavior she stopped, but then 3 seconds later did it again. She did this 4 times before I decided to call her over and take her home. The next day she was at doggy day care for 3 hours while my husband and I did a ton of errands and they again told us she had gone after 2 other dogs in the same fashion. We have decided to ditch our old trainer and get a new one who specialized in behavior and have worked with him once already.He told us that she is timid and scared, that when she gets reactive the hair on her back is indicating she is afraid. We never knew that. We have had 3 instances where Luna was on leash walking fine and off leash dogs have attacked us (she was fine 2 of the times and the 3 he did draw blood and we filed a notice with out town police) But I guess I assumed that maybe she had let that go by now? (those happened 3 months ago now) I guess I am wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them ? Or know maybe what else we can be doing for her? Or really just anything that can help us, we are worried about her especially since we live in such a dog friendly area we went to take her everywhere with us like we used to again! So back information: Luna has 2 jobs right now, "fetch", "hike" (she carries a lightly weighted backpack sometimes and we go for power walks or literal hikes) we are working on 2 more currently, having her put her toys away (still training on that one, she puts it away and then immediately takes them all back out lol) and to "search" for treats and toys throughout the house. One big change is we moved from Mystic CT to Charleston SC due to my husbands job. We know now from our trainer that moves can be super stressful for dogs, has anyone else experienced a move with a BC and how long did it take until they felt comfortable in your new location? (we have been here for 3 months now) Thanks everyone!!! I have attached a picture of our little nervous nelly!