Jacq

Wow, there's loads here to be getting on with, thank you. I like the idea of counter conditioning, I can see these suggestions working for her. I'll give it a try and post how we get on!

Hi I have a lovely collie now coming up to a year. She is a lovely family dog, our first collie, and a shock to the system! But we've worked hard on training her, and ensuring she gets lots of walks, and we're really pleased how she has turned out... except! Except we made the mistake in the first couple of months of having her of keeping a stair gate so that she couldn't chase the cats. Consequently she is deeply mistrustful of the cats, and while they do take it in their stride, she has developed an issue that she is taking out on them. There are 5 adults in the house as my kids are all grown up and still at home, and if anyone sneezes, smirks, laughs or blows their noses the dog goes bananas, running round the house with real anxiety until she finds a cat and barks at them. Its not the end of the world but very tiresome. She seems more anxious when we are all home together, and is much calmer when there is just one or two of us about in the day (unless we sneeze!) Does anyone have advice on 1) how to desensitise her to the coughs, sneezes and laughs and 2) stop taking it out on the cats! J