Is he being a teenager?

[thepuffytales]

Hi all, not sure if this is the right place to ask this. 

I have a 20 month old male border collie. He was an absolute dream of a dog up until about a year old, where over the space of a few months he was attacked by random off lead dogs, both big and small. Since then, he's been selectively reactive to certain dogs, however we have been working on this, and he's come on a long way. The use of a slip lead headcollar has significantly helped and an abundance of treats, but we are now at a stage where we can almost always have a walk in peace. However, he severely struggles with off lead dogs running into his space, and refusing to leave. I can usually redirect his attention to me by telling him to "look" however sometimes he gets so wound up there seems to be no way I can wind him down. He's a very large collie (over 25kg) but a very sensitive thing, so it takes almost a day for him to unwind. Is there anything more I can do for him?

And on another note, over the last month or six weeks, it seems like all of his listening skills have gone out the window. completely gone. Where he would do anything that I used to ask him, he now seems to act in a way as if it doesn't please him, he shouldn't have to do it. We do training most days, he's very well mentally stimulated and physically exercised. I'm not sure why he's doing it, or if it's something I'm doing. He's trained with verbal commands and hand signals and has always responded well to it. Just recently he seems to have become obstinate and unwilling to do as i ask. Is it something i can fix? Or has my 20 month old dog just hit the teenage phase late?

 

Thanks so much!

Ciara

[D'Elle]

If the dog slips on training, or stops listening to you, go back to the basics and start the training all over again as if it were the first time. It sounds to me as if he needs a refresher course. And yes, it also sounds as though he is possibly being a teenager.  Just go back to basics with the training, and of course always be 100% consistent. This too will pass.

I would advise taking him to walk in places where there are no loose dogs. Loose dogs are dangerous in many ways, and if it were me I'd go to whatever trouble I needed to in order to make sure my dog and I didn't have to deal with that.