Spinning/Circling in border collies

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

We still have the severe circler from The swafford raid Gypsy she is improving greatly everywhere except her crate where she will turn but, never as long.

 

We now just took in an older horder Border collie from OH and they said if you pen him he spins. We see slow circling and a current behavior of following a pattern around the whole 1/2 acre fenced area. You might think he was just tracing the fence if he didnt get to the one spot that for soem reason has a 3 foot circle he has to follow first before heading out to follow the fence again.

 

With Gypsy we have used a time method of improving her behavior due to the deprevation she endured in her short life and she is almost ready for agood patient home. We also use voice commands to stop the spinning int he crate if it's more than brief. She isnt deaf.

 

So with a Pierce who has also belonged to a family knows toys and seems to love to be back in a large dog filled enviroment. Would you give him the time method too or try to engage him more? He is most likely about 10 years old but, it's obvious he currently doenst trust people are good. We also suspect he has age related hearing loss.

 

Thoughts?

[ejano]

We still have the severe circler from The swafford raid Gypsy she is improving greatly everywhere except her crate where she will turn but, never as long.

 

We now just took in an older horder Border collie from OH and they said if you pen him he spins. We see slow circling and a current behavior of following a pattern around the whole 1/2 acre fenced area. You might think he was just tracing the fence if he didnt get to the one spot that for soem reason has a 3 foot circle he has to follow first before heading out to follow the fence again.

 

With Gypsy we have used a time method of improving her behavior due to the deprevation she endured in her short life and she is almost ready for agood patient home. We also use voice commands to stop the spinning int he crate if it's more than brief. She isnt deaf.

 

So with a Pierce who has also belonged to a family knows toys and seems to love to be back in a large dog filled enviroment. Would you give him the time method too or try to engage him more? He is most likely about 10 years old but, it's obvious he currently doenst trust people are good. We also suspect he has age related hearing loss.

 

Thoughts?

 

If he has a suspected hearing loss, perhaps he is losing his vision as well. He might be repeating the pattern because of poor vision and is going by scent and hard fence boundaries. Our Willie when he was losing his vision walked the same slow route every time he was out in the yard.

 

Liz

[sweet_ceana]

Our last foster circled so much in his previous foster home he wore himself a path in their back yard. He was young, but very scared, and unconfident. I broke him of it by just not letting him do it. I would correct him every time I could see he was getting into that zombie circling mode. He didn't trust us and was wary at first so he would freeze instantly and stop. (Very soft dog when it came to corrections) Eventually he got out of the habit of circling because it wasn't aloud and he learned more appropriate behaviors. He would get corrected, recalled, and then on to something fun!

 

Maybe you can leash him and when he starts his routine correct him, and then lead him in the other direction in a straight line. Also, you could put him on a long lead, do a quick light tug on the lead (just a nudge and hey you) to get his attention if he can't hear you, and then recall him to you. Then give him some treats, or play a game he likes. Maybe this will help him to start seeing people as good sources of fun as well.