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Hi, I am glad that I found this board, it has already been so helpful and I love reading the posts. I hope that you guys can offer some reassurance and advice based on some of my worries, concerns/questions Background: I live in a village with my husband, close to woods and not too far from the Lake District. My husband and I love going on local walks and enjoy going for hikes in the lake district. We have always said that we'd like to get a dog, and a border collie is my favourite breed, so when for health reasons I decided to take a long career break, we decided to get our puppy - I have lots of time to be with her and train her. We bought our black and white border collie puppy home on Saturday (9 weeks, now 10 weeks), from a local farm. Initially I wanted to do lots of research and carefully select a breeder but when we visited this farm, owned by very welcoming family, we fell in love with our puppy and generally got a good feeling about the place. Unfortunately, although she was chipped, flea and wormed, their vets advised against giving these puppies their first vaccination (as they had with previous litters) until they went to their new homes. I was told that this was due to different vaccine strains. Also having lived in a barn with her litter mates and her mum, seeing very few people or traffic she has had very little socialisation. After a few days of settling in, I took my girl for her first vaccination on Monday. It wasn't a good experience for her because she was scared due to the traffic on the way in, scared by a large dog that came too close in the waiting room, causing her to bark, and then because she was so spooked she barked at the vet aswell. Overall a stressful experience, and one that I so wish had gone differently for her. Generally I have been amazed by her, at how fast she has seemed to settle with us and how quickly she is picking up toilet training. I have a crate for her, so at night (or during the day when she's tired/ needs to calm down) I place her in it, close the door and cover it over with a blanket. I leave her with a night light, and although I feel now she could go through the night, I do get up at about 3am to take her out for a wee. I wouldn't say she is "crate trained" as she doesn't go in there of her own accord to go to sleep, but I do feed her in their for positive reinforcement and when placing her in I always reassure and praise her. Putting her in her crate is met with some whining now, but she soon settles down. In the day time, over the last few days, I have tended to spend most of my time with her. At the moment she is confined to one room, and I have a blanket that I have placed at the foot of the settee where she plays either by her-self or more often than not with me. She has soft toys, chew toys and he odd ball, but I tend to only allow a few toys out at a time and rotate them so shes not bored or over-stimulated. When I feel she is calm I do some basic command training like sit and down, with treats, which she has picked up quickly, and we have a good routine for toilet training, where at the same time I'm teaching her to sit on a mat to wait whilst I put my shoes on, and not bite the lead when I attach it. She is doing really well. My worries/anxieties are first her lack of socialisation, especially with other dogs (I have had people over to meet her and she has been really happy and affectionate), and cars. I have started carrying her down my quiet road every day, giving her reassurance but she does get very scared as we approach the main road. Is this normal for this age? Also I'm not sure how much time to spend with her. She goes in her crate when I am not there and have to do other things for myself and chores in the house. I feel that the crate gives her a safe place to be when i'm not there, and she can't be destructive when not supervised, and also at times I feel that she does get abit overstimulated so I feel her crate is good for calming her down. When I'm not giving her attention, she has started to push the boundaries and chew on things she shouldn't - like chair legs, and furniture. I tell her No firmly, or say down and place her down. I do also distract her with something else but its like its something that's stuck in her head that she wants to repeat again and again to test me. Is this normal, and am I doing the right thing with preventing her from being destructive? I would appreciate your advice going forward. I love her, she is a lovely pup, I just want her to be happy, and grow up confident with good manners. Thanks

Lily is showing a new fear behavior that I am hoping others may have some experience with. I would just add this to the running thread that I've created for Lily, but seeing other car issues in the forums, it seems logical to list this separately so others can help, and be helped, by any discussion, without having to wade through my lengthy thread about Lily. Here's the issue. When we return home, especially from the park or somewhere fun, Lily acts afraid to get out of the car. She has to be coaxed out, often times switching from one side of the car to the other. she will sometimes "hide" on the floor of the car, something she's also done when she gets nervous when we have to take winding roads and she gets unstable on the seat. Then, when I get her out, she is afraid to go through the utility room (garage - utility room - hallway), and will try to slip back through the door back into the garage (and then back into the car). One day, she was so reluctant to come out, I left the car door open, the door to the house open, hoping that she would come in on her own and discover it was OK all along. 30min later, I lost patience and went to get her. I coaxed her out of the car and closed the car door. She still didn't want to come in, so I figured I'd give her a few more minutes. 15min later I went back and found her laying UNDER the car. This is a daily issue, sometimes easier than others. There are two things I can think of, that might be happening here. 1) she has an issue where her excitement turns into fear (discussed here: Lily's progress), and maybe she's just excited o get home but then becomes overwhelmed. 2) We've had several thunderstorms in the 5 weeks that she's lived with us, and she is VERY scared of thunder. Sometimes, as the thunder begins, she tries to lead me to the garage, which makes me think that she may think the thunder is only in our house ("let's get outta here!"). If anyone has any ideas about how to work through this, I'd love to hear. I'm thinking we might try treating upon getting home, but 1) she doesn't care of treats when she's afraid, and 2) treats may increase excitement level, and she already hides or needs reassurance after getting too excited (often times after getting home). We tried exiting the car in the driveway once, and it worked, but not without some of the same timid hesitation.

