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Found 15 results

  1. Hi all, I'm hoping for some advice on Bailey's hyperarousal around other dogs while we're walking on leash. It's excitement not anxiety based, and is very much 'A DOG! Let me see them! I want to say hello NOW!!!' We try and watch the road in front and manage the situation, eg, cross over or take a different route (trying to get him back past his distance threshold), but that's not always possible. He'll lunge to the end of his leash, 2 front paws up in the air, and If he doesn't get to see them he gets barky. Absolutely nothing gets through to him, treats, squeaky toy, commands, clicker, nada. He's much bigger and stronger now which is becoming difficult for me to manage, so our trainer advised us to get a front no pull harness, and also a head collar, to help us regain some control physically while working to get control of him mentally with training. We plan to start with the harness first, and use the head collar only for situations where we know things might be difficult (busier areas etc). We just have no idea what to do once he starts doing his lunging/scarab beetling and it's making walks stressful. As background, he was heavily socialised as a young pup, but primarily off leash, we didn't do much meet and greet (3 second rule) on leash, and it shows! He has no manners or boundaries whatsoever and clearly thinks that every dog wants to see him and be his friend. Our friend has another collie and has offered to do some side by side walking with us, something Bailey has had no opportunity to do with lockdowns, and usually just tries to lick the other dogs face excitedly...! Any other recommendations would be wonderful so we can help him manage his excitement, and so we can let him say hello to another dog without the lunging!
  2. Hi again, I'd appreciate advice on another topic for Bailey, as we think he's enterred his adolescence/fear/sensitivity phase and we're not sure how to address it. He's started alert barking/growling at things over the last week. He seems fine out and about on walks, but it has been random points when he's at home. Some examples below: Catching his reflection in the tv/door Lawnmower Pigeon on a roof A dog on the TV Seemingly nothing, but i assume something he senses outside at night - or a ghost He goes all alert and goes to the back door, has a low growl and starts barking. It's difficult to distract or reassure him, we've tried the 'show me what it is' idea, trying to get his focus back on us with treats or toys, patting him for reassurance etc. But he just keeps on going. A lickimat worked more but he kept getting up going back to the door to bark once or twice, then going back to his mat. What is the right way to deal with these situations? Should we just ignore it? It completely came out the blue to i assume it must be due to his age (6.5 months) and hormones and hopefully isn't a long term behaviour? Thank you!
  3. I'm sure I've seen some discussion on these boards about this, but I'll post for some ideas. My 5 month old BC mix Cricket will sometimes bark and lung at people when we walk him. He doesn't do this every walk. He also really seems to like people, and is all wagging tail and soft ears when people approach him directly to pet him. He reacts when we're walking and people are striding past him without stopping. He also sometimes does this with cyclists and runners, but not always, and he sometimes does this with other dogs but, again, not always. I don't like the lunging and barking at people thing at all. Here's what we are trying to do - if you could please let me know if we're on the right track: I am trying to get him to sit and focus on me each time a person (dog, cyclist, runner) approaches, so I can distract him. This works part of the time, but not all of the time. He's very smart, and can tell when we're trying to "bribe" him to either do or not do something. He has a good "leave it" if treats are involved - not so good if I just tell him to leave something and don't offer an exchange of a treat. He's only 5 months, so I don't expect him to be perfect at "leave it" yet. I've also tried walking him quickly past people while telling him "leave it" over and over again, but I worry that walking quickly past the object of interest might stimulate him more. Why does he do this? He's a confident little pup and we've had him since he was 8 weeks old. His interactions with people (and other dogs) have always been good and safe ones. Why would a puppy develop this behavior?
