My Dogs

Hey! This is my first ever blog! So be kind to me please =)

Since i want this to be good, thought i would start off with an entry about my dogs. As you will see from my interests I love dogs. I have 2 dogs currently, 2 border collies. They are both very mischeivous! Ive had 4 dogs in total.

The first one, was a greyhound. I was only about 4 at the time when we had her, so my experiences with her were a bit limited in a way. I loved her a lot though. She was a great dog, unfourtunatly we dont have her anymore. We had to give her away to a kennel that was ownede by a family friend because she escaped and killed a cat, my mum didnt want her anymore.

My second dog, i got when i was twelve years old. He was the best!! I did Agility with him, It is a great sport! I would recommend it to anybody! He was fantastic at it, we did shows and competed and everything! If anyone is interested in that ask me for more info! But anyway, he was really well behaved 90% of the time and could do lots of tricks and was generally a great dog!

At the moment, i have twins! A boy and a girl! They are TERRIBLE! lol. Loads of hard work! Whenever you want to train one, the other gets in the way! I would seriously not recommend getting 2 siblings at the same time! Im pretty much their main trainer. They listen to me more than anyone else, which is great! They both have some behavioural problems. The girl dislikes dogs, some people, and she used to chase cars and bikes and things (Will talk about that in a sec!) and the boy is a lovely thing lol, he just dislikes certain dogs. I think that is mainly because he is still in tact!

The girl, since obviously a car problem is quite bad! She would lunge at cars and if for any reason she was off the lead near a car... well its horrible to even think about! Apparently this is a very common problem in Border Collies due to their hearding instinct. They cant heard sheep so they try to heard everything else, yes - even big metal machienes! So this is what i did to solve her problem, i hope it helps if anyone is experiencing the same problem;

I firstly took her around lots of car parks. The cars there are not moving, or very slow moving (The perfect way to get her used to seeing, smelling and hearing cars in a safe enviroment!). I then progressed to walking her along roads where the cars are going a bit faster, to get her confidence up! She is a very very nervous dog, this is most of her problem! I did this for a while. With little helpful things inbetween like if we were waiting to cross a road i would wait extra long so she got used to the cars going infront of her. Then one day, i took her to a really busy road. Quite near to a dual carriage way. I sat with her by the side of the road, had a bag of treats in my hand. Kept her attention focussed on me. She was obviously stressed to begin with, she didnt like the fast moving traffic at all! But eventually after about 30 - 40 mins she settled down! She would "look at me" (a command i taught her so that when i say it she has to look at me, not anything else) when the cars went past! If she did that she would get a treat and loads of fuss! Eventually she was sitting there with me getting treats and laying on her back for her tummy to be rubbed. Talk about relaxed! hehe!
Since that day, she rarely chases them any more. Im not saying "I cured her and this is an absolute cure for this problem!" because its not! I still would not trust her off the lead by a road. It took a lot of had work, a lot of stress and I had to be really focussed on wanting to help her over come this! Luckily for me it worked, and if anyone elses dog has this problem you should give it a try!
Also what i am currently doing with her is the same theory but for dogs! Im taking her round to local dog shows and training venues to get her used to socialising with other dogs and at the very least, just being near them! Im hoping to start seeing some results soon! I will let you know how i get on!

Does anyone have any advice on this? Do you know of any good ways of getting a very scared dog braver? Preferably i dont want to have to resort to drugs! I dont want to have to keep her on drugs the rest of her life! I love her the way she is!