AngryTardis

Ruffin is mellowing out! Aidan was a godsend - so thank you forum :) Ruffin is still nervous and unpredictable at times - he'll never be a "90 year old lab" in personality but he's a lot more fun to be around. He walks on a slack lead with me and with my 14 year old, if I exercise him off leash in a space where there are no other people he returns every time he's called. He still has issues with the front door but I think someone a few pages back suggested crating him? He does that himself now - someone will come to the door, he barks like a mad thing then puts himself in my son's room (which is where his bed is) and stays there. His "reactivity" has reduced - we can walk past people, cars, people with scary things like big flappy bags but we're able to SEE his reaction ahead of time and move him away if he's getting nervous, he's got quite a distinctive mouth movement if he's stressed and now we can see that we can set him up to succeed. He gets a lot of praise when he notices things but no longer reacts to them and I ignore his freakouts apart from telling him no and making him sit until he's deathly bored of the whole thing and gives up so we can get moving again. His main issue is people "creeping up on us" when we're walking, i.e. coming past us from behind. But I'm more vigilant now so if he reacts it's small rather than big. Aidan's classes were great for helping us see his comfort zones and for us to relax into him. I don't think he'll ever be an off leash dog but that's what we're working towards, he's certainly lovely to have around now and I just wanted to thank the forum members for suggesting Aidan and for your kindness and lack of judgement.

Just wanted to update - he didn't "eat" Aidan this evening and we're all feeling distinctly relieved. We have some tools to work on and have enrolled him in the next four weeks of the Reactive Dog Training program. I can't tell you all how much I appreciate your responses and suggestions either. If no one minds I'd like to keep this thread updated as he progresses, partly for me/us as we see his progression and partly in case other people join the forum with a dog similar to ours. eta Just saw your reply Mrs RB, thank you.

Will pm you Aidan. and yes, euthanasia has been considered. He's nervous, very strongly attached to his pack and I can't imagine rehoming him with a new human(s) would cause him anything other than extreme stress. I'd rather be the one holding him while the green dream worked than handing him over to a stranger and him to possibly die alone. I'm fairly sure there are all kinds of "wrong" ways to react, just like every child we have responds differently to stress situations. I"m keen to have this sorted before he's 2 one way or the other. BTW, he's tethered if we have kids for sleep overs just to assuage any concern from the forum.

Yes to bandaids. I can't ALWAYS be first to the door, I can't ALWAYS be the person at the other end of the lead. That's what is concerning me the most. Our dog trainer is back in two weeks and we'll do another intensive session with her - her suggestions for out and about have wreaked small miracles in that we are able to walk him into town and he is calm and relaxed **mostly** even with other people around as long as he's on lead. But the tension of being "on point" and "on watch" for me and for my husband is exhausting and upsetting. The dog obviously picks up on our tension and I think it's set up a vicious circle. Thank you for the lack of judgement. Husband is keen to get him to dog training classes but I can't imagine he'd be able to focus on the training because of all the other dogs there. He does have a few dogs that he's happy and relaxed around and he also "holidays" with our friends who run a working farm and he fits right in happily there. He also "lets" that family into our house and a few other people but the unpredictability is what's doing my head in. His reactions obviously make sense to him but to me they are random and worrisome.

Hi, I'm new. We have a border collie/kelpie/smithfield boy turning two this week. Will try to keep story short and mods please move if I've chosen the wrong space to put this in please. We were sold a farm (not puppy farm but working farm with cows and stuff) puppy and told he was 8 weeks old, discovered later he was 5 weeks old - too young to leave his mama, too young to have learned "dog". Came from a family of nine puppies - one of whom has been already put down due to aggression issues, have met several of his siblings who are all having similar issues - responding out of the blue to any situation with fear and aggression. Have since spoken to a few people who run cattle and sheep and they've bred border collie/smithfield crosses because they want the aggression of the smithfield to temper the gentleness of the border collie **quote unquote** We think we can pinpoint when our boy started to play up. He was seven months old when we moved house to a five acre place. The owner "forgot" to tell us he was still building. There were no fences and so our boy had to be tethered as there was a public access way just below the property and he was immediately very clear it was part of his territory and would bail up ANYTHING using it. After six months there we discovered the building crew found his incessant barking when they were working and he was tethered really annoying and had been threatening him with power tools and stuff to rile him up. This didn't happen frequently but obviously enough to completely freak him out. We've moved again, so two moves in his short life to a well fenced but small place in the city. Three houses away there is a dog off leash park that is huge, there is access to a beach down the road which is also a dog off leash area. Ruffin's "good" points - he has absolutely no prey drive, he's super bright and loves to please and will put up with any amount of "love" from the kids from wrestling to racing to the four year old. He's never resorted to chewing or destroying any of our stuff - we can leave shoes, toys, clothes, whatever on the floor or sofas. He's never stolen food off the table or benches even though the kids leave stuff out. He's an indoor dog who quickly toilet trained and holds on till morning. We have had to very occasionally leave him for up to seven or eight hours alone in the house and there's no mess to clean up, just a dog that needs a good walk and lots of cuddles. Ruffin's "points of concern" - he thinks he's the alpha when it comes to people coming into our house. We've worked hard with him and a dog trainer to reduce his reactions on walks to people, cyclists, motorbikes, kayaks, people in wheelchairs, wearing burkhas, baseball caps, hats in general, vans, especially other dogs. He's now transferred a LOT of that reaction to anyone coming in our front door. He's nipped and snarled at their heels, barks incredibly aggressively. We've responded by shoving into the bedroom closest to the front door and then opening the door after our visitors are down in the kitchen. He's also bitten my 13 year old when she was walking him and he wanted to get another dog across the road and she refused to let him - he left a fairly massive bruise on her leg. He didn't get his way, she just ignored him and kept walking. He pulled the same stunt with my husband who pushed him into a submissive position and the result of that was Ruffin ignored the dog he'd been trying to get the next time it passed us. He's NEVER tried to bite me or force me to allow him to do what he wants to do but he's ignored my commands when I've brought people into the house and rushed round me to nip at the visitor. He knows immediately that he's done wrong. But he's still doing it. He's not used his teeth, nor has he bruised them, just scared the heck out of them - yesterday it was a sleep over child who had already been in the house with his mum and was coming back from the park with my son. I'm finding it really hard to like him to be honest. I'm frustrated that he keeps pushing boundaries and keeps trying to rise to the top of the pack. He's a fine, intelligent dog, with lots going for him but I'm really sick and tired of having to listen to him throw tantrums in the back yard when we have visitors because he's of the opinion that he's entitled to come in, tell them he's boss and be the centre of attention. I'm really keen for some suggestions on how to get it through to him that it's absolutely NOT his job to allow/disallow visitors into our home. He's VERY vocal if the children are first to the door and attempt to prevent him and snaps and snarls at them - they just ignore him and make him follow through. One suggestion from the trainer was to keep him on command and on lead at home at all times till he does exactly what he's told to do - we've found this incredibly difficult to do. Are there any other options? Have him on lead while visitors are here? I really dislike the tension that the whole family feels when we have unexpected visitors.

Reactive dogs are ones who react to every possible distraction when you're out and about? Am I right? Sorry to gatecrash discussion. Have very active boy and I've been discovering the more work we give him, the more tired he is, the less he reacts so posting here to find again so we can try some of these ideas out with him.