  4. Hi BC boards, I'm a new member, long time reader. I haven't found any posts that sum up the problems we're having so I thought I'd post and ask for some advice as we're all in a bad way at the moment. Edie is 6 months old and out first dog (I know a BC for our first dog was probably not the best idea, but here we are). She has always been somewhat reactive to objects, sounds and cars. We have worked really hard on cars with her, doing desensitisation training daily for the past 4 months. She's now at a point where she won't generally attempt to lunge into the path of an oncoming car, but they still stimulate her. We worked really hard at socialising her with other dogs, people and a range of objects and sounds in the early stages. She was doing pretty well with things up until about three weeks ago. The first thing, and primary thing, is the barking. She has started barking at objects she never paid attention to before, such as the dog door and toilet seat. She has begun barking at elderly women (usually) out on walks. She barks and growls at the front door and windows around the house relentlessly if she thinks something is out there (often there's nothing we can see). She has started running into empty rooms, like our bedroom, with her hackles up and barking furiously. She does this a lot, even if she had just been in the room. We've tried upping her exercise, she now gets about 45 minutes to an hour in the morning and afternoon of running off lead, playing fetch and general walking, in addition to playing with the other dog in the house, and sessions of fetch and play indoors with us throughout the day. We have tried upping her training, she is super smart and picks up new tricks easily but still struggles settling down. We have tried 'calm' training and are still working on it, but even then sometimes she'll bark in our faces while we're doing it, particularly if we try it at a cafe (where she barks basically non stop, even with constant commands, treats, toys, other dogs for company etc. She also barks when we're preparing her meals and it's really difficult to get her to sit. She has also started barking at visitors if they're too energetic, talk too loudly, dance or anything that differs from how she thinks people usually behave. This is really annoying and I can imagine to be scary if you didn't know her or weren't comfortable with dogs. It appears to me that this barking is some sort of play? She runs at them barking and wagging her tail (I know wagging can indicate aggression but her tail is low not erect which makes me think it's play) and often snapping her teeth which she does when she's excited (usually before a walk or dinner). Another thing is crate training/time outs. We have consistently been using time out as a way of getting her to take a break when she's over stimulated. We put her in the bathroom. We also have been putting her in here when we go out to work or something, no more than 3 hours max. She used to be fine and enjoy the space and usually settled quite quickly. Recently she's started howling and barking when put in there, sometimes doing so for over an hour. We usually put chew toys, treats, kongs etc. in there but the moment she's 'done' with them she resorts back to crying. She is also obsessed with catching flies. We've tried everything to keep flies outside but we have an old house and it's Australian summer so it's essentially impossible. She fixates on flies to the point where you can't get her attention, even clapping loudly next to her or stomping won't get her out of it. We try just picking her up and removing her from the situation but she's very obsessed. Minor new fun additions to her behaviour include stealing food off the bench, forgetting her recall, heavily backsliding on her leash walking training, running under the bed if we say 'uh oh', which is our word for 'you've done something we don't like' and usually precedes a time out, harassing the cat (she used to not but has now decided the cat is very fun and has begun chasing her), stealing our underwear and the list goes on... We are really trying to be consistent with training, getting her to sit and watch when she's displaying a behaviour that's not acceptable, and giving treats for being calm. If she's too stimulated she goes into time out. We're really struggling and it's affecting our relationship with her. I want so much to just have fun with her and communicate with her like we used to about a month ago, but she's suddenly become so extreme with some behaviours and it's really tricky to spend 5 minutes without her going off barking at something. We also can't leave her unsupervised for a minute anymore because she gets into the garden and eats all the plants, digs holes etc. Our housemate also has always disliked her and has begun swearing at her and being generally unkind, ignoring her when she comes to say hello, and yelling at her (luckily Edie seems immune to yelling and just gives a 'what is wrong with you' look whenever she's yelled at and resumes playing like nothing happened!). Edie isn't generally that friendly towards people aside from us and I'm worried it's because she's been ignored by this housemate since we got her, despite the housemate being 'so excited' about the new puppy. Our housemate also has a dog with a lot of anxiety and difficult behaviours and I have never heard her yell or treat her dog like she treats ours. Anyway, sorry for the essay I just wanted to give adequate background on Edie and where things are at. We love her and are on a waitlist for an in-home consultation with a professional, positive reinforcement trainer, but the wait could be a while and all of the challenges are sort of compounding and making life difficult at the moment! My questions are: does anyone know if this 'second fear period' could be the cause of this, or whether Edie might have some sort of OCD? It seems common in BCs but I'm not sure if her behaviours all together indicate it or not. Any advice on barking would be much appreciated, but I have read up on it elsewhere on this forum. And any general advice would be so welcome. Apologies if this board isn't quite the place for this but I wasn't sure where else to put it Thanks And of course, pictures!! As a tiny one: And now:
