Kelpie Training

[Eviedog]

I have a two year old Kelpie/boarder collie cross which my children rescued from a welfare agency. We don't know her history and have had her now six months. Evie is the most beautiful and a very smart loving dog. At times very timid and we assume this is because of how she was treated or what happened before our family. She is also very obedient in the home and yard I could not want for a more loving and fun dog.

Our biggest issue is walking at the park...I know these dogs need to have a run and she will run around fetch balls and come back everytime....UNTIL she starts to notice a few other dogs and then she seems to have a switch that flicks in her head and she runs around these dogs herding them up and its is very difficult to get her back....I know she can hear me and I know how smart she is but she just goes into this zone and wont' listen. I have tried a 30 metre lead but she does know when its on and off

Does anyone have any advice or methods to use with trying to get her to return when called in this situation

thank you

[persephone]

hi :)

good for you on rescuing Evie !

She may well have been born a bit timid - like people , not everyone is an extrovert or really confident ;)

When training her , then, just work on what you have .

She sounds great - just that she really really thinks other dogs are much more interesting than human sometimes !

I will suggest you and Evie attend an obedience school nearby - or contact a private trainer - not sure who is over West , so I'll leave that to someone who does know.

Please read thru the following info as well - it may be helpful. :)

http://blog.k9pro.com.au/10-things-not-to-do-with-your-dog/

http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/232274-exercising-reactive-dogs-thread/page__st__15

http://leemakennels.com/blog/dog-behaviour/dog-training-dog-behaviour/seven-steps-to-off-leash-reliability/

[sheena]

Actually, when she gets focused on rounding up other dogs, chances are, that it is true...she can't hear you. It's called "sticky dog" syndrome, & you get it mainly in working breeds & they get so focused on what they are doing, that they switch over to the other half of their brain & they literally, can't hear you. I have a BC that has this syndrome & the way I manage it with her, is to play LAT with her The Look at That Game I also don't let her run with other dogs except our other BC.

[sheena]

A link to an old article on Sticky Dog Syndrome My link

[Isabel964]

Great thread - all the best with your gorgeous girl.

For what it's worth a good private one on one dog trainer in my opinion is worth it. They can be amazing. I had one for my kelpie when she was 2yrs old. One hour he spent with us. Since then she learned to walk off lead, be so obedient it's been like a dream with this girl. She had no issues, it was more me wanting an obedient dog that I could take anywhere anytime and be in control to keep her safe.

[skip]

Just saw this post. How is it going? Personally a private lesson with positive methods would b my advice. Too many community obedience clubs do not have the expertise to help although for some dogs and owners they r fine.

In the meantime I wouldn't let Evie practice herding as the more she does it, the harder to stop. Simply herding in so instinctual and also so much more reinforcing for your dog. My kelpie still likes to herd my other kelpie but she is not allowed to. I gave her sheep and if none r available she can always run around a tree. That keeps her amused.

I have a 4 yr old and I have learnt heaps about reinforcement and control with her. She is a lovely girl now but don't know how to put all the methods I used to obtain such behaviour in a post. At work now but if you r interested in what I did, let me know.

Kelpies BTW can be fairly timid and they notice everything! Some f fearless and some r not. That is one thing I can not quite change in my dog. My rescue kelpie had issues and I blamed his past. I know my girl kelpie's past as had her as a pup and she developed issues in spite of all I did.

Great dogs and glad she found you.

[Willem]

a good recall is pretty easy to train and works as long as the dog is not high aroused or focusing on something else - if they switch into this state they choose 'not to hear' the recall...and a lot of owners let them get away with this 'selective hearing' because a recall for an aroused dog is harder to train....if the owner ignores it the dog gets rewarded for the 'selective hearing' and it will be even harder to change this now reinforced behaviour.

However, positive reinforcement works also at an aroused level...it is just training & reinforcement at this level where the dog is full of Adrenalin and Dopamine. A persistent training based on positive reinforcement and the dog 'get used' to the recall also if in this state.

Here an article from Susan G. about this: http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2010/06/recall-collapse/

Our dog gets excited when she sees our budgies (and other birds), so I trained her in front of the budgie cage...she gets the 'stare' when she sees our Guinea pigs, so I trained her recall when she starred at the Guinea pigs...and she likes to chase the rag from a flick pole, so I used this to get her in a state of high arousal and trained leave-it-take-it. And she gets very, very excited when she sees other dogs - she doesn't want to herd them, just to play with them, however, due to the training with birds, Guinea pigs and flick pole she has now an excellent recall.

Edited January 20, 2016 by Willem