breaking the herding instinct when walking

[cndlyn]

I have a 18 month old male Border Collie named Cisco. He is extemely smart (as they all are!) can do commands, Stop, down sit (we are still working on stay!)and many tricks. The only real problem I have is that when we take walks down our road when he sees a car, he immediately goes into a herding mode. Head and neck hunched and sometimes actually walks almost lying down. No matter what commmand I give he will not give me any attention. As soon as the car passes he is fine. He does not try to chase the car, he simply goes into the herding position. He only does this while we are walking on the road. In our yard, he will not pay any attention to the cars going by even if he is not on a lease. I am not sure how to conquer this. I have tried getting in front of his line of vision, jerking the lease, but his total concentration is on the car he is watching whether it is actually coming toward us or not. If the lights on the car are on, it is even worse. Any ideas?? Thanks

[nancy]

Fergie has been doing this for 7 years. Let me know if you find a solution.

 

At least she doesn't try to go for the car. As soon as it's past, she pops up, all happy. BUt if she's not on leash, I always stop and put my hand on her - just in case.

 

What I hate is the neighbors who think it is so funny.

[sea4th]

I placed a rescue border collie one time that would anticipate a car coming down the road and stop walking, hunker down and jump at the car. His new owners thought it was funny. I took it a step beyond the funny part when I told them what could happen.

 

I'm all for positive reinforcement, but when it comes to a matter of life or death, I'd rather inflict some pain coming from me, rather than the pain of the dog being hit by a car.

 

I went to her house one time and we took Mick walking. I had the leash. I wanted to see what he did. Sure enough, every muscle was twitching at a car coming in our direction. I didn't correct him that time, but was ready the next time. When the next car came, I let him hunker down. At the part where he jumped at the car as it passed, I roared at him

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!!", simultaneously jerking back on the leash flipping him backwards off his feet, and when he landed I still yelled at him "SHAME ON YOU! BAD! ROTTEN DOG!!".

 

Mick was so shocked, horrified & that that's all it took. He's never done it again, and the son can walk him now on busy roads, Mick never looks at cars again. I continued to walk him right after that "training session" and when another car approached, he hesitated and looked up at me. I told him sit and gave him a treat as the car went by.

 

For me, the "stigma" of being rough beats the heartbreak of a dead by the side of the road.

 

Vicki

[nancy]

Would that be appropriate for Fergie? She has never jumped at a car. She just does the hunkering - even walking in the hunker. Woudl we be teaching her that getting into border collie mode is bad or that getting into it for cars is bad? Would she understand the difference?

 

BTW, we take her to the few bicycle races in this area. She totally ignores the bikes (which is a blessing). But she surely does not ignore the lead car (a new Mini in the last event) and the follow motorcycle. We never need a course marshall to warn us when the pack is coming. Fergie has already gotten into her hunker when the car is about a quarter mile away. She has seen the vehicles stopped, between races, when we chat with the officials. No interest. But the drivers and observers in those vehicles start to look for her after the first few laps. Guess that Mini was the biggest yellow sheep in the world!

 

She also barks (unusual without a squirrel) when we applaud a rider.

[sea4th]

If you wanted to break her of the habit, I don't think you'd need to be as drastic. My worry even with the hunkering behavior would be that someday, sometime, it might materialize into a full blown chase. I would just anticipate her moves and redirect her attention with asking her to sit and watch you and reward her with a treat as the car went by. If you don't want this behavior, redirect it.

 

I took my first & oldest border collie one time to a street fair where they had rides set up. We were standing near a ride and I was talking to someone. The ride we were by was like a mini roller coaster and the coaster itself was a caterpillar. The front was a big goofy-looking yellow caterpillar face, zipping by us. It was above us, so Pete would be looking up, as it got closer, he'd crouch, and as it went past, he'd leap into the air after it. Good thing I had him on a leash. We moved by the Tilt-a-Whirl. Once that ride got going, same thing. Can you imagine an amusement park though Pete's eyes?

 

Vicki

[nicky]

i would just like to say that I have posted a topic with a very similar title to yours, although the problem is slightly different. our dog herds the horses, she is fine with other peoples horses, as she does not percieve them as being in her 'group'. However when it comes to our horses, she cannot abide them moving out of a small group around me. obviously this limits what we can comfortably do out on rides. I have no idea how I can get across to her that this behaviour is really not useful, or what else I could train her to do (apart from walking to heel all the time, and on a walk in the woods I would like her to be able to run about).