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hi


im very new to border collies we have got a 4 month old male border collie called cash he is coming on amazingly however he does have the odd fault i would like to get a little advice on i know its very important to put training in as soon as possible.



our issue is barking he will bark at everyone he meets in the street joggers and dogs the most and even lunge on the lead at them if they say hi to him he will hide behind my legs,when he is off the lead he is amazing at recall and very rarely barks, i also have a problem with him lunging and barking at cars as they drive past any advice on how to tackle this would be amazing.



on the whole hes a extremely well behaved boy doing fantastic at obedience, doesnt chew, never cries when we leave, never cried at night, toilet trained on pads just working on weeing outside i couldnt have asked for a better pup



thank you for taking your time to read this



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Hey, Tezruh, congrats on your puppy :) Your puppy barks and lunges mainly because he is probably afraid and not sure what he should do. Since he's on the lead, he knows he can't run away or defend himself (not that he'll need too).

 

You need to work on building his confidence. Are you using a clicker? I've found out that it works wonders with my puppy, he's the same age as yours. Are you playing with him to use up some of his energy before you go for walks? If not, start doing that. He will be more focused on you if he's not so amped up. Remember that being outside is engaging - there are a lot of smells and sight and sounds for him. Also take not that there is a fine line with him being tired and over tired. The latter will probably also result in him being jumpy.

 

By now he probably knows how to sit, right? So, what I did with my pup is to take him outside, get some tasty treats (and a clicker if you're using it) and don't come too close to the street and the cars. Just stay somewhere where he can hear and see the cars, but he's not too close to them so they don't freak him out as much. If he's calm, click and reward. If he's not, ask him to sit. Click and reward the sit. You need to show him that being calm results in good things - treats.

 

Next thing you want to do, when, or even before, the car passes by (Ren was freaked out by the sound), get his attention onto you. Click and reward. This will teach him that he doesn't need to react to the cars, but if he's unsure about something, he'll ask you for reassurance and instead of going bonkers, he'll get a treat for staying calm and ignoring the cars. Do this in steps, if he's comfortable being 20m away from the street, get him 5m closer. Then 5m even closer, to the point where he won't even notice the car wheezing by his head.

 

As far as people go, I'd do the same thing. Invite some friends over so he can meet them at home, where his already calm and comfortable. Before he starts going crazy, ask him to sit. Click and reward. Invite a person over to him, but don't let him break the sit, try and keep his attention on you. Click and reward him for being calm and then let him sniff and say hi.

 

It takes time and patience, so don't get discouraged. It took us a week to get over the cars, two weeks to get over jumping on new people. Just stay consistent and stay calm :)

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Welcome to the BC Boards.

I highly recommend a book called "Control Unleashed". The "Look at that" game in this book is designed to work with the specific issue that you have. It is basically along the lines of the previous post's suggestion, with more detail in the book. The book may be at your library, or is available at Amazon. It will help you with a lot of other things, as well.

Best of luck.

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I second the "Control Unleashed" suggestion. It's so much more then "just a training book", it has various real life problem stories and explanations on why they started in the first place and how they were handled. It will probably help you understand your puppy a lot better.

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thankyou for your comments i will take a look into that book, we started doing clicker training with him but i decided to stop only because in puppy class they dont use one but i have used them before and find they are very effective i will use one when out on walks from now on with him, we wont always play before his walks but i do find he walks home much better after a run around a field.

 

again thankyou for your replies they are very helpful :)

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