Hello I'm looking for a little advice. I've got an almost 5 year old BC male and I'm wondering if any of you have had issues with your BC chasing cars and if so, how you went about fixing this behaviour. Please note, he is ALWAYS on a leash so isn't in any real danger, it just makes walks difficult for the both of us when he pulls and twirls so hard on his leash. Sorry for the rambling that's to come, but I'd like to give as much history as I can lol. He was leash trained as a pup and took to it really well. At about 8 months old, all his leash training just totally went out the window when he started trying to chase cars. For a long time him and I both struggled with walks, he would choke himself on his collar the entire walk, harnesses were no good, once a car went passed us he would get overly excited and continue to stay this way for the rest of the walk. In general, he is well behaved, listens to my commands and is all round a happy and healthy companion dog. We spoke to our vet during a routine check up and they suggested herding training to teach me how to communicate with him when he is focused on a task (that being the cars) so off we went to a professional. He had no interest, other than feasting on the sheep poop, we stuck with this for about 12 months going at least once or twice a month. The sessions were great, the trainer spent an hour with us humans before every session, teaching us about working breeds and temperaments, troubling signs and the history of breeding. I learnt a lot of invaluable information I hadn't found online, Duke however, wasn't getting anything from these sessions. Slowly the walks started dwindling from daily to weekly etc, because he was simply hurting the both of us. He was constantly choking himself and his pulling injured my shoulder and my knee. So instead we opted to spend more time in our yard playing and engaging that way. (Which he already got obviously, but I just ensured that we spent a lot more time doing this.) He didn't seem to miss the walks and he enjoys his time with me outside, he is an indoor and outdoor dog, he spends his nights asleep beside my bed and has free run of the house during the day. We're currently living with 6 other people and he adores being the centre of everyone's attention and prefers to be inside with us, even if it's just to chill out in the corner. We also have two jack Russell's who are outside dogs and Duke spends hours outside with them burning off energy. So he isn't ever bored. 12 months ago we moved houses, and it's a very quiet street which leads to a walking track away from the roads. This was great in the beginning, however his pulling behaviour stuck with or without the cars. I also started suffering from chronic joint pain and the walking track is through a very hilly patch and my joints couldn't take it after a month, between the uneven surfaces and his pulling, it was too much and my doctor has advised against it. Now, we have new neighbours (about a month) and they've got a dog who is an outdoor dog who goes crazy at the fence constantly because of our dogs. Duke for the most part ignores the other dog but after about 5 or so minutes of the other dog carrying on, he finally engages. And when he doesn't ignore it, he really doesn't ignore it. He jumps on the fence repetitively and almost hurts himself when landing and constantly lands on our smaller dogs. Not to mention that if he really wanted to, he could go over the fence. Our neighbours aren't willing to compromise with putting their dog away for an hour or so a day, so Duke can spend time outside. So, now we've started going on between 4-6 shorter walks a day over the last month, and he has settled so much. No more pulling. He is more interested in sniffing everything and taking his time walking. It's honestly amazing the change that's happened. The other day, his leash somehow unhooked from his collar mid-walk (still a mystery how, neither the leash or collar are damaged but have both been replaced) and the moment he realised he turned straight around and sat so I could hook him back up. Without even needing prompting. (Proud mama moment.) BUT we are still having the car issue when a car comes passed, that hasn't dwindled. He wants to catch it. With all the progress made, I'm not complaining, but the leash coming off spooked me a bit and I need to nip this habit in the butt in case it happens again. I'm sure if there is a car, he won't be stopping.

