Uncontrollable lunging and barking at trees

[GINNY KERR]

I have a 9 month old Border Collie (spayed) named Harley. She had never shown aggression as a pup and is a loving, cuddly dog that enjoys her training sessions and playtime. Harley is adept at all the regular commands – heel, sit, down, roll over, crawl, twirl, drop, come by, away, walk up, stay, wait, play dead, look at me, drop it, leave it, etc. etc. I regularly do “find it” and other scent games as well as targeting. She is a wizard at dog puzzles, name recognition and puts her toys away in her box. She has been doing all the exercises and brain games the Brain Training course suggests for months already.

However, about 3 months ago she started to show a reactive aggression (?) toward a tree. It started out with just one particular tree in our fenced yard. The minute I started to play ball with her, she bolted to a large Maple tree barking, yelping, twisting, jumping 4 feet in the air, blinded by aggression toward a branch.

Not sure if this was a result of eagles, ravens, seagulls or other birds flying overhead, but this behavior kept repeating itself every time she got near the tree. Trying to get her away was very difficult because she did not know I existed and grabbing her often resulted in her twisting out of her collar and twice I was bitten. Left alone she would have continued the behavior until she hurt herself or someone as her adrenaline escalated.

Before the incidents, I typically walked her at least a couple hours a day plus gave her runs off-leash along the beach. Her recall was good and she was friendly to other dogs and people. Lots of mental stimulation with trick training and brain games in the evening at home.

To help desensitize her to the tree, I worked with her on-leash, gradually allowing her to look at the large Maple tree in our yard from a distance. At first I could get her to walk under the tree and relax at a sit or down. Other times, no matter how far away from the tree we were, it was chaos. I cut off all the lower branches of the tree to no avail. Finally in desperation I fenced the area around the tree best I could.

However, when off-leash she immediately jumped at the fence and almost impaled herself trying to get at the tree, which was as far away as I could get it from the fence. I took down the fence to prevent injury.

I continued hours and hours of on-leash DSCC work with Harley and practicing relaxation with lots of treats. Just when I thought I was making progress with the Maple tree, Harley began reacting to a different tree in another location of the yard. Then another and another…..

So I decided avoidance was the best method in the hopes she would forget about the trees. That meant I could no longer let her loose in the fenced yard to play fetch, practice her agility training or have play dates with other dogs. She was always leashed even for bathroom breaks for 4 weeks.

To help Harley release some of the pent-up energy she was suffering from, I tried to let her run at the beach, which was her favorite thing to do. However, no sooner I started to throw a stick for her she ran to the nearest tree and started her frantic, out of control barking, spinning and jumping. No game or toy would distract her from heading to a tree.

The same thing happened at a neighbor’s yard. Shortly into playing with another dog in the fenced area, she ran to a tree and was completely fixated in twisting, barking and leaping at a branch. She jumps and flips so hard that she often lands on her side or head before I can get her under control. She will not accept treats or listen to commands once this reaction happens. She even became aggressive to the puppy she was just playing with. Trying to calm her after an episode is near impossible.

So for the past 3 months Harley has not been off-leash and allowed to run so cannot possibly get the amount of exercise a young Border Collie needs. I live in a remote area with lots of trees and no large fields, playgrounds, dog parks, etc. A narrow road is the only area to walk and she has now taken to barking and lunging at passing vehicles. Although there is not a lot of traffic, it is impossible to get her beyond threshold distance when a car drives by because there are no shoulders, only dense bush and trees. When there are no cars, I ask her to sit and wait on the road (for impulse control) but often find her focusing on distant overhead trees, pupils enlarged, lips quivering, high tail set and on the edge of an explosion. I then try to distract her with “look-at-me”, touch and lots of high value treats in an attempt to distract.

I am willing to put in the time and effort needed to help my puppy but have run out of options on what to do next as she is still wanting to attack trees. The vet says she is healthy. I have been giving her trazodone for a couple of weeks now hoping that the medication will temporarily help in her behavior modification.

Will Harley ever be the relaxed dog that can run off-leash through the woods, play on the beach and live a happy life in my area that’s the very best natural paradise for dogs. As an energetic border collie, the thought of spending her life on a leash breaks my heart.

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Oh my, that sounds like very intense behavior, almost to the point of an obsession. Dogs can get compulsive disorders (CD) too and it's unfortunate that border collies are a breed that is prone to it. Many get obsessed with shadows and lights others may engage in fly snapping, circling or tail chasing.

I would think that, as a starting point, it would be a good idea to have a screening done by a veterinarian/veterinary behaviorist to see whether there may be something going on medically (vision issue, seizures etc) and then by exclusion determine whether this may truly be a case of a behavior issue. We want to get this ruled out sooner than later considering that many dogs with (CD) often display the first signs before 1 year of age, but it's often not readily recognized as such (just interpreted as normal young dog behavior) and treatment is therefore often sought later on, once the repetitive behavior has become quite ingrained and more difficult to tackle.  

Of course, it can be that there is no medical condition at play and there is not CD, but there likely is some strong underlying anxiety at play and some cases of intense anxiety may benefit from medications so to lower those threshold levels just enough for these dogs to be able to cognitively function enough to learn alternate behaviors. Of course, this is something a veterinary behaviorist would have to determine based on a careful assessment. 

If you happen to have a video of the behavior you have made in the past, It would be a good idea to show it to the vet. Of course, don't make a video now considering all the dangers associated with this behavior and the risks in allowing her to rehearse something that you have so carefully managed. If you don't have a video, a very detailed description of the behavior can help.

Provide info of what happens typically before the behavior (are you always present when it occurs? is there anything that seems to set the behavior?), what your dog does, and what happens afterward (what seems to makes it stop? what have you done in the past? what happened when somebody intervened etc) also provide info on whether she has any particular fears or anxieties and whether there have been any recent changes in her life since it started. 

In the meanwhile, preventing the behavior from being rehearsed as much as possible is important. It sounds this is not easy being that there are many trees in the area you live.

Some border collies with these tendencies improve when provided with outlets for their natural drive to herd when taken to sheep herding trials, in lieu of that, some herding dogs may benefit from the sport of Treibball or the use of large balls made for herding. Flirt poles at times can help too, considering that they may help provide some closure in being able to chase and capture something versus engaging in a fruitless pursuit of something dogs may never get which can therefore cause predisposed dogs to become mentally disturbed by that. However I would leave all of these options as possibilities to try only *after* having ruled out other causes and therefore after carefully discussing with a veterinary behaviorist considering that certain interventions may worsen problems (or even create new obsessions) rather than ameliorate them. 

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Best,

Adrienne 

*Disclaimer: certain types of training/behavior modification come with risks. If your puppy or dog shows signs of potential aggression (lunging, barking, growling, snapping, biting) or severe anxiety, for safety, please consult with a dog behavior professional (DACVB, CAAB or dog trainer specializing in anxiety/aggression) who uses force-free behavior modification techniques for direct in-person guidance. Articles, videos and general info found in the forums or course (or any online source) are not meant to replace in-person training/instruction. By using this course and forum, you are waiving any liability claims or other type of claims related to any dogs' behavior against you or others.