Border Collie Excitement In The Car

[jaybeece]

So I have this border collie staying with me who's earned the nickname of silly collie because she's slightly mad.

She's unbelievably exciteable and, although she's improved since getting here, I haven't made much progress in the car.

She'll pant, whine and then escalate to hysterical barking as she sees other cars move on the road. It's hard working with her as I'm trying to concentrate on driving, but I can't really avoid taking her in the car forever.

If we're stationary and there are no other cars on the road she's excited, but under control. If we're moving she pants heavily, but no whining or barking.

If we see another car coming head on she'll start to make a bit of noise, but it's the ones that pass on the side that drive her wild and she'll start barking hysterically.

I'm pretty sure her old owner mentioned that she's from working lines and, despite being overweight and incredibly unfit, she still wants something to do whenever she's awake. I'm not sure if this means she's not ever going to calm down in the car or not, since she's probably mentally trying to herd all the cars on the road or something. If it's not already obvious I don't know a whole lot about how border collies work quite yet Fair bit different to my bullmastiff x...

She doesn't get huge amounts of exercise as yet because she's simply not up to it physically. She's got around 5kg to lose and can't really chase a ball for more than 15-20 minutes (on top of a walk), after that she'll more or less pass out. When she's up to it I'll be taking her out on the push bike to the offlead park and really running her, but for now I'm trying to go easy on her. Maybe more exercise will mean less excitement in the car, but I'm not holding my breath.

So does anyone have any suggestions about how to approach this?

[The Spotted Devil]

My first thought would be to put her in a crate in the car (provided she's crate trained) and cover with a blanket - would that be practical?

Perhaps also combine with a calming natural approach - I was just reading a journal article about how effective pure lavender sprayed on a cloth can be for car-stressed dogs.

[jaybeece]

Well the natural approach certainly can't hurt. I'll give it a shot and ta for the suggestion

She doesn't actually appear to be stressed though, just incredibly excited. He ears are up, tail is going a million miles an hour and she seems to be having a ball Bloody silly collie.

She started crate training 2 weeks ago and really loves it so far, but I don't have a crate that'll fit in the car yet as she's borrowing one of my other dog's massive crates until I have the dosh for a border collie sized one. Worth a shot though, especially with the cover since it's the visual stuff she goes mad over.

[The Spotted Devil]

A stress response doesn't need to be inherently good or bad, if that makes sense - it can encompass any form of acute or chronic arousal.

Definitely the visual aspect is important. If you don't have a crate that fits, try keeping her in place with a good strong harness and blacking out the windows to avoid over stimulating her

[jaybeece]

Ah alrighty, that makes sense I've been thinking about blacking out the windows too, but a covered crate will be a lot simpler. I'll do some hunting to find one that'll fit in a hatchback with her in it and still leave room for the other dog in the car. I probably need a bigger car

[Tonymc]

I would slim the dog down and give her plenty of outlet for drive. Tony

[jaybeece]

Oh hell yes Tony I feel sorry for the poor girl, she's quite a petite border collie and carrying way too much for such a small frame so losing the weight is a high priority. But I need to make sure it's not causing any stress on her body in the proces so we're taking it slowly. She's had a complete change of diet which should also help, I'm still figuring out exactly how much to feed her without almost starving her.

As for drive outlets, right now she gets the tennis ball thrown and that's about it. What else would you recommend? We've been doing obedience every day as well to keep her mind going (and because she really needs the training), but I guess that wouldn't count as drive.

[The Spotted Devil]

Will she tug? Would be a very constructive reward if used with her obedience training.

Swimming would be great too - lots of ball chasing is not ideal for her joints.

A moderately high protein diet can be more satisfying too, meaning you can feed less - plus cooked pumpkin to fill her up! How old is she?

ETA: It's usually recommended that you can safely halve what she was originally eating to get the weight off her, provided she doesn't have any underlying medical issues of course.

Edited March 1, 2009 by The Spotted Devil

[jaybeece]

I have no idea if she'll play tug o war actually, I'll give it a shot

Swimming would be good, but there's nowhere within walking distance and I'm not keen on driving 40+ minutes to the beach with her barking in my ear at the moment Maybe if the crate idea helps we can make it work.

