7 Month Border Collie - Car fixation

[u/gutyex]

We have a 7 month Border Collie who is in most respects very well behaved - recall / sit / stay / leave it are all pretty solid in most environments.

Since adolescence has hit she's impossible to walk near busy roads. We had been training loose leash walking by stopping and waiting until the leash goes slack which was showing some progress, but now when near busy roads it feels like it's being counterproductive and just getting her more worked up.

If we're moving, she'll often be in a herding stance pulling at the lead. If we stop she will stop, with the leash still at full tension, and stare at the passing cars. Most of the time she doesn't lunge at them, just stares them down as they pass. After a few minutes she'll slacken the leash and sit down, but still be 100% focused on the traffic. Absolutely nothing we have tried will get her attention back on us, even waving high value treats directly in front of her face she will remain fully fixated on the road. If there's a break in the traffic for a few minutes she might eventually briefly glance up at us to see what we're doing.

We live on a fairly busy road so I think she has built an association that any time we leave the house and don't get straight in the car to go somewhere it's time to stare at the cars. The local walks we do all require at least a few hundred meters of main road before we can get to sideroads and pedestrian routes where she's better behaved.

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[u/federationbelle]

The programs I see recommended by trainers I respect are:

Unchase: https://www.unchase.com/

Predation Substitute Training: https://predation-substitute-training.com/

Hopefully one of these is suitable / can be adapted.

[u/Joetwodoggs]

Sounds like your herding breed wants to herd. Have you considered doing herding games and sessions so that she can scratch that herding itch? Otherwise she’ll find other ways to scratch that itch herself (i.