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OK we've had our rescue bc nearly 16 months, she was 7 months old when we adopted her from rescue, Initially, hated tractors, bikes, joggers, anything like mowers, strimmers and the shrill of ice cream vans music, would literally dart under a hedge and stay there til the threat (she thinks its a threat obviously we know it isnt) had gone. We would stand there, give her time and she would come out herself. Over time we have gone from bush hiding to wanting to leap at joggers and cyclists (we are mid training in this so it isnt my biggest issue) When we are out and about walking we find places to do agility, run around play etc, tractors she hates still, training by me is still on going, she is very social with her favourite fur friends. Our biggest issue is the ice cream van. In the home she will go to her safe place, (by/in our bedroom or under the dining room table on her bed) when out walking it is horrid, she has no safe place, she can hear the chimes before us, there are no set days and tizzy will dart under a hedge or sit at the side of the road. She really wont move and those chimes (as theres' two villages including ours that she visits) can be heard on and off for nearly an hour :( So sitting at the side of a country lane isnt always possible, sometimes I have had to pick her up and carry her to a safe wide grass verge and sit it out there, shes 16kg at least which isnt great on a day where its 17oC. I am not bothered if people see us or question why, but I need some way of getting her to carry on? HELP! Please! It isnt too bad if it is in a field away from livestock or a verge by a tow path, we can sit and relax for a bit, but when it is country roads it can be dangerous. I just feel so upset for her, all the other fight or flight issues like tractors, and walking along roads in the area are not 100% accomplished now but we are getting there its just the bloody ice cream van. We have also tried to go out during the day and get back before the chimes are out. If we go out at a certain time she gets to meet up with other doggy friends for socialisation but we miss it alot due to dodging the damn ice cream shrill :(

My BC recently got a fright when a cat jumped out at her from beneath a hedge. She yelped and initially I thought she had been scratched but there was no evidence that she had been physically harmed so I think it was just her feelings that were hurt. She has always been extremely sensitive but very friendly with all animals. Following this incident, she started pulling on her lead, which she didn’t do before, constantly looks all around and her tail is tucked beneath her in terror. It is very hard to watch as she has always been such a happy dog whose tail was always held high, wagging when out on walks. Any helpful suggestions would be gratefully received.

Hello My 4 month old female, amazing in every way! Is very fearful of the vacuum cleaner... I tried now turning it on for just a minute , turning off, trying to give her treats.. associate good things with it ? and very limited exposure to the sound, a couple of seconds..... however, she first put herself in a corner, looking at the wall, then under the bed... it has been turned off now for several minutes, and still... I can not coax her out, in my cheeriest voice... with salmon? I am trying not to make a big deal out of this behavior.... ? Help please... do I leave her there, under the bed... until she chooses to come out? What is the very best way to over come this? I hope to travel with her... and of course hotels have vacuum cleaners... etc. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated, Thank You Trudy

Hello! I posted about my beautiful Merle Border Collie female, Rogue, weeks ago. I feel that it’s only right to update her progress on this forum and gather some more information/advice via comments because they helped immensely! Compared to where she was when the last post was written, Rogue has truly blossomed into a wonderful dog. She is so loving. She has stopped submissively urinating for the most part, and only does it in small quantities when she is extremely frightened (i.e. stranger comes into home and she is caught off guard). She roams off leash in our yard and does extremely well with listening and staying close. She definitely knows who her people are! She loves to burn energy. Sometimes when a man asks if they can pet her, I will make them stand where they are and not approach her. She will go up to sniff him with excitement and apprehensiveness, with her tail slightly between her legs, but will open up upon realizing that he means well and just wants to pet her! We had a friend over just the other night who happened to be male, and she ran right up to him and sat between his knees so he could pet her. We always tell our male counterparts to not go up to her, even though it can be hard because she is such a beautiful dog! She approaches many more people now instead of scurrying away. We are so proud of her progress! She likes to spend time in her kennel. We leave the door open to give her access whenever she likes. She will sometimes take a bone into her kennel and chew it in there. Sometimes she spend a bit more time than we would like her to spend in her kennel. I am home for the majority of the day, everyday. Therefore, I leave the kennel door open so she can come out if she would like. She typically comes out and roams the house freely when I am home, but tends to recede back into her safe space when my fiancé gets home from work. He has been doing his best with not approaching her, and mostly just living out his daily routines in front of her. She is comfortable with me, but sometimes I will hear some rattling and find her in her kennel, head poking out of the entrance rested on top of some toys. I leave her be. I want her to feel that she has a ‘safe space’ that’s all her own and she never has to feel scared in. But I will always keep the door open so she knows she can come out. She’s been coming out more and more each day when he is home. Hopefully in a few weeks, she will be able to approach him without as much fear! It has been a long process but she has adjusted little by little, and it is truly awesome to sometimes sit back and think about how far she has come and how far she can still go! I love my Rogue!

