Jumping at everything - Complete madness out of control - Help?

[alj]

Hi everyone,

 

My new border collie is now five months old, and has developed an extremely bad habit of jumping...at EVERYTHING. He is completely out of control on a leash outside, and its got to the point where I only walk him late at night so we run into less people. He does everything in his power to try get out of his leash and jump up like a fish out of water wildly and other people and dogs. He looks completely mad when he does this and refuses to stop. I have to pull him away from whatever it is that caught his attention.

 

If he was not so good the rest of the time, especially with my other two year old border collie, the thought would have crossed my mind to get rid of him, because its madness, there is really no other way to describe it.

 

I would appreciate any advice anyone can give me, as this situation is getting out of control...and fast.

[chene]

This is disturbing to me. You would seriously have considered getting rid of a border collie for being reactive, especially when you don't seem to have done any work to fix it? At five months old no less.This is why we tell people to do some research before they take on the breed...

 

Do a search (on this board or on google) for desensitization. Look At That is a good place to start. I'm sure someone will be more patient than I am and give you some better advice, but this is just ridiculous. Where is your loyalty to your dog?

[Gloria Atwater]

I think you would learn a lot from the book, "Control Unleashed." It's highly recommended and you can get it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UCF53A/

I see you don't live in the US, so perhaps you have to use Amazon for your country, but you can read about it at that link. Your young one needs a lot of training and a lot of work. Do also search on these boards for desensitization advice.

~ Gloria

[carolync]

There are some other books to look at too, Click to Calm is a good one, and there is another "Fired Up, Freaked out and ???" or something like that, can't remember the title.

 

I have a very reactive girl, frustrated on leash when seeing other dogs, fear aggressive with strangers. It takes a lot of work and patience. I feel your pain about walks. We go places where we will encounter less people, or areas that we can get distance away from triggers and won't have surprises. I always walk with a treat bag and a clicker, walks are training time. I'm looking forward to tonight since it's a rainy day, means we can probably get a decent walk in without any meltdowns.

 

She is getting better through desensitization and counter conditioning. The website careforreactivedogs.com explains counter conditioning and positive training for reactive dogs.

 

Here's a snippet regarding counter conditioning/desensitization from the site:

 

"We can change a dog’s emotional response to triggers by repeatedly pairing the trigger with something the dog enjoys, such as food, toys or play (CC). In time, the dog learns to associate the trigger with the pleasurable thing, and develops a positive conditioned emotional response (+CER) to the trigger itself. Your dog must always be kept under threshold, in other words, show no negative reaction to the trigger whatsoever. The intensity of triggers is then very gradually increased as your dog’s emotional response begins to change (DS)."

 

It does work, but it takes time, and lots of patience. Pair it with mat work, focus games and any other sorts of training that helps him with control.

 

Best of luck!

[alj]

This is disturbing to me. You would seriously have considered getting rid of a border collie for being reactive, especially when you don't seem to have done any work to fix it? At five months old no less.This is why we tell people to do some research before they take on the breed...

 

Do a search (on this board or on google) for desensitization. Look At That is a good place to start. I'm sure someone will be more patient than I am and give you some better advice, but this is just ridiculous. Where is your loyalty to your dog?

 

You must be from Alberta...only people from that province would post something that ridiculous.

 

I said if he was not so good the rest of the time, then the thought would have crossed my mind. Never said I was dumping him out on the street for the wolves, good lord...

 

This is my third border collie, and neither of my first two had any issues at all like this, which is why I came on here to ask for some guidance on what might be the problem.

[alj]

There are some other books to look at too, Click to Calm is a good one, and there is another "Fired Up, Freaked out and ???" or something like that, can't remember the title.

 

I have a very reactive girl, frustrated on leash when seeing other dogs, fear aggressive with strangers. It takes a lot of work and patience. I feel your pain about walks. We go places where we will encounter less people, or areas that we can get distance away from triggers and won't have surprises. I always walk with a treat bag and a clicker, walks are training time. I'm looking forward to tonight since it's a rainy day, means we can probably get a decent walk in without any meltdowns.

