Hello everyone!
Sorry for a long post but I would like to introduce the whole background of my dog so it might be easier for you to understand. Thanks for reading if you managed
I'm happy owner of 7months old Border Collie (see attached :)). I'm writing here as I have couple problems with my pup, I've already read a lot on the internet but decided to describe this specific situation.
First of all let me introduce Panda, she's very energetic, fast-learning and curious dog. We got her from good breeder and I believe that she, her mom and siblings were taken care of in a proper way. I want to say at the beginning, that I read a lot, we were in dog kindergarten (basic training) and now we are working with a trainer/behaviorist that we meet approximately once per week. On top of that we try to work with her every day.
The mistake that we might have done was taking her a bit late. We were going to long vacation in Asia so we couldn't take her "on time". We reserved and met her when she was 2 months old, I remember that she was very active and brave puppy. When we came to pick her up at 3,5 month of her life, it was a bit different. She was more scared (maybe because of being last one to be taken) and careful. She needed a bit time to come to us. Later on, my trainer/behaviorist said that it might have worked much better if we took her at 2nd/3rd month. Anyway, we had some small problems from the beginning. House of the breeder was in pure peaceful environment - silence, no cars, not a lot of people. We took her to big town - not that bad, but a lot of people & dogs around on every walk. She was very scared of elevator or to even walkout herself out of the apartment. She didn't like to go out and we waited 3-4 days for her first pee outside.
If I would need to briefly describe her character, I would say that she's literally scared of everything but she can get over something in a minute. Her fear transformation was very visible, she was scared but never barking/aggressive for first month of being with us. She was really careful with dogs, didn't like them. First example of her getting over her big fear - we just let her run with other dog, the one we were sure about that nothing will happen. From the first play she started to love dogs, now she wants to play with every dog. Even when we meet super big one, she still is curious and is coming to him. It took her literally one time to completely turn the situation. The same with driving car, she was so scared to be in car but then once we went to my parents (they have garden) - after 2-3 rides she realized what fun comes after. Now she jumps in herself and is super happy to drive.
One thing that she's scared of is people, especially around elevator. People that are coming in and out fast, she had "biting" incidents. Maybe not biting but 'grabbing' them when they turn around fast or do any fast moves. This thing is still in progress as we didn't unteach that entirely. It's funny, because she barely let any stranger pet her. Situation changes when the person is dog owner - then she thinks about it so positively that she loves the person immediately. Comes, want to hug etc - almost like with owners But when someone is running? No way, she turns into aggressive dog and that's why I'm posting here.
How are we fixing elevator problem? The problem was when some one was just behind the opening door so my behaviorist said to train with her in this way. Go to 7th floor and push the buttons all the way to 0. Each time door open - give her snack and say how good she is (of course when there's no negative situation). It really works, it's not 100% untaught like I said but it works. Then I always make her sit in elevator and whenever some one is inside before entering - I let her chill a bit and adapt to situation. I was doing that with commands but now she learnt to do it herself. Once we go in and she's fine, I say how good she is and give her snack. Sometimes when some stranger wants, he can pet her and she lets to be petted. I guess it's even bigger reward for her and it's good thing to do, correct me if i'm wrong. Although she very rarely let any one touch here (unless you have a dog or sausage)
Around 2 months ago she started chasing things - cars, bikers, runners. Chasing, barking and even biting. It began big problem and it's something we are working on right now and that's the main thing. I would like to ask you for advice and here's what we do: whenever we walk and there's a person walking fast/running and she doesn't care we say how good she's + snack. When something is closer then we say sit-stay and if she won't do anything - snack. With bikers it's more difficult, it's hard for her to not care. Cars - similarly. We do the same but I don't see much progress. We were in forest recently and she was off-leash. I know now that it's mistake and once it's not fixed we shouldn't let her go. She chased the bike so far that I ran towards them, the guy stopped biking and what Panda did? "Happy ears", moving tail and wanted to be petted by biker. Anyway, I came back home and I wanted to see how she's with bikes in general. I took bike from basement and as I was carrying it she started to bark at me a lot. I think that she barked at me for the first time, she was really terrified of bike. Then I took it on the street and my girlfriend stayed with her. I went on bike and started to ride around. Once I was passing them she reacted exactly the same as with stranger biker. She didn't care if it's me, barking + chasing, aggressive. Then I came with bike I let her sniff it, gave her a lot of snack and was riding around her a lot (for her to adapt?). Anyway, it didn't really work yet. Is it even correct?
There was similar situation with one runner, she started chasing it and once he stopped she acted super positively towards him. Instinct?
Another thing is that I think she's aware when she's on and off the leash. Once she's on the leash she's much better to handle, in the forest without the leash - she doesn't care, stops listening. That's the main problem as I see the danger coming, want to call her and she just doesn't care in some environments. I feel like she listed to me more one month ago. Also, I know that we shouldn't let her go off leash and we won't anymore until we fix it.
About people I had idea that whenever she's terrified of someone, just ask a person to try to pet her - give her snack etc so after a while maybe she would take all the people positively - same as dog owners. What do you think?
I'm looking forward for your advice and sorry for such a long text. Hopefully someone managed to read it all
Have a great day everyone!
