bradling

After reading some other posts I figured we should try a kennel. Big issue was I hadn't been able to get it in the back seat before due to size. Friday I had her ride in the front seat in the kennel. She pretty much just laid down and stayed there the whole trip there and back. She did puke on our ride there, but I'm hoping she just had an upset stomach (had puked in the night too). After exhausting my options I was able to squeeze the kennel into the back seat. We also practiced a little on just being around and in the car. Hopefully this week will be much better for her, being able to ride in the kennel.

She is going to daycare, its at someone's house. They typically have 4-6 other dogs there besides my pup. They are excellent with dogs, and both my pups love going there. Daycare has solved many of her issues, just being in a good environment where she can socialize and feel safe. I'm thinking part of her not having issues sometimes might be from when she can be calm enough to go to sleep. Even if she wakes up while driving around its fine. One day we went to look at houses after going to herding lessons.... we probably spent 9-10 hours out of the house, driving around. She didn't have problems that day and even ate lunch right before getting back in the car. She will have to continue to ride in the car every work day, except for when I go on vacation in about 3 weeks. My other pup is doing herding lessons, and they'll be staying with the instructor during that week.

Hey all, been a little while... I ended up getting a second BC pup about a month ago. So I now have an 8 and 3 month old, both girls. The new pup, Trinket, was fairly neglected from what I can tell. Purebred and from a working line. She was very underfed when I got her, supposedly she was only eating about 1/2 a cup of kibble per day. The breeder was saying they couldn't stop her from downing water so fast she'd throw up. Best guess is she didn't get enough water and couldn't eat all her kibble. She was separated from her litter and kenneled the majority of the time starting at about 1 month old, and then on for the next 6 or 7 weeks till I got her. We've had lots of issues we've been working through: food, water, potty training, septation, confidence, other dogs, and the list goes on... She's doing so much better then when I got her, and continues to improve almost daily. One issue I've been having troubles working on is her car anxiety. The moment we get to the elevator to go down to the garage she begins drooling, a lot. I have been able to sometimes contain the anxiety, but it doesn't always work. I've been having her ride in the middle front seat, on a dog bed, laying (almost always) next to me. I'm able to pet her and talk to her. If I can calm her down at the start, the rest of the ride is a piece of cake. We've even done half day excursions in the car without issue. The anxiety seems to have stepped up a notch in this last week. This morning she swallowed so much drool that she puked about 12 minutes into our drive. I'm looking for suggestions on how to help her get over this. She has to ride in the car twice a day during the work week, from 15-30 minutes each ride. Thanks for your suggestions! See picture for example of pre-ride anticipatory drooling.

Yeah, she's pretty good with playing fetch in the house as well, and it can be a soft toy too. I've been working on using the ball for different training methods too, like the 'come-by' and 'away' commands. Today we played some hide and seek with one of her soft toys. She picked it up after about the first try... I'm always amazed at how smart she is.

I had similar issues with my pup Shadow. I mostly did what Waffles was suggesting. The difference is that Shadow would never bring the ball back, even if I tried to reel her in. To work on this I'd throw the ball, let her go get it, and wait for her to lay down. I'd then walk up to her, having her stay the whole time, and take the ball and walk the full length of the lead back. I'd then be able to call her back and throw it again. Eventually, not the first nor second day we practiced this, she started to come back with some encouragement. She's 5 months now and is a champ at fetch. It took some effort, but she now knows if she wants to play fetch she has to bring it back.

Its hard to take Shadow to other places besides the dog park because I'm in the middle of the city... I am starting to have second thoughts on taking her there at all, there's just so many things she can get away with at the dog park. And then there's always the fact that if I don't bring her ball, she'll find 2 or 3 right away laying around at the park. Another issue besides balls just laying around is that about 1 in 5 owners will have a ball to throw for their dog, and of course she thinks it's okay to butt right in. She's started showing defensiveness for her ball at a park now. As she's growing and becoming more confident in herself its a bit more aggressive than the small nipping she was doing a few weeks back. If an unfamiliar dog approaches her while she's resting with her ball she'll become aggressive and openly show that she doesn't want them around. There's only about one other place nearby where I might be able to throw her ball for her. I was wanting the dog park to be a place where she could socialize and play more, but I'm not confident we can make it that as she's easily able to play fetch anywhere with anyone. I'm also wanting her to not think she needs to do this everyday. I hide her ball while we're at home, otherwise she'll bring it to me and whine to play. I'm thinking of trying to spend more time with her working on other things like perhaps games and obedience. I've also contacted a herding instructor who we'll probably start working with in this upcoming month.