 

She is getting better through desensitization and counter conditioning. The website careforreactivedogs.com explains counter conditioning and positive training for reactive dogs.

 

Here's a snippet regarding counter conditioning/desensitization from the site:

 

"We can change a dog’s emotional response to triggers by repeatedly pairing the trigger with something the dog enjoys, such as food, toys or play (CC). In time, the dog learns to associate the trigger with the pleasurable thing, and develops a positive conditioned emotional response (+CER) to the trigger itself. Your dog must always be kept under threshold, in other words, show no negative reaction to the trigger whatsoever. The intensity of triggers is then very gradually increased as your dog’s emotional response begins to change (DS)."

 

It does work, but it takes time, and lots of patience. Pair it with mat work, focus games and any other sorts of training that helps him with control.

 

Best of luck!

 

I don't think it is a fear thing because he wants, everything. Not sure how else to describe it aside from a, "I want it! I want it! Go! Go! Go!" type of thing. Never really thought about the lack of focus aspect being the issue. I will definitely try working on that and putting more emphasis on the treats during the walk than having it on the exercise.

[gonetotervs]

Control Unleashed is excellent. Shirley Chong also has 2 free downloadable clicker training books up on her website (shirleychong.com) and lots of advice on how to teach "doggie zen."

It sounds like your pup needs self-control before even starting to work on obedience training and "control unleashed" and lots of Shirley's stuff is about instilling self-control in dogs.

I don't know how you feel about training with food, but eating lowers adrenaline levels, so if your puppy/adolescent is out of his mind with excitment you might try walking and feeding. The "look at that" game in control unleashed basically has your dog looking at whatever he's going to look at anyway, and you rewarding him with some yummy stuff for doing so. Sooner or later, he's going to do the border collie stare at whatever used to set him off and then interrrupt himself to look at you when the cookie/piece of meat is not forthcoming fast enough. It really helped with one of mine who went out of his little mind around motorcycles.

I much prefer the clearer writing style of the Puppy Primer version of Control Unleashed -- but an excellent book. Look at Shirley 's stuff as well -- especially everything about self-control games. It is free and immediately available.

[GentleLake]

Reactivity isn't always because of fear, ALJ. It refers simply to the act of reacting, regardless of cause.

 

I have a reactive youngster. She's highly excitable and reacts to just about everything. She's a mix, but I'm guessing it's the border collie in her. They've been bred to notice everything and to react to it instantly. Sometimes it's a curse rather than a blessing in a border collie when it's extreme like this. When it is, the trick is to teach them to be able to exercise some self control. It can be a challenge.

 

So the click to calm approach (Emma Person's book, Click to Calm) is probably going to be great for your pup, as will the Look at That exercises in Control Unleashed. The idea is that you want to teach your pup to learn to focus on you instead of going wild when he notices something exciting. You give him permission, encourage him even, to look at it, but then to look back to you for direction.

 

With the jumping up on people and dogs, it's going to be an exercise in patience on your part. Teach him a good, solid sit, then when someone's approaching him have him sit and praise and treat the heck out of him when he does. Ask people to help you by approaching him without making eye contact or looking at him. If he jumps, have them turn their backs on him and ignore him completely. He gets no attention, which is what he craves, unless all four feet are on the ground. Later, no attention unless he sits and greets politely. He'll loose interest in people who ignore him and when he does, that's when he earns the attention from then, not when he's acting like a maniac.

 

I see that Gonetotervs replied while I was typing. Definitely look up M. Shirley Chong; she's amazing! I'm trying to figure out how I can get my crazy girl to her to get her to help me train her.

[D'Elle]

You have not told us what things you have tried so far to train this behavior out of your dog. If you tell us what you have tried so far it would help us to help you. I assume you HAVE tired something to train your dog?

[carolync]

Another thing that has helped us is Dr. Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol, it's long and can be tedious at times, but it really helps.

 

You may have what is considered a "Frustrated Greeter" if he is fine off leash with other dogs and people. Then you need to train him proper behaviors, starting with no distractions, working up to larger ones. My girl is great with dogs off leash, but put a leash on her and she'll go bonkers even when she sees a stuffed dog.