Dog won't lie down

[Roadie]

Hello all,

 

I have a problem with my ex-dog Fagan. Today is Fagan's birthday, he is now 5 years old. I got him since he was 5 months old. The family that had bought him from the breeder had no experience with dogs or BC's. They let him stay in a crate most of the time and sometimes let him in the livingroom where they had a shiny floor, a ball and a laserlight to let him jump and run around. Real funny for the children, but they quickly grew tired of a dog that never returned the ball, didn't react to them and snapped and bit their hands.

So when I got him, he totally lived in his own world of lights and shadows. In the beginning he didn't see or hear anything when he was chasing the shadows, but that improved and later on I could get him out of it. I taught him to listen to me and he learned quickly to do all I wanted. He was really a fantastic dog which I was totally in love with but sadly enough when me and my husband got a son three years ago and a daughter one year ago, I couldn't combine my work, housekeeping, two children and two dogs (we also have a 9-year old mix retriever-shepherd) any longer.

I found a new home for him which I thought was perfect for him: a man with a flock of 100 sheep, two other BC's, a lot of experience in training and trialling. He saw Fagan and thought he had talent and he could use him for demo's, training and maybe trialling. So last year August, Fagan moved to them.

 

That was a year ago and last week I talked with him and he was not satisfied. He told me Fagan absolutely has talent to work with sheep, a little too much unfortunately because he won't lie down when given the command. At least, not when there are sheep involved. It looks like Fagan is so busy with his sheep that he doesn't hear the command.

Without sheep, he obeys perfectly. But around sheep, sometimes he does lie down, but mostly he takes another 5 or 10 steps. If he is near to his handler and the handler yells loud enough, the dog will obey but at distances it's a guess. Trialling is out of the question and for the other tasks he rather uses his other dog. He told me Fagan can stay with him, but that he won't be using him anymore for herding. He says he had tried to teach him to lie down when told, and it has improved but lately it's getting worse. He is losing his patience with the dog and that doesn't help either. I really would like Fagan to come back to us, but I can't give him the attention and activity he deserves. So I want Fagan to stay with his new family and it would be nice if he does his work good enough to keep doing it.

 

I think Fagan is just too fixated on the sheep that he doesn't hear the commands. I talked to my husband and he compared Fagan with a human with ADHD or something like that. Humans with such attention-disorders can get medicins, can we try something like that with Fagan? Something that can take the edges of his concentration so that he can respond to the commands. Has anyone of you experience with that?

Or is it just a matter of training the lie down without sheep and then gradually decreasing the distance between him and sheep? Or maybe a combination? What do you think? Have you ever had a similar problem and what was your solution?

 

Annet

[JW]

Hello all,

 

I have a problem with my ex-dog Fagan. Today is Fagan's birthday, he is now 5 years old. I got him since he was 5 months old. The family that had bought him from the breeder had no experience with dogs or BC's. They let him stay in a crate most of the time and sometimes let him in the livingroom where they had a shiny floor, a ball and a laserlight to let him jump and run around. Real funny for the children, but they quickly grew tired of a dog that never returned the ball, didn't react to them and snapped and bit their hands.

So when I got him, he totally lived in his own world of lights and shadows. In the beginning he didn't see or hear anything when he was chasing the shadows, but that improved and later on I could get him out of it. I taught him to listen to me and he learned quickly to do all I wanted. He was really a fantastic dog which I was totally in love with but sadly enough when me and my husband got a son three years ago and a daughter one year ago, I couldn't combine my work, housekeeping, two children and two dogs (we also have a 9-year old mix retriever-shepherd) any longer.

I found a new home for him which I thought was perfect for him: a man with a flock of 100 sheep, two other BC's, a lot of experience in training and trialling. He saw Fagan and thought he had talent and he could use him for demo's, training and maybe trialling. So last year August, Fagan moved to them.

 

That was a year ago and last week I talked with him and he was not satisfied. He told me Fagan absolutely has talent to work with sheep, a little too much unfortunately because he won't lie down when given the command. At least, not when there are sheep involved. It looks like Fagan is so busy with his sheep that he doesn't hear the command.

Without sheep, he obeys perfectly. But around sheep, sometimes he does lie down, but mostly he takes another 5 or 10 steps. If he is near to his handler and the handler yells loud enough, the dog will obey but at distances it's a guess. Trialling is out of the question and for the other tasks he rather uses his other dog. He told me Fagan can stay with him, but that he won't be using him anymore for herding. He says he had tried to teach him to lie down when told, and it has improved but lately it's getting worse. He is losing his patience with the dog and that doesn't help either. I really would like Fagan to come back to us, but I can't give him the attention and activity he deserves. So I want Fagan to stay with his new family and it would be nice if he does his work good enough to keep doing it.

 

I think Fagan is just too fixated on the sheep that he doesn't hear the commands. I talked to my husband and he compared Fagan with a human with ADHD or something like that. Humans with such attention-disorders can get medicins, can we try something like that with Fagan? Something that can take the edges of his concentration so that he can respond to the commands. Has anyone of you experience with that?

Or is it just a matter of training the lie down without sheep and then gradually decreasing the distance between him and sheep? Or maybe a combination? What do you think? Have you ever had a similar problem and what was your solution?

 

Annet

 

Hi Annet,

 

This sounds like a training issue. "Yelling loud" shouldn't be necessary if the dog is properly trained. You should always make sure you have a good stop close at hand before asking for it at a distance. Once the stop is good while close, gradually lengthen the distance. If you loose the stop at any point, shorten up the distance and try again. For more on teaching a stop, please refer to some of my other answers.