Thanks everyone for your advice so far. Much of what you said I kind of suspected based on her behavior and my understanding of the breed's desire to work. At first I figured oh she just wants to do her job uninterrupted, but was then a little concerned when a friend (unfamiliar with the breed) was telling me her nipping like this was a bad sign... We went to the dog park the other day; no ball and no creek this time. She did go stand by the gate waiting to be let down to play, but quickly listened each time I told her we weren't going. We'll probably keep ball play to a minimal there now, and only when I can make sure she's not interrupted by others. Thanks again.

For those wondering, Shadow has been doing great and has made a lot of progress on recall and loose leash walking. She's now about 4.5 months old and has just about the best personality I could have asked for. She's at daycare with ~3-5 other dogs during the day, and has no aggression problems there. She'll go and take toys or bones when the others have left them and horde them on her bed, but she doesn't show any signs of aggression with the other pups. Recently I started playing fetch with her in the creek at the dog park; I think she's already obsessed with it... She immediately wants to go down to the creek when we get there, and when we do go down she'll turn and stare at me like..."Throw it!" Before when I'd throw her ball it'd be in a field without other dogs around. She completely ignores the other dogs while we're playing fetch. One dog really wanted to play a few days ago and she started getting annoyed by it because she was busy! Since then she's started to air nip towards some dogs that get in her personal space while we're playing fetch. She hasn't bit any of them yet, but I'd really like to help her chill out a little, if possible, while we're doing this 'important task'. Thanks in advance!

Shadow and I had a great time today at the park today. I drove her there to avoid her pulling on the harness for most of the way. The family that watches her during the day tell me she doesn't pull on the harness for them, and my guess is its because they don't throw the ball for her. When we got to the park she was ready for me to throw her the ball, just as she is whenever we come up to an open field (whether I've brought the ball or not). With my new 50' lead it was great to be able to throw the ball for her and still have her safe. She wasn't interested in returning it to me as usual, and a few times I was able to successfully reel her in. The praise and treats were of no interest as usual (but she still gets the praise), the only reward she wants is the ball thrown. As she has a mind of her own she began flopping herself on her side or back when I started a recall and began to reel. So I needed another strategy as she was going to refuse to come as usual... I don't care much if she's bringing me the ball back at this point, but I do need to make headway on the recall. I began to go out to where she was laying chewing on her ball and picking it up (she doesn't mind as she's not possessive at all). I'd tell her to 'stay' as that's kind of what she wanted to do in the first place (so now she's obeying me even though that wasn't her plan). I'd walk back the full 50' length of the lead and then tell her to 'come', also adding a whistle. As her focus is on getting the ball thrown I was successful in getting her to come all the way to me, sometimes a little reel was needed but not much at all! She did awesome! She understands and knows what this command means; that doesn't mean she knows to obey yet as she's just a pup... Of course I'm giving her praise the entire time she does obey as I do use positive reinforcement in my training. I then would put some pressure on the lead and tell her to stay before I threw the ball again, shortly after letting her loose and telling her to go get it. She even started to wait for me to tell her to go before she ran. Love my super smart pup; I'm always amazed at the things she understands and how well behaved she is!

I'm familiar with the growing joint issues that can arise in dogs... I'm making sure we don't have that problem, and already doing things you've suggested... I'm not expecting too much from her, I've raised pups before. I just don't want her to kill herself on the leash, and am wanting to find ways to work on her recall. Other pups I've had learned more sooner than Shadow has, but they weren't as smart as she is. This is partially because she is stubborn. Do I blame her, am I mad at her?? No. I love my dog, she's the best, and I wouldn't trade her for any other. I'm looking for alternative ideas on how to help her learn good behaviors on a few key things. If I keep trying the things that aren't working, it would become a power struggle... Lots of good ideas have been shared. Thank you to those who have contributed so far!

Thanks Donald, I agree and think she's too young for this. waffles (now I'm hungry!), dragging her is exactly what I want to avoid. My dog is intentionally ignoring me. Shadow knows what come means, and will obey if it agrees with her. She will not stand up at all if I try to reel her in, so I'm going to see what I can do to approach this differently. I am getting a 50ft lead today, was using a 25. Planning to just do training for a bit before we go back to playing, as she becomes unwilling to listen to anything I say when we do play fetch (except for sit when she anticipates me throwing the ball for her). Another few notes... Shadow likes to be drug around on the carpet playing tug of war. She'll go limp noodle and roll over on her back, its pretty funny and cute but we're probably going to have to stop this... I need her to get rid of the idea that being dragged on the carpet or grass is okay. I am using positive reinforcement as training in as much as she will let me. Like mentioned before, I can't praise, give her treats, reward her or anything if she does bring the ball back to me. All I can do is throw it for her again, but she hardly brings it back so this makes it hard.