  5. Hello! I'm having a weird thing show up in my 1 year old border collie, and I was wondering if anyone had any input. It has been going on for a few months now, and doesn't seem to be improving.. Whenever he hears the trash bags being handled, he (if he is free in the house) runs forth and back between the garbage can and the door to the outside. He whines in a very high pitched, loud and long manner that in the house we refer to as "screaming", since it is so different from his usual whining. When he is in his crate when we start handling the bags/taking it out, he will start barking relentlessly (even if he is in a different room) until there are no more bag noises.. Any advice on what this behaviour comes from? Or how to make it stop? Having him bark so furiously for minutes at a time while taking out the trash has got to be bothering the neighbors living upstairs. Apart from this, he is a wonderful dog in almost every way (although still an adolescent ;), apart from his fascination with cars (which has gotten better). He gets three walks a day, trick training and obedience training regularly, and doesn't have a problem relaxing and winding down in the house. Would love any helpful feedback! ❤️
  6. Hello! It's been a while since I've last posted. This forum helped me a lot when I got my first dog (an Aussie Shepherd x Maremma - first thought to be a border collie from the shelter), he had some male-dog agression, which in the end - just ended up being his bad trait that we learned to live with. We fostered street dogs for a year, of which many males, which improved his attitude greatly and interactions, even off leash, are rare. Because he loved having a friend, we got him a buddy.... for which I am looking for some advice. Three weeks ago we got a friend for our very social dog, I decided to get a 'purebred' border collie for a multitude of reasons. Meet June (photos attached), she is a 7 month old border collie from a working line of collies in Scotland, which is also where we got her. She lived on a farm before we got her (so until she was 6 months old). So far, it has been much easier then we thought it would be and she has been amazing. The 'big' issues we are having with her are: Barking at sheep and other dogs: the barking at other dogs is getting less and less as I putting in a lot of effort to go and meet other dogs. This barking is definitely coming from a point of being excited. The barking at sheep may be excitement as well - but how does one stop it? We are currently travelling through Scotland, so there is no avoiding sheep and avoiding them wouldn't solve the issue either. Obviously she is on a leash and absolutely not off the leash. Sled-dogging on the leash: she pulls on the leash. Our other dog did this too, but he was very food motivated and thus we could teach him, with him, getting a harness helped. He eventually grew out of it... but it took YEARS. We got her a harness too but I wonder if it actually just invites her to pull. We just started doing longer hikes with the dogs (our other dog was injured, so her first 2 weeks were spend outside, getting used to us / vanlife and shorter or offleash walks) and it is pretty much impossible to walk with her. Uphill is fine, downhill is downright dangerous. I've tried the method where I stand still and reward her when she lets the leash slack, but as soon as I set 1 step forward, it's sled-dog-mode all over. I've been doing the Kiko Pup method for a couple days, multiple times a day - taking her alone but so far it makes 0 difference, the leash isn't loose once. I know this is going to take time, but still wondering about other tips. Excessive drooling while driving: I got her a travel crate, which helps contain the drool to one spot. Is this just a 'have patience' thing? The drooling comes from anxiety when driving, she doesn't puke. She loves our van when it is not moving and jumps in and out of it all day. When it moves, she would like to run away into the mountains. In general... any tips on training a dog that isn't food motivated Few notes: She is not food motivated. She is 'love-motivated' (high pitch voices and such) She likes toys but isn't super obsessed with them. She loves sheep shit more, should I start using that as treats? (Haha). She doesn't have fulltime acces to toys, but still finds barking/pulling/sheep shit more important then Praise seems to work as the biggest reward for her (our other dog could care less about cuddles, she wants them all x 1000) We are travelling in a campervan (en decent size one), so leash practice in the yard won't happen I put on our other dogs martingale collar (we are currently on Isle of Mull, no pet stores) and will try this Would love to ask the community for help once again. Further... She is amazing. She is super sweet, loves people and kids, likes going for walks, she is amazing inside the van (when its not driving) and gets along with out other dog as well. He is learning her how to play and she likes to give him a 1000 x kisses a day.
