Border Collie issues

[AdamSzczepan]

Hello,new to this program and forum.

I have 14 months old Border Colie and look through some posts in regards to training and obedience.

My problem is with pulling.

My dog pulls like crazy on walks, biing it collar or harnes only easy walk works on her, but I don't like it do to fact when she pulls it turns her head to the side.

When using collar or Barnes she is choking herself to a point she is gasping for air.

Another serious problem is going after car and car headlights on the evening walk. It is like she is fixated on it and will not stop until she reaches it. Some times if car is parked meet side walks she lunches to bite a tire.

Last issue is heel positions on the  walks. Although I will look through forum for heel issue I would like to get some pointers and directions.

Adam

[Adrienne]

Hi there!

Welcome to the forums!

Are you talking about the front-attachment harness where the leash attaches to the ring by the dog's chest area or a head halter where the leash attaches to the ring under the dog's chin and the dog wears a halter like horses? Because these latter are the ones that when dogs pull causes them to turn the head to the side. With a  front-attachment harness, when dogs pull we see their body turn towards us more than their head. 

I like to use the Easy Walk harness or any of the other front-attachment harnesses where the leash attaches to a ring in the dog's chest area. It helps to take baby steps, walking first in areas where there are less distractions and where you can set her for success. Start practicing in the home in the hallway, then in the yard, then nearby your home, then on a quiet road, and then gradually in areas with increasing distractions. 

Here is the guide on heeling and attention heeling:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

Arm yourself with high-value treats and practice, practice practice starting in low distraction areas. If you dog ends up pulling, stop in your tracks and ensure your dog turns into heel position before resuming to walk. Alternatively, you can turn and walk the opposite way. A short walk around he block may seem like it may take forever initially, but at some point, dogs understand that a loose leash is your accelerator while a tight leash is our brakes. 

Here are some more tips:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/pulling-on-the-leash/

Now, with the car chasing behavior, this could be one of those border collie quirks of being attracted to movement and wanting to chase and herd stuff. We need to be careful because some of these dogs can get a bit obsessed in chasing lights and shadows so we want to address this sooner than later.  Here are some tips that come to mind: 

•  Provide more mental stimulation. On top of exercising the body, you want to exercise the mind. Engage your border collie's mind with brain games, interactive toys and puzzles. 
•  Border collies thrive when they are given directions. Ask your border collie to perform desirable behaviors such as eye contact, sit, stay, heel, lie down, come or even tricks using valuable rewards to reinforce those behaviors.  Mix and match these commands so not to bore your dog.
• Use your training to redirect your border collie's chasing instincts. Ask your border to make eye contact with you and heel when there are distractions as described in the links above. You can also ask your border collie to sit when there are cars passing by or even lie down and stay when a cat is crossing the road. Reinforce with valuable rewards (treats, toys a game of tug). 
• If your border collie has a hard time focusing, it means that he hasn't been trained yet for that level of distractions and is over threshold. Increase distance from the stimulus and find that sweet spot where your border collie is better under control. Practice at this level of difficulty before moving to more challenging levels. Here is a read on thresholds:  https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/
• Enroll your border collie in some fun canine sports. In particular, herding trials are great as border collies get to do what they were bred for, but if there are no sheep in your area, the sport of Treibball (where dogs get to herd large balls) can be equally satisfying. You can also find some herding balls for dogs online that your dog can play with in the yard. 

For the tire biting, try to walk her the opposite side of the cars so that you are in between and give her some distance. Every time you notice her intent, try to redirect as quickly as possible by making a smacking sound with your mouth, holding the treat at eye level so that the moment she looks at you, you can reward by tossing her treats to chase. Hopefully, we can redirect this behavior this way. I suggest tossing rather than hand feeding because we can provide a positive outlet to her desire to chase and help make it a more rewarding activity as she gets to eat a treat too! If she loves her kibble, you can use that too. 

About heel positions, did you want to ask what side to let your dog heel? If so, here is a thread on this: 

 

Let me know if you have more questions or would like to go more into depth on any of this. 

Happy training!

Best,

Adrienne