Members, thanks to all for your advice. I’m hoping some owners more experienced than me can offer perspective on the best life for my sweet BC Winnie, 5-7 y.o., adopted 7 months ago. I love her dearly, but I fear her lifespan will be very short if she continues to live with me in a busy suburb with lots of car traffic. I need some perspective on whether to rehome her to give her a better life. Or whether I should keep trying and give her more time. She is my second BC, third rescue dog, fifth dog I have owned, first I have ever considered giving up. She came to me in recovery from heartworm disease, and very emotionally shut down. After 7 months, Winnie has blossomed into a very affectionate and loving companion. She gets along well with all dogs, loves every human she meets, and isn’t in the least fazed by other dogs barking/lunging/acting unpredictable, and is a pretty good (not always perfect) leash walker. Her obedience and recall are very good indoors or small enclosed areas, like a tennis court sized space. BUT, despite months of private (positive) training and follow up by me, she cannot be trusted off leash, has low impulse control and door dashes unpredictably – front doors, car doors, gates –she will exploit any small gap and then just run away until a Good Samaritan finds her. She has no typical BC herding drive, or focus on her human companion when outdoors, or interest in toys -- so I can’t get her to return by offering the chance to play tug, retrieve Frisbees or tennis balls. Instead, she has an overwhelming obsession with car traffic. When we go to the dog park, she ignores the other dogs and sits by the fence fixated by passing cars. If she dashes out the door, she will sometimes travel to a nearby street, lie down a few inches from traffic, and give it the “collie eye.” I found her like this a couple of times, but it was only luck that she didn’t decide to go into traffic. At home, she will for hours sit by the fence and just “listen” to traffic passing on the busy street close to my house. This is such a powerful drive that I don’t think I can extinguish it. I worry every day that this could be the day she bolts and is killed in traffic. I am not hypervigilant enough to prevent the “next time” chance when I fail to close a door/gate etc. fast enough. She is presently living a very restricted life to prevent her from bolting. She has to be leashed at all times outdoors; she can’t loaf around the house or backyard when I leave but has to be crated so she can’t door dash when I come home. There are no large fenced athletic grounds nearby that allow dogs or that I could take her to for better training off leash. She can’t run off leash in a nearby wooded park; thus she can’t get enough exercise to keep her weight down, and she needs more exercise to build up her muscles to counteract severe hip dysplasia. Please, I would appreciate compassionate yet no nonsense feedback. My heart is breaking as I write this, but I lie awake at night and worry about this constantly.

Hoping for some insight and/or training tips for a car-obsessed BC rescue, neutered female, 3-5 y.o. Any ideas for better bonding/training/behavior conditioning, books, youtube videos, etc., would be tremendously appreciated. I fear that if I cannot make more progress on this, I may have to return her to rescue as she is right now at high risk of being killed or causing a traffic accident --- I just cannot be vigilant enough to guarantee she will never have an opportunity to escape the leash/yard/front door. I previously raised a BC from a working line from puppyhood, who loved anything in motion but had no reactivity to cars. I live in a suburb with a fair amount of traffic and traffic noise from a nearby 4 lane street. My new BC rescue (11 weeks since adoption) is highly reactive to cars moving within 50 feet, and wants to eye/stalk/chase. She also becomes extremely agitated (panting/eye stalking) when traveling in the car. She has lunged hard enough at passing traffic to break the leash clip open on one occasion (she now has a chest harness with a heavy duty clip). She is even highly reactive to traffic noise from a nearby street. She has twice escaped from her lead/the house and made a beeline for this heavily trafficked street although there was no car traffic visible to her at the time -- then sat/lay down on the median and watched as if herding. She has NOT actually tried to chase the traffic, but I live in fear that she could cause a serious accident to drivers on that street. I am also at risk of being pulled off my feet when she lunges, which is dangerous because I have early onset osteoporosis. After working on clicker counter conditioning for this reactivity with a trainer over the last month, she is LESS reactive -- I can break her off the stare/drop down/chase sequence to look at me with treats in hand -- but she will not listen if no food is around. We have also done lots of training for "watch me," which also works only to a very limited degree once the treats are gone and she sees a car moving within 50 feet. She has ZERO interest in toys/tennis balls/tugging or chase games with flying objects, and is generally low energy (for a BC). She will actually turn her head away in avoidance if a toy is presented to her. She previously was in a foster family with a farm for 3 months, where she could ramble daily over 50 acres, but showed zero interest in herding their sheep. Because of their relative isolation from traffic, the foster family did see her car reactions, and did not report any reactivity to cars before I adopted. She has no instinctive recall either, nor any inborn circling pattern, and although I am working on it, I don't anticipate that she will ever have the recall that some BCs have that are raised properly from puppyhood, or just have as a genetically bred for trait so that they can do their job for a farmer.

Hi all. I am new to BC Boards. What a great site! I am hoping to get some advice on how to stop my one year old BC from fixating on cars. When I take her for a walk she gets down and does the "BC belly crawl" whenever a car passes. I tell her "no" and try to pull her up with the leash, but she acts like she doesn't even know I am there. She is completly focused on the car. After the car passes she gets up and walks normally. I am at a loss on how to correct this behavior. I understand that she is hard-wired to stalk and chase everything that moves, but this is just embarrassing. She just turned a year old and I have been walking her since she was a small puppy. I thought the novelty of cars would wear off as she got older, but nothing has changed so far. Help!