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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?

I have a 7month old female border collie. When i take her for a walk and JUST a walk it goes well. Shes at the point where she walks well enough, meaning, she still sometimes pulls and tries to lead but thats about it. Walking on leash has improved but still more area to improve. I take her to this large public park everyday to play frisbee. Shes getting REALLY GOOD! I have her on a 30ft lead just because i dont completely trust her in a public park yet with people, children, and other dogs. She does very well on the long leash and if she gets to nosy and starts to wander i can stop and let her know thats, "too far" and, "comeback". 90% of the time the frisbee is more fun and entertaining then everything else. The PROBLEM comes in when its time to leave. I wrap up the long lead and switch her over to her shorter leash for the walk home (real close, 1min30sec walking). She goes nuts, biting and jumping at the leash, things she doesn't do when we just go for a walk. I try to use commands we've taught like "leave it!" and tell her to "walk". She'll abide but only momentarily. Sometimes i can get her to stop jumping and biting at the leash but she runs furiously to and fro up and down while on the leash the whole way home. Not sure if i should just be patient and chalk this up to her being amped up from play and being a puppy, or its her just not wanting to stop play so she throws a tantrum. Is it something im doing that I could change? It just makes this wonderful and enjoyable experience we have end in frustration in the short walk home. Please lend me any advice and wisdom, thank you!

Hi all, new around here and looking for some input on how to train my little gal. Shadow is 14 weeks old, and overall a great pup! She is extremely well behaved in many aspects: doesn't chase children or nip them, no more potty accidents, and never complains about her kennel (stays in it all night). I live in an apartment, but do my part to make sure Shadow gets the attention and exercise she needs. She goes to doggy daycare at someones house on weekdays, and I take her out for good walks or playing fetch. Shadow has done very well with the basic training that I've done inside (sit, ground, up, stay, come). Outside is another story... Shadow gets so excited when we go for a walk that she will choke herself the entire way to the park where she 'knows' she's going to play fetch. A trainer I know is highly suggesting using the pincher/prong collar. He uses it for most of his training and is quite successful. Shadow has used it 2 times, her last time she did extremely well and was loose leash the entire walk. Not sure I want to use this, but its currently an option with how stubborn she is. The PetSafe Gentle Leader (head halter) did not work at all with her; she would just pull out of it no matter how painful it was for her to slip it off her nose. She did okay yesterday with a strap harness hooked in front, but today she pulled quite a bit on it. She can be very good when coming back from the park playing fetch and loose leashed the entire way, but I can't seem to contain this eagerness to go play fetch when we start our walk. She has come to love chasing her ball, but isn't too keen on bringing it back. She isn't possessive of it at all though. Children can even throw for her without any problems. The problem is she is unwilling to bring it back, or come to me when called. I can go over there and she'll leave the ball (she'll make sure there's distance between us), she'll sit and wait for it to be thrown again as told. If she does 'bring it back' it won't be close enough to where I can pet her. If I do try to pet her and tell her good job or reward her she jumps back out of my reach. Side note, since day one when I got her she did this whole jump backwards thing from me when I approached her (now it's only off leash playing fetch). Because of this I got a long leash to try and help. This morning I tried throwing it for her, letting her get it, take her time to chew on it, then I'd call her back. She didn't come back a single time. I had to drag her back through the grass with her harness. I would even give her treats when she got to me, but at a certain point she wouldn't even take them anymore (so stubborn!). We had to leave the park early (only got ~15-20 mins in) and she was complaining as we left that she didn't get to 'work' enough! Any suggestions on how to be able to correct this leash behavior, and help her with her recall would be greatly appreciated!!

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.

I walk Blue—my 8 month old smooth coated male—twice a day in a nearby public park where he has amassed an embarrassingly large fan club. Most of the time, I walk him on what started out as a 16’ long retractable Flexi Leash. Blue loves to play with the leash while we walk. This involves wrapping it around his snout, his legs, and his body all the while nipping at whatever part ends up close to his apparently razor sharp teeth. I know it’s not the best behavior and we do have obedience laps on a short lead from time to time but, frankly, it is cute as hell and he really enjoys it. Needless to say, this activity often results in the lead being severed in the middle of our walk. After taking the Flexi assembly apart and reattaching the bolt snap to the remaining webbing a couple of times, I started doubling the webbing up and putting it inside a section of heat shrink tubing on the section nearest his head to protect it from his teeth. Pretty soon, he learned to pirouette a single turn catching the lead under his tail and bringing the unprotected part in range of his treacherous fangs. Not to be outdone by a mere stupid dog, I purchased an inexpensive six foot lead from my local big-box pet store. I cut it in half and fastened a bolt snap to one end and a D-ring to the other end of each half thus creating two “sacrificial” sections I could fasten to the end of the Flexi and simply replace when his teeth had done their job. This morning, in a first real-world test, I fastened one end of the sacrificial section to Blue and the other end to the Flexi and loaded the whole affair into my car for the five minute drive to the park. After arriving at the park, I opened the back door of the car, reached in and grabbed the Flexi handle, and watched Blue go streaking through the parking lot before making a victory lap around his waiting and delighted fans. He had chewed completely through the “sacrificial” link in the space of a five minute car trip and was still proudly wearing the tag end of it fluttering from his collar. I’m new to Border Collies but am very much of the opinion that this whole leash thing is a game Blue has devised to keep both of us busy. I spent the rest of my morning investigating high tech webbing material like Kevlar® and Dyneema®. I think there is just a little bit of goat in both of our DNA.

I wanted to open up this post mainly in hopes of hearing others' stories of their first off-leash walk with their pups. At what age did you do it? What was your experience? What did you wish you did differently, or what were you happy you had done in advance? I pose the question because I have virtually no idea how she will respond to this. She's 5 mo. old now and show's a lot of inclination toward me, but then also shows dazzling moments of indifference. One particular thing she shows is amazing speed and often she wants to run right to the end of her leash with the distance in her sights. I am planning to start taking her to the park on a 30' lead and seeing how she reacts. I am working constantly on recall, but of all her tricks she loves to "play dumb" on this one. I am all ears!

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!