  7. Hi everyone, long time lurker here, this is my first post and I'm after some advice if possible! As an intro: Willow is a six month old female sable merle and one feisty lady! Since we got her at 8 weeks life has been a whirlwind, and it hasn't all been plain sailing; poor thing has had a UTI, conjunctivitis in her eyes, she's been one nippy madam since about 10 weeks and we cannot for the life of us get her to keep all her paws on the floor when we're in the house (she's constantly jumping up, either on us, guests, kitchen work surface, sofa, tables etc). On the plus side, she's super easy to train, highly intelligent, has been housetrained since about 11 weeks old, loves fetch, catching her ball and doing tricks. She's not remotely treat driven though, isn't very affectionate and although I took that quite personally to start with, from doing some reading on here I've seen that it can take a fair few months for BCs to become a bit more affectionate and that it may not even happen! She also pulls a LOT on the lead, which we're trying to correct in our obedience classes and we also have a gencon lead that we use with her intermittently to see if we can try to calm her pulling a bit that way (along with praise and pieces of chicken/sausage). Up until about 2 weeks ago she loved her crate. Would happily get into it when asked and would settle quite well. However, we're realising now that we have a puppy who will not settle in the evenings, no matter how tired she is, she wants to be around us constantly and if we put her in her upstairs crate (so that we can eat tea for example) she's taken to barking the house down for half an hour plus.. Same routine as she's always had, she goes in with a handful of treats, a peanut butter filled kong and sometimes even a chew if she's been particularly good! We try to keep play after 9pm to a minimum, no tuggy toys or things with squeakers, just knuckles and pigs ears for chewing, and prior to that in the evenings we usually take her out for a 20-30 min walk and chuck a ball for her in a park near our house for 10/15 mins. We're trying very very hard to keep exercise to a minimum as we don't want to wreck her joints at such a young age. We do a bit of 'brain training' when we get back, work on her tricks and whatnot but back at home she goes from lovely to BITEY in MINUTES. It's very hard to know what to do with her at that point. We tell her no, she snaps and bares her teeth at us, or she seems very happy on the sofa with a pigs ear for about 20 mins and then she's bored and goes back to coming to us and biting us again.. This is where I'm a bit lost.. If we play with her too much, she'll come to need/require the playtime, right? She should have alone time, to play by herself and keep herself entertained? We have an open plan downstairs, with her crate in the kitchen area and a playpen around it.. But when we put her in her playpen now she just wants out. She jumps and jumps and jumps and barks and no amount of toys or treats will get her to calm down, she just wants to be with us. If we let her out (after telling her 'settle' and waiting for her to calm down) she just goes straight to biting us and wanting to play (and therefore ends up back in her pen). In the nicest possible way... when I'm eating my tea I'm not going to stop what I'm doing to play, Willow! So then she goes upstairs to her crate out of the way and goes mad barking in there.. Us being right in front of her whilst she's in her playpen is probably the issue, but we don't have a separate room to stash her in, we only have the upstairs room and to be honest with you, I don't want to have a dog that we have to shut away when we're eating, I just want her to stop jumping up and biting us whilst we're eating, I want her to be able to settle herself nicely. Am I asking too much? It's hard to know if my expectations are too high or if we're teaching her bad habits inadvertently. Hopefully I have explained this properly, although I may have waffled a bit. If anyone has any suggestions or tips of how we can handle this I'd be so grateful, she's going to be a cracking dog, she's just so hyper at the minute. Thanks in advance!
