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I'm new to Border Collie training and have a 11 week old puppy. I am concerned about my Border Collie around cars. When I take him out for walks/runs in our field the occational car will go by. He now has started to intently stare at the cars. I will tell him that'll do and gently pull on his long lead to get his attention and treat him when he comes back to me. Occationally I will have to block his vision to try to get his attention and once he tried his best to look around me. I just want any suggestions so I can get this stopped now.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Hope

 

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You'll probably get more answers if you post in the "General Border Collie" section. This section is mainly for training working stockdogs.

 

It's good that you're catching this sooner rather than later - it's a good behavior to nip in the bud. Border collies can develop obsessions about things pretty quickly, and of course this is one you want to avoid like the plague. I'm sure people will suggest the "look at that" game from Control Unleashed.

 

I had one pup who tensed up around cars; I could tell he'd like to chase them, and he'd pull on the leash in an effort to follow them. I got all kinds of suggestions ("reverse direction", "treat him to get his attention", etc.) and most didn't work very well - he has a fairly high prey drive. I found keeping him away from traffic until he'd matured a bit worked better than anything else. (And yes, I had to completely rethink where I was taking him for walks). He now ignores cars.

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At around 4 months, my pup started lunging at passing cars while we were on walks.

 

I came down on her hard when she did this, with a very forceful 'NO!'

 

You do need to decide what is acceptable behavior and what is achievable so that you can give an appropriate correction. For example, you could try to discourage staring at cars at all, and therefore correct the pup for even staring. Or you could decide that staring is okay, but correct at the moment the dogs starts to go after the car.

 

I chose the latter, in part because I thought it would be easier to time the correction,and in part because philosophically I like to give my dogs some leeway in their behavior, but your choice might depend on the personality of the dog and the degree of temptation/danger that is presented by cars.

 

The lunging stopped within a couple of days with my pup.

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I have a 11 week old puppy who is just starting to stalk cars going by our home. He will eventually be around many people and moving automobiles. I would like any information how to train my Border Collie to ignore moving automobiles.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Hope

 

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Is he on leash or in a fenced yard or otherwise contained? To start with, since he is a little guy, I would correct him with a stern "no, leave it!" and redirect him to something better, like a toy or treat that you have. Nip the behavior firmly now as it has the potential to become dangerous or fatal, and teach him to look to you when he's given a "no, leave it."

I know others will give you more explicit advice. Best of luck! :)

~ Gloria

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I had done a lot of reading about border collies before I adopted Ben and was very concerned about this. Ben was 2.5 when we adopted him and I had no idea what habits he did or did not form. Our road is rural and not busy, but I don't want to take any chances. As soon as he came home, I started training the command "leave it" in the house with things I knew he liked (like cheese)--and then rewarded him when it was clear he knew what was expected. I then leashed him daily and stood by the road, and waited for cars--trained "leave it" with the same reward.

 

I am sure others will have been advice, but that has worked for us and we still use this command 3 years later and will continue to--handy one to teach!

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Thanks for the information, it has been helpful.

 

We also live in a rural area but have cars that go by 50 MPH. The cars are few but the weekends can be busy. Anyway, he is on a light long line for now. I tell him "thal'll do" and sometime he will look and comeback to me for a treat. A few times I have given him a light tug if that'll do has no effect. There was a time I needed to block his view to get his attention and he tried his best just to look around me. I will try the suggestions I have received.

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  • 2 weeks later...

From my experience with my BC, neither of the suggestions so far were helpful for us. Not saying they may not be helpful for you, just saying we tried both of those and neither worked in the slightest. Than again, Talon is a much "harder" border collie, yelling doesn't phase him in the slightest. When he's "in the zone" (the stare, crouch) yelling at him is more likely to make him lunge at the car faster in fact. For a while we stopped having him anywhere near cars at all, and honestly, it made his reaction more severe.

 

For us the only thing that has worked is the first suggestion of Controlled Unleashed as well as impulse control/relaxation games. I would take him to the park so we could work a distance from the road and I'd stand and wait for eye contact and reward that. We got to the point that every time he would see or even hear a car he immediately turns and stares at me. I don't particularly care if he stares at me, I just don't want him staring down the cars. So he was allowed to look, but only for a second.

It's still a work in progress, but his behavior is at a point were I feel comfortable walking next to a busy road without much concern for his safety. Like today, we went for a walk and other than a few glances at particularly loud buses/trucks and a few ear flicks, he just kept walking without any care about the cars at all.

So for me, it was modified Controlled unleashed if he Lunges in the beginning I'd move away from the road. Not to really "fix" the reaction to cars, more to get him to a point I can get his eye contact again and we can try again with less pressure on him being so close.

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I have a 16month old Border Collie who has a thing for cars, walking him can be rather impossible at times due to this.

 

He was leash trained as a pup and took very well to it until he turned 6 months and decided he wanted to catch all cars he comes across, I have tried distracting him, treating him, telling him 'no' (which in any other circumstance, he knows that means he is doing the wrong thing), turning around and heading home to cut his walk short, however none of these work.

 

My biggest concern is what happens if one day he somehow gets out of our house on his own and goes after a car.

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Cedzz, you need to work with your dog when he's under threshold, which means at a far enough distance that he's not reacting to the cars.

 

Do some searches here; there's lots of information on desensitizing dogs and working under threshold.

 

In the meantime, don't walk him where he can react to cars. It'll just keep getting worse if you do.

 

Best wishes.

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I try stay away from cars when walking but have little option where we live. I avoid main roads and high traffic streets by sticking to back roads. But there will always be at least a car or two. He doesn't react to people, cats or other dogs, it is just cars.

 

As a pup (he was between 6 months and 12 months) we took him to a herding program a couple of times in order for us to learn how to work with him when he is in the zone and for him to have an outlet natural to him, unfortunately he was more interested in yummy sheep droppings than the sheep themselves.

 

We will start this again in the coming weeks and see if he has found an interest in herding. If so, see how that effects his car chasing and responding to commands when he sees them.

 

Do you think that would help or do I need to be doing other things?

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Not letting him practice his reactions to cars is the key thing, and without working him under threshold, it's going to be very difficult.

 

Do you watch for cars approaching and start working with him before they're close enough for him to react? I'd suggest doing that, taking him as far off the road as possible when you see them coming, and then doing some training with alternative behaviors, like looking at you, lying down, hand touches, etc. and praising heavily before he gets too worked up. Leslie McDevitt's Look at That (LAT) program would be good. It's in her book Control Unleashed (I hear the newer puppy version is better), and there's lots of stuff on line. If Duke (and the OP's pup) were my dog, that's what I'd be doing.

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