Thanks for your time and all the great advice! Yes, my dog is stubborn! I agree that it's not smart to try and fight the stubbornness, just as with a child; better to get her to do what I want by taking another approach. I can do a bit better here, and glad you pointed it out. She is extremely intelligent. A few weeks ago she learned to vertically scale a small fence and jump over it (I have the video, may try and post it later)!. She knows what I mean when I tell her to go potty, when I'm telling her no, drop it, etc... I don't think she needs a prong collar, but at the same time its not a torture tool if used correctly. Don't want to get in a discussion over this though... I'm not wanting to or planning on using it. But I know that its a lot more humane to have loose leash with this all the time then let her choke herself to death on a regular collar. She would literally run in place as I walked holding the leash! I think she's hurt herself a little from it, hence me switching to a harness. The front hook harness has worked mostly well, and I think with more practice, and using suggestions here, we can have some progress. Maybe reducing the amount of times she gets to play fetch is a good idea. I'm going to try and work with her at the park on commands a bit before we try again. Shadow is not extremely distracted while at the park, she is focused. Focused on the ball! She can play fetch (without reliably bringing it back) while other dogs are there and children are running with her throwing the ball for her! Yesterday when I had to drag her back to me each time on the leash there were no distractions. Can someone clarify the 'reel em in' a bit? I'm guessing this is assuming your dog is still standing and walks back to you while you pull the leash in? What do I do if she refuses to even stand while I'm 'reeling her in'? Drag her to me on her back/side?

Hi all, new around here and looking for some input on how to train my little gal. Shadow is 14 weeks old, and overall a great pup! She is extremely well behaved in many aspects: doesn't chase children or nip them, no more potty accidents, and never complains about her kennel (stays in it all night). I live in an apartment, but do my part to make sure Shadow gets the attention and exercise she needs. She goes to doggy daycare at someones house on weekdays, and I take her out for good walks or playing fetch. Shadow has done very well with the basic training that I've done inside (sit, ground, up, stay, come). Outside is another story... Shadow gets so excited when we go for a walk that she will choke herself the entire way to the park where she 'knows' she's going to play fetch. A trainer I know is highly suggesting using the pincher/prong collar. He uses it for most of his training and is quite successful. Shadow has used it 2 times, her last time she did extremely well and was loose leash the entire walk. Not sure I want to use this, but its currently an option with how stubborn she is. The PetSafe Gentle Leader (head halter) did not work at all with her; she would just pull out of it no matter how painful it was for her to slip it off her nose. She did okay yesterday with a strap harness hooked in front, but today she pulled quite a bit on it. She can be very good when coming back from the park playing fetch and loose leashed the entire way, but I can't seem to contain this eagerness to go play fetch when we start our walk. She has come to love chasing her ball, but isn't too keen on bringing it back. She isn't possessive of it at all though. Children can even throw for her without any problems. The problem is she is unwilling to bring it back, or come to me when called. I can go over there and she'll leave the ball (she'll make sure there's distance between us), she'll sit and wait for it to be thrown again as told. If she does 'bring it back' it won't be close enough to where I can pet her. If I do try to pet her and tell her good job or reward her she jumps back out of my reach. Side note, since day one when I got her she did this whole jump backwards thing from me when I approached her (now it's only off leash playing fetch). Because of this I got a long leash to try and help. This morning I tried throwing it for her, letting her get it, take her time to chew on it, then I'd call her back. She didn't come back a single time. I had to drag her back through the grass with her harness. I would even give her treats when she got to me, but at a certain point she wouldn't even take them anymore (so stubborn!). We had to leave the park early (only got ~15-20 mins in) and she was complaining as we left that she didn't get to 'work' enough! Any suggestions on how to be able to correct this leash behavior, and help her with her recall would be greatly appreciated!!

Hey there, Also new to the forums, my girl is about 3 months old now and figured I could add my 2 cents. From day one when my pup would fall asleep I'd pick her up and put her in her kennel. After the first day she started to go in and sleep there on her own. Probably luck of the draw but at week two I started to kennel her at night, the entire night, no accidents and no whining. I can't really say about leaving your pup alone because mine goes to daycare. I have had to leave her a few times alone in the kennel, but she's very comfortable with it and hasn't complained at all. It's fine to go play fetch and do some jogging with your pup, but don't press them too hard. If anything like mine he'll probably keep going till you stop him. At about 18-24 months your pup's joints should close together, you can get an x-ray early on to verify this if you're concerned. We had a dog that we jogged with too much too early and she started limping at one point. After medication and rest for about a month she did fully recover, so don't over do it. My puppy will roll over on her back and do a snaking motion back and forth either early morning after getting out of the kennel, or on top of a treat that she's been awarded and is really excited for!