  8. This last Saturday we rescued our new Border Collie, Kimi. Kimi's 3 and has come from a previous family home with another, older, collie and three kids. Our house on the other hand, is just me and my husband, and our cat Sam (also a rescue, also 3, but we got him 2 years ago and he was a stray before that). Kimi was good as gold the first couple of days and actually seemed to completely contradict a lot of the advice that I'd found doing research beforehand on rescue dogs - he's very friendly and has already started claiming our laps whenever we sit down on the sofa, and he seems completely chilled out on walks - he gets on well with all other dogs so far and doesn't seem bothered around crowds of people. We've separated off our kitchen and living room as 'Kimi's spot' so that the cat has the run of the rest of the house, as we didn't want him to feel too uprooted (we're working on introducing them, but at the moment they're kept completely separate). The first night, Kimi went to bed in the kitchen and slept through til about 7am no problems. The second night, he went to bed in the kitchen but must have managed to open the sliding doors and get into the living room but again, only woke us up at 7am ish. Last night, he got into the living room again and then barked through the night - from midnight onwards. I think he stopped for a couple of hours at one point, but then he was going again up until I got up at 6:30 to let him out and feed him his breakfast (I tried to time it in between barks, so that he didn't see me as coming in response to his barking). I then popped back upstairs to get dressed for the morning dog walk and he was barking again within minutes. The barks weren't non stop but they were consistent, and they ranged from a sort of normal pitch bark to more of a high pitched yip. He didn't howl at any point though. While my husband popped downstairs at midnight just to double check he didn't need to go out, we ignored him the rest of the time as I was concerned that if we responded he'd see it as encouragement/success - we didn't acknowledge the barking at all. (We are completely exhausted today though!) Some other points that may or not be relevant - we don't have curtains in our front room, but we do live in a very quiet cul de sac. He didn't destroy or chew anything other than some pawing at the door - he also didn't wee or poo inside. We haven't yet been able to find a toy that he likes to chew/cuddle, so he wouldn't really have had anything to distract himself with (we're paying a visit to Pets at home tonight to try a few more things). Exercise wise, since we got him the routine has been one 45-60 minute walk in the morning in the local park (on retractable lead) along with some en route training e.g. getting him to come and sit when he gets too far ahead/when we're coming up to a crossing. He then gets a 60-90 minute walk (around 5-6pm) including at least 20 mins off-lead running about and playing fetch/doggy ping pong. Then we do 10-20 mins of indoor training/sniffing out treats in the evening with one last 15 minute walk to let him go to the toilet before bedtime at around 10:30. Basically - I'm just looking for some advice. Does it sound like he needs more exercise/stimulation? Do we need to find him something that he likes to occupy him e.g. frozen kong/chew? Do we need to get curtains? Is it just a change in routine and we need to wait out the next few nights and not respond to the barking? I don't know if it can be SA as he doesn't seem particularly bothered to be left during the day - when my husband popped back at lunch today to double check he was snoozing on the sofa quite happily. Unfortunately, having him in the bedroom isn't an option as we don't want to take yet another space away from the cat - at least not until (if) they get used to being in the same room peacefully.
  9. Hi, I'm new to this forum. I adopted a Border Collie in April, 2017. He's a year old. I just had a question about yipping. I've never heard a dog yip like this one does. He has a low bark (like a normal bark) but rarely ever uses it. When he gets excited, he yips like a coyote. It's high pitched and sounds like he's being tortured. He yips if he sees another dog that he thinks he may be able to play with or when he knows we're going to play ball outside or if we're going on a hike in the woods. Is this something that's common in border collies ? I'm dealing with it by stopping the walk (or whatever) and getting him to calm down and be quiet, then he gets a treat and we continue. He's starting to get it but it's a slow go. Any other advice out there ?