Hi all, My fiancé and I recently took the leap and adopted a Merle Border Collie female named Rogue. A few months before we got Rogue, her previous owners had ‘accidently’ bred her when she was less than a year. She gave birth to beautiful puppies, but the pregnancy happening at such a young age stunted her growth. She is a little bit smaller than your average adult female BC, weighing in at about 30-35 pounds. We were told she was mildly anxious but warmed up fairly quickly to new people. Of course, we fell in love! We made the two hour trip to get her and bring her home with us. From the beginning, it was very evident that she was not just fearful, she was extremely scared of just about everything but women. She adores people, but is a little weird around men. She also has a continence problem when people touch her. My boyfriend made the mistake of sternly telling her “Rogue, no” when she had put her snout in our cats litter box and was shuffling the litter around, that she peed herself on the kitchen floor and ran to hide under our bed. We have never once lay a hand on this beautiful dog, but it is becoming evident that she has serious anxiety and I am doing everything I can to help her and make her feel at ease. For the most part when I call her name she will come, hesitantly, into the living room for some snuggles and pets. She LOVES being pet. There are some times that she comes up to put her head beneath my hand so that I can pat her head, and as soon as I do her tail will wag and she will pee all over the floor. I haven’t gotten mad at her, though sometimes it can be frustrating. It is as if she knows she has done something wrong and will go running underneath our bed again. Today, I finally got her into the bath. Because she has had some continence issues since being with us, she was well overdue for a scrub. She was scared of the water but once I put shampoo on her and coaxed her good behavior throughout the bath, she seemed to not mind it so much. She has never shown any sign of aggression towards me. She is just really scared and I need to know ways I can let her know that whatever happened to her before, won’t happen at her new home. She has been eating grain-free dog food. When I pour her food into her dish, she does not come right away like our smaller maltipoo. She is very timid. Sometimes I will call her name and she will slowly come to the kitchen and I will shake the bowl to let her know it is there. It isn’t until after I leave the kitchen and turn the light off to relax on the couch, that I will see her walk slowly towards the dish and eat. I am happy she is eating at least. She makes small bounds everyday, like when we visited the dog park. I wasn’t sure how she would do with her anxiety, but she had a blast and seemed like a completely healthy dog! She played chase with the other dogs and greeted them with her tail up and wagging. She approached other dog owners at the park for a pet (mainly females), and ran around and played with the other dogs for a solid thirty minutes. She has done well in those areas, I just want her to be comfortable enough to approach us in our home whenever she feels like it. I don’t want her to be so scared when we pet her that she keels over and pees on herself. This was an extremely long post, but I feel a connection with her and I feel horrible that her previous home might have been abusive. I care about her well-being and want her to enjoy her dog life with our family so that can act just like that: a dog.

Hi everyone, I have a 1.5 year old female BC who is very nervous around new people. Not all people, some she warms up to quite quickly, where as others she never gets comfortable around. I have had her since 10 weeks, and she has come from a great litter and her breeders are wonderful. She has been well socialized with family dogs, dog parks, training class (foundation work plus agility) and off leash walks. She LOVES other dogs, but she does have some on-leash reactivity, when off the leash she shows no reactivity at all, and she is getting very good about waiting until I give her release word to go up to a dog. However, with humans sometimes she runs up to them barking, sometimes she couldn't care less. If i make her sit and stay until the people walk by, she has taken to running after the person barking, once they've already gone by. She is very nervous around my partners family, even though she has known them since we got her. They are very friendly and love her, but she is so nervous. Anytime any of them get up out of their chair, she runs away and barks. She will go up and take treats, but she leaves her back feet planted and stretches her body till she can just grab the treat, then high tails it out of there. And it doesn't matter if where we are, she is still so nervous. Looking for some tips to help this, as we want her to come out of her shell. We are doing agility and working on trick training to build confidence. I've never had a dog who was this particular about her humans before!