Kingdom of Pets

Posted by Suzannah
Feb 15, 2012

Hi,

I have a border collie pup and she must be going on 19 wks. I have started taking her to a dog social, which hopefully will progress to a dog club. we spend two hours a week at the social, we start by walking around the oval, then socialising, putting the dogs through tunnels, and letting them play.

the problem is when i get home, I put her on her chain and she's good, about an hour later i go to bed, and she barks. she's only started recently, i have checked to see if there is anything out their, but it sounds more like a whine, wanting to play more. she seems to do this after we've had a big afternoon, which doesnt make sense to me. it could be that I've taken her to my parents and played ball with her. or the social. the other night after we had come home from the social i was woken up serveral times to her barking at all hours of the night.

at the moment we are in the process of moving house. so i let the dog off when I can and play with her. although she seems more interested to slip through the fence, down to the back fence to the neighbours dogs and barks, I've called her, but she doesnt pay any attention. so i get her and have to carry her home and put her on the chain otherwise she does it again straight away. if she doesnt do that she runs to our other neighbours house, i can call and call and she wont listen, when i go to get her she stays out of my reach so it takes me a good five minutes to catch her.

I am worried that i can't let her off before i am going to move a load because she will do this and i will have to spend more time catching her.

She will come when she's called at home if she doesnt seem to have the idea of going to see the other dogs.

When i do call her as she's trying to escape she rushes then runs faster to where she is going. please help me.

Also i play fetch with her, some times she is reluctant to give me the ball, but mostly she jumps up at me, and her nails are sharp. i think she is trying to get me to grab the ball, i have growled her for it but she keeps doing it unfazed. she will also jump up and nip my shorts, or if i am wearing jeans she will grab at my ackles and drag.

what can i do?

Posted by Kerowyn
Feb 15, 2012

This sounds similar to what I am going thru with my 6 month old puppy (minus the neighbors year). I think a larger part of it is just about ... it takes time to train ... every day, work at the basics, sit, stay etc. Eventually it has to pay off, right? I'm not super experienced with all this, but that's my two cents.

Posted by KOPCaroline
Feb 20, 2012

Hi Suzannah,

Sounds like a bit of a headache, especially at moving time!

Let see if I can add some of my opinion about the three major problems I'm seeing - whining/barking, running away, and jumping.

First, the easiest - jumping up when playing. As soon as your girl starts jumping up, ignore her. Turn your back (even if you have to keep turning in circles away from her). Hide the ball in your sleeve or in your hands, and stop playing altogether. You want her to understand that jumping = no one plays. If she just won't stop, go inside and let her calm down for a few minutes. Once she's calm, go back outside and try again. It sounds like a lot of stop and start, and it may turn out that way at first, but I'm sure she'll get the point soon enough!

As far as the barking - it may very well be that she gets really excited when its a play day, and she wants more fun once everyone's gone to bed. Especially if she knows there are other dogs nearby who she could play with (the neighbors dogs). Did this behaviour only start after taking her to the social days? My own dog used to stay really riled up after a big day of outdoor play, though he never really barked (I trained him not to!).

I'd advise to start by training her to the "speak" and "enough" commands. Dogs are inherently less likely to bark if they are trained to do so on command only.

Second - where does she sleep outside? Her own kennel? Is she tied up? You may find that this behaviour decreases both with age, and with your move. Until then, you could try putting her somewhere else to sleep - a garage, the laundry inside. Perhaps if she's not outside where she might be hearing other nearby dogs, the barking will decrease.

As far as her running off - hopefully again this will stop/lessen after your move. Until then, however, I would advice not letting her off lead unless you're sure you can stop her. Can you block the part of the fence she slips through? Or put up a temporary fence around it to stop her accessing her escape route? You could also look into an exercise lead line - so that she can run around your yard, but is still on a lead and thus can't get away - this should let you handle boxing things up and preparing for the move, while still letting your pup run around.

All this time, as Kerowyn said, its all about continuous training on sit, stay, come, etc. Try to have a few training sessions of 15 minutes or so every day. Make it fun for her, and always reward her responding correctly. If she loses attention and stops responding, call it quits. You don't want to try and force her to do what you're asking, it will become second nature to her after some time.

Overall, I think some of these problems should change when you move. You might consider crate training her after the move so that she's inside at night, and has a safe place that she'll happily be when you can't supervise her.

pup too much energy