  10. Hello everyone! Im new to the boards and wanted to introduce myself and my sweet 16 week old Border Collie. My name is Kari and I live in Scottsdale, Arizona. I recently adopted my very first dog, a now 16 week old black and white Border Collie named Regal. I had always wanted a dog, and as soon as I graduated with a bachelors degree, leaving me with a lot of free time other than work (I was working full time as an underwriter while going full time to ASU) I began doing a lot of research and decided this would be the best fit for me. I am very active and wanted a dog that has a lot of energy and intelligence. I have read many topics and posts on these boards and they have helped immensely. As this is my first dog, I have been all sorts of clueless. I want to give Regal the best possible life, and want an opinion from some of you members on here. How can I best correct car barking? I need to take Regal with me in the car several times a week and when there is traffic she seems to become very stressed out. Im not sure if she picks up on my stress or if she is afraid of all the close cars and the sudden stop and go. When there is no traffic she happily lays down and sleeps or chews on a Kong/bone, but when there is traffic she barks, growls with her ears back, shows her teeth and will not sit still. I have her harnessed on my front seat for her safety, as the back seat of my car is not an option; I drive a very small coup. How can I make these car rides less stressful for her? I do not raise my voice and I ignore her when she is barking, I have also tried giving her toys and treats to try and redirect her attention, while praising her for being quiet or laying down. Any help is greatly appreciated!
  11. Our 4 months old BC pup is getting too big for her crate in the car. I'm afraid a larger crate won't fit the backseat of the truck anymore. So we would like to slowly start to de-crate train her. The crate upstairs that she sleeps in is much larger, so she can keep that one for a while longer. However, we would like her to be able to sleep just on a dog bed, cause we couldn't take that Xlarge crate when traveling and staying somewhere else. And talk about staying somewhere else: Any advice on keeping a dog from barking? Like in a hotel? Any tips? TIA!
  12. Hello- Over the last year of having Jolene, we have worked through many issues and I have felt like we've made a lot of progress. In the last few months since she turned one, she has suddenly become more of a trained dog instead of a whacky puppy. We are still having some problems, some that I know we just need to work on more, and others I'm at a bit of a loss. We go to a local dog park most everyday so we have room to fetch, and she also has made doggy friends and enjoys socializing. One thing that she does pretty often is when two dogs start a nice one on one romping play, she circles them and just barks. And barks. And barks. The dogs rarely seem phased, and when they start running she races with them and stops the barking. But often the owners try to break them up or seem uncomfortable with the barking. Her recall has become very good, except in this case. It's almost useless. I've tried good treats, throwing the ball- she has zero interest. I just have to run around her calling her until there's a break and I can get her attention for a second. Is this a BC behavior I should expect? Does anyone have any unique ways to deal with it? Weve worked on her recall in many situations, and I have felt so good about it, until this happens and it's like we've never done it before. Her other new issue is a hatred/fear of skateboards. We were at an off leash park in Portland, Or last week and a guy on a skateboard went by and she darted for home, barking like a maniac. The guy was completely freaked out- as I'm sure I would've been too. He then yelled at me for not being able to control my dog. It was completely scary and embarrassing. We had been doing SO great off leash, especially at this park that was off leash, but surrounded by a larger park so no fear of her running into traffic. But now we have something new to worry about- skateboards! We've taught LAT, but since I didn't even know the skateboard would be such an issue and didn't see it coming, it was of no use in this situation. As soon as we got home, I borrowed a skateboard and have been trying to desensitize her to it since. Hopefully we'll have that one under control soon;) We also just started agility- I'm trying to use LAT for her reactivity to other dogs going over the equipment and the excitement. It's a lot, but I have hope! Just thought I'd check in and see if anyone had some magic for us;) Thanks!
  13. It's official, Brix is nearly 9 mo. old and training her now is far more difficult that it was at 9 weeks. The big issues lately are leash walking, recall, listening to me and barking (also related to cats, which you can read about in this previous post) The issue is that she knows a cat lives on the other side of the fence at our new house. She has recently developed a new idea about cats after her interactions with our in house cat (see above post) She now loves to chase the cat out of the yard, hackles raised and barking at the fence. She will bark in that direction in the house as well. I have read several approaches to barking training, most of the convincing ones steering you away from yelling "hey!" or "stop it!" when the pup barks. When she gets to barking I will go over by her make her lay down and then praise her as she watches attentively without barking. It honestly seems to do absolutely no good. She appears to be looking right through me. What is everyone's experience with this? Do you take a passive approach on the theory that her not getting a reaction out of her owner makes barking boring? Or do you take an active approach, correct and then praise the correct behavior? If it's the latter, how long did it take to see progress? If it's the former, i guess the same question applies. My pup is so smart, I can tell, but she seems to enjoy "playing dumb" at moments when she appears to not learn at all. Thanks for the help!!