I take her to a park for ball throwing so she's mostly doing long runs across an oval to fetch the ball rather than short sprints in the back garden. I guess it's still not ideal for her joints though, might start some gentle jogs on grass with the pushy in the next week or 2 instead.

She's 4 or 5, I keep forgetting to ask her old owner what her birthdate is. She's getting Artemis dry food + raw bones most days, their website says it's 23% crude protein. I've been giving her a cup and a half a day (half of what the large brown one gets as he's double what she should weigh), but not totally sure if that's too much or not. I don't think it's too little as she has plenty of get up and go still so I have been considering dropping it back a bit more and giving her brekkie to her in a treat ball rather than in a dish.

Edited March 1, 2009 by jaybeece

[The Spotted Devil]

I'm feeding Artemis to Zig at the moment - very happy with it......although he eats about 4 cups a day

If you have the time, instead of feeding her in the bowl, try using her Artemis kibble as training treats in the house.....clicker training is a great start. This is what I do with Zig (takes a long time and lots of jackpots with 4 cups!) and he is so lovely and calm in the house because he is mentally exhausted

I just let Zig run free at the park and incorporate some obedience work (6-7 recalls, sit stays, drop etc) as well to keep him on his toes. Mostly we go to the beach in the morning - it's extremely addictive for both of us. Once you get the car travel sorted you won't want to go anywhere else

ETA: You will have fun with her - the "nutters" are always a blast to train if you work out what makes them tick!

Edited March 1, 2009 by The Spotted Devil

[jaybeece]

4 cups My god, the large brown one is 38kg and I can't get him to eat anymore than 3 a day

And training with her really is fun, I've been blown away by how fast she learns and how vastly different she is to my other dog, it's a completely different training style. I actually originally wanted a working dog breed, but then someone got conned into the madness that is the bullmastiff x (although I do adore the goofy bastard). I'll take her to obedience and try to get into agility too once I'm done with studying for an exam (should be studying right now....).

She's already started clicker training and I'll see how she likes rewards with her dry food, can't see it being a problem

The beach is just a little too far for us to be a morning thing, well that and I start at 6am, but I'd like to take her every couple of weeks for a good workout I'll do a hunt around for any lakes/rivers nearby too. I dunno how she is with water, but if she has a ball to go after I doubt she'd mind a swim.

[The Spotted Devil]

Zig's only about 23-24kg and all muscle too! Although he does tend to lose a kilo just getting out of bed to greet me in the morning

Despite a morning doing obedience and an intro to flyball at the club today, Zig was being a right git and mischief maker half an hour ago....too much sleeping all afternoon! I took him outside with a tug toy for 10 minutes and had him going through the 'weaving poles' (garden stakes stuck into what's left of the lawn) from various angles. We both had an absolute hoot and he's being very good now....just quietly whining for his dinner

The only time I use the tennis ball is to encourage speed and confidence at agility and to get Zig into the water at the beach.....although he doesn't seem to like picking the ball out of the water and getting salt water in his mouth, the big sook!

[CP*]

Have the same problem with a Sheltie that gets 3-4 hours of exercise everyday plus agility and flyball and chasing bunnies. So dont bank on increased exercise reigning it in. My sheltie is a nutter and unless physically restrained goes wild - she loves barking at the cars going past. Problem is my other dogs have recently decided it looks like fun!

I have to contain my dog but have the same problem with fitting a crate in. This is really not an easy problem to fix - I am finding the only solution is to limit the dog's vision. Do you have something to fix her lead and harness/collar to the floor or some other method to keep her on the floor? On 'wagging school' they put the dog on the front floor and the dog seemed quite comfortable. Victoria Stillwell blacked out the windows - but this is a very dangerous way to drive.

Unfortunately thanks to her heavy ruff my sheltie worked out how to wiggle out of the collar and back onto the seat but you might have better luck with a border collie. Recently I made a "box" with flywire screen on the outside to restrain her - but I am sure she will get out of this pretty quickly. In the meantime I am waiting on a crate that will fit my car to come into stock at Deals Direct. But good luck these crazy car barkers are nutters but are great fun dogs too because they get sooooo excited.