Self Preservation... Is It Trainable?

[Camden's Mom]

Is there any way to teach or train a dog to have some sense of self preservation?

 

My 18 month old seems to think anything worth doing is worth doing to the extent of self injury. He just keeps hurting himself and I feel like I'm in a "recovering from injury" revolving door. I figured this was just a BC thing but when I picked him up from two weeks of boarding even his herding instructor commented that he has zero sense of self preservation.

 

Assuming one day I can actually get this dog sound and healthy again, I'd like to help him have a bit more respect for his own body and it's limitations. Is there anything I can do to teach/train/help him understand that he needs to take better care of his body?

 

Sorry if this seems like a silly question. I am worried that the answer is probably "no", but I figured if ANY group of people might be able to help it would be on this forum.

[Smalahundur]

I don´t think you can train "self preservation", I do think you can train impulse control. Should help with this problem.

[Camden's Mom]

Are there any specific impulse control exercises you would suggest for this situation?

 

Currently our impulse control training includes:

- Leave It

- Stay (varying lengths and introducing different distractions)

- Watch Me (varying lengths and introducing different distractions)

- "Instant" Downs (while walking, running and sometimes even with me waving my arms around like a lunatic)

- Waits (at all entrances and exits, the car, during play, with high value treats and at feeding time)

- Settle (he's actually pretty good in the house but terrible outside)

- Place (our version of "go to mat")

 

We do a daily training session (usually about 30 minutes), although I usually only work on one or two impulse exercises during formal training. I feel like every single walk we go on is also a training session and we probably do a lot more impulse work on those, although it's not as structured as our formal sessions.

 

Is there anything you would suggest adding to this list that might be helpful or should I just plan to dedicate more time to training and improving the exercises listed above? Thanks in advance!!!

[Gideon's girl]

I know that they teach guide dogs to watch out for things that could hurt their handler, but they teach it by letting the dog take the handler into a controlled situation where the handler is "hurt" and the dog is "corrected" by the handlers reaction. I don't know how that could be applied to this situation, but apparently they do learn to watch for things that could hurt their person, so they "ought" to be able to learn to watch out for things that could get them hurt, if only you can figure out how to reinforce that without them actually getting hurt. That's sort of a paradox, isn't it.

[Shetlander]

What situations are the injuries occurring? What kinds of injuries? The Border Collies I know (including Quinn) can be hard on their bodies but what is your guy doing exactly?

[Camden's Mom]

Shetlander, I guess it's mostly what some people would consider "zoomies" when he's outside and off leash. The problem is he will run full tilt, decide suddenly he really wants to be going a different direction, fling his entire body weight around on one leg, zoom some more, then change directions again. Even in a large open field he will take these ridiculously tight, hard turns at full speed. It's sorta' difficult to even watch him play because I'm cringing the entire time.

 

His herding instructor told me that while she was boarding him he'd get a running start and then *leap* (fly?) off of her porch (about a 3-4 foot drop) onto the snow and ice instead of using the stairs... which he knew were there. While I was there he started to run for the edge of the porch, passed a ball on the way, did a 360 degree turn on one toe, grabbed the ball, did a 360 degree turn back towards the edge and dove off, practically spinning in the air. This all happened before I could even get a word out.

 

It's insane.

 

This dog is not under-stimulated nor under-exercised. He gets a long morning and evening walk. I work from home so he will frequently get shorter walks or go on outings with me throughout the day. We train daily, even if it's just stupid pet tricks, to keep his mind engaged. He knows how to settle in the house.

 

It's just when he does anything active or athletic he takes it to an extreme. The injuries so far have all been with his legs, though the current one *might* include the hips... we'll be following up on that this week. :/

[Ooky]

Sounds very much like Odin. Most of the reason we have never done a lot of agility training is that i know he would hurt himself. I have to be his sense of self preservation a lot of times. As others said keep working on impulse control, and also be careful for him in places where he could more easily slip or crash, erase his paw pads, whatever. Be careful with fetch and other mindless activities, inserting opportunities to keep him thinking and to slow him down. like, you van put him in a down stay and THEN throw the ball, and release him. But 18 months was probably as bad as it ever was - remember he's still a very young guy with all the recklessness that goes with that. My brother, an athlete, was not so different. Jumping off the porch sounds so familiar, so i had to identify when he might do such things and discourage them. Odin has much more control nowadays at age 5 but he will always be willing to give 1000%, with the side effect of not necessarily being careful with his body.

 

When he does inevitably injure himself - really do the rest needed to let any minor soft tissue injuries heal.

[Shetlander]

Hmm. I think I know what you are talking about. I call that Border Colie multi tasking where they are so fast in doing one thing, suddenly doing something else, then back to the first activity all in the blink of an eye. Sounds like your guy does it to the nth degree. The only thing I can think to suggest is try to insert some impulse control at least in situations where the behaviors are likely to happen. Like on the instructor's porch, I would insist on a calm sit and sedate (relatively ) walk down the steps. I would train a default behavior that doesn't involve him leaping off. For instance, Quinn and the Lhasa were bursting through the door to the backyard like greyhounds out of the chute. They were so wound up that they sometimes took off barking like idiots or even got into skirmishes (they are not good friends). So I had to train calmer entries to the yard, having them sit and wait for a release. This was enough to get their brains back in gear, their excitement under control and their ability to calmly go outside.

 

If you see him playing too crazily, either don't play that particular game or modify it. For instance, keeping throws low or having him run out and then throw the Frisbee or ball to him. Or have him do tricks in order to earn a short toss of the frisbee, ball or toy rather than long throws. In the spring, Quinn had a partial tear in his cruciate and we had to quit all fetch for several months. Instead, I lobbed a non bouncy toy to him to catch and also played lots of find the toy after I hid it in the yard or house. So he could run but he wasn't doing sudden turns, stopping on a dime and flying thru the air. It might be that certain types of play just won't work well for your dog at this time.

 

I hope this latest injury heals quickly. Good luck and let us know how he is doing.

[MrSnappy]

Dexter hurt himself multiple oh-so-many times when he was an adolescent. He was always recovering from a strained this, broken that, fractured something, a hole in him somewhere etc. Now he's over 4 years, and he's got more spatial awareness and is not as frantic as he used to be. Ironically, he NEVER hurt himself at agility, because he was forced to pay attention to the obstacles and to me on course (in a manner of speaking, at least)(an agility superstar he ain't). In seems to go hand in hand with a general state of being A Really Excitable Dog in all aspects of his life, a quality I don't very much enjoy living with. He's the most over-the-top dog I've ever owned.

 

RDM

[Camden's Mom]

Well, the stories you have shared have given me some piece of mind. I think when his herding instructor (someone who has breed, raised, trained and worked with BCs for many years) even commented on his level of disregard for his body I knew I had a special case.

 

While we haven't been able to play fetch in months, I do like to switch the game up as much as possible to keep him on his toes. He's one of those that likes to run out before the ball, so I'll often point him to a different spot in the field or ask for a very long distance sit, down, spin, speak, etc. before throwing the ball. I'll try to get creative with new rules (once we get to play again... which might be after the snow melts in a few months) and keep him thinking during active situations. We'll keep plugging away at impulse control in general in the meantime.

 

You can imagine how relieved I am to read that others have had pups like mine that have grown up to be slightly more self aware. I'm never expecting this boy to be a couch potato or anything of the sort, but it would be nice to see him healthy and sound and able to enjoy life without hurting himself.

 

On a side note, I've already signed us up for a tracking/scent work class later this month!! I figure since the probability is quite high that he will injure himself again (many times) throughout his life, this will be a great activity for when he's resting up and recovering.