  14. Hi all, First off, I don't have a Border Collie. I've spent ~2 years on this forum researching the breed before I ended up with my German Shepherd pup. However, I can't seem to respect and admire other GSD-specific forums as much as this one. I understand that this is a BC forum, and will limit my GSD posts. I do hope to adopt a BC someday. I got my GSD girl, Emi, at 10 weeks. A long story between my in-laws' neighbor (a czech GSD breeder for police/protection services) and a less-than-preferable puppy buyer (who couldn't handle the pup after only 2 weeks) resulted in me taking the puppy. Now, Emi is 7 months old. I've been using this forum to guide me in training Emi, and our successes are the primary reason why I signed up for an account here. However, there is one issue that I'm not completely sure how to handle. Although there may be distinctions between BC and GSD training methods, I'm not a fan of the methods prescribed by GSD-specific sites (prong collars, etc.). Emi is reactive with other dogs on leash. What I've done is have her sit when another dog approaches, then reward her with treats when she appears relaxed. For the most part, this method has done well. However, if the other dog is lunging/barking at us, Emi becomes hard to control. She stands directly in between me and the other dog, and barks (no lunging). I don't think she's barking from excitement, and other people have told me that she's "protecting" me and "that's just what she's going to do". I'm not positive that a 7 month old pup would display protection yet, though. Anyway, I'm unsure as to how I should handle this obstacle. Thank you all for this forum, I can't express how useful it has been for me and Emi. - Ashley P.S. I think it's customary for new users to post their puppy pics. She may not be a BC, but she's still my girl. Emi at 10 weeks: 16 weeks: And now (excuse the photo quality.. phone cameras+excited dogs don't mix) And I have a thing for puppy noses/feet
  15. Hello fellow Border Collie lovers! I'm just going to start by apologizing that I'm another newbie who's going to post asking for advice, but I have read through so many threads that now I feel like I have too many competing ideas floating around my head. I am 22 and Addison is my first dog on my own. I know a Border Collie is a bold choice for a first dog, but I have a lot of time to devote to her, previous experience with dogs, and the commitment to work with her. Plus I found her on craigslist and felt responsible for taking care of her so she didn't end up with someone less capable! I had been looking for a dog for a while and found a college kid's add for her on craigslist. He had gotten her before he had an apartment and only had her for two weeks before he signed a new lease that didn't allow dogs.....idiotic, but none the less he needed her gone by the end of the day. He told me that she is "probably" a Border Collie Sheltie mix, but he wasn't sure because he had bought her from someone who rescued dogs from Amish farms. So far, I think he's correct. Addie has the body of a Sheltie and a coat that looks like it could be a cross between Sheltie and Smooth coated Border- longer than a smooth coated, but shorter and less silky than a rough coated border. Addison is 10 months, 28lbs and stands just below my knee. She has extremely long legs, and a long face like a Sheltie but the coloring of a Border and definitely the temperament! Addie is everything you could hope for in a BC. She is inquisitive, aware, playful, sweet and devoted. She is the sweetest, most quiet, most loving and attentive dog I've ever met - when people meet her they are basically mesmerized by her soft, expressive eyes. She has the BC stare and is very chatty but pretty much only with me. She was surprised/afraid of anything unfamiliar when I first got her and would bark and bark until I could get her to investigate it. She still does this rarely, but she is much more confident and less skiddish. She doesn't crouch like I had expected, but from what I understand not 100% of BCs do. Since she's from an Amish farm she may not even be mixed at all - who knows. I've definitely found that mental games and human interaction wear her out much better and faster than anything physical so I try to do both every day. As far as mental games go, Addie really enjoys anytime I hide something - especially treats inside of something. She loves to guess which of the three cups a treat is under when I shuffle them around. She loves to try and guess where I'm going to through her ball and to follow me around the house. I've never seen her as tired as after we take a walk down a really busy street or to the quad on my campus because there's so much to see and so many people to meet. It also only took me a couple months to realize that she's probably not a dog park kind of dog. Like the other BCs on this thread, she is very choosy about who she deems worthy of friendship. At the park she often acts as the "fun police" and comes home more wound up that before we left. Addie has an alpha dog personality and always wants to be top dog in a group. Only on a couple occasions have I seen her take spot number two and that's my parents labradoodle and my boyfriends parents dogs. Both occasions involved her and I visiting someone's house where there already was an alpha dog and an extensive introduction among the dogs where I had to have Addison lie on her back and let the other dogs sniff her. She's occasionally stubborn when it comes to me giving her commands, but it's becoming less frequent as I'm strict about being top dog. I'm starting to think it may just be a teenage phase. Sorry for the extensive description I'm just hoping the more you know the better you can help! Now for the two behaviors I'm having a hard time understanding and choosing a method of training her on! 1. She barks out the window constantly and excessively/loudly. I have read that this could mean she isn't stimulated/exercised enough at home and that could be true..but more than anything it seems like she has chosen the job of guard dog and is taking it very seriously. She hears and sees things I've never noticed and makes sure I notice them! I've tried a couple different things - telling her off the couch or away from the window and making her sit until she relaxes then allowing her to return - just recently I started going over to the window letting her know I see what it is and then giving her an end command. Both work to get her to stop barking in the moment, but neither has taught her to stop or at least limit her barking overall. She will bark at something in the street endlessly unless I give her a command or come to the window and even then she's really reluctant to stop. 2. She's a nightmare on her leash. And I don't mean tugging which she does, but we've made a lot of progress towards heeling recently so I'm not so worried. Anytime she sees another dog she goes completely insane - lunging, growling, barking like a maniac. Usually she spends a couple minutes intently watching the dog - her posture will be alert but not aggressive at first. Sometimes she will even sit and wait for them to pass - which I think is because she knows she must sit in order to get anything she wants (not that I give her everything she wants, but I only ever allow her to do things once she sits first) I also taught her to do this when there are too many people walking by. I live in Chicago so sometimes there's a stroller, a kid on a scooter and two parents all on one side walk and I find it a lot easier to just take a step aside and have Addie sit and wait for them to pass. The only problem is a lot of fellow dog owners think this is a sign or her being very friendly and well behaved..only to realize once they get too close that she's a maniac who wants to literally murder their dog. Here's the issue - I can't decide if it's fear aggression or just straight up aggression. At first I was all about strict discipline and it only kind of worked like she knew she had done something bad but it seemed as though she cared about the job more than anything. Recently I've switched to a baiting/distracting tactic. I also read that she could be picking up on my fear/tension so now when we're walking and she sees a dog approaching, I'll use a soft happy voice and say something like "Addie who is that? is that a puppy friend? look at that friend!" (dont laugh haha) it seems to help especially combined with a happy, comforting but very rushed passing by the dog. I guess I'm looking for advice because like a typical BC she learned everything so quickly and I feel like I've got to be doing something wrong, or at least not good enough, if I still haven't been able to discourage her from starting these two behaviors. Like I said I've gotten pretty good at getting her to stop once she starts, but is there hope that someday she just won't start? Ideally I would like to absolutely eliminate the walking problem - Chicago is a busy city and I want to be able to walk my pup in peace! I understand that the barking out the window might not be able to be completely eradicated and I don't mind, but if I could just get it to a couple, not so intense, warning barks I would be so pleased. I'm open to anything and everything, but mainly looking sincere, helpful, friendly advice. I'm sure I've exposed some of my BC ignorance or just naivety in my post, but if you could just be kind I would really appreciate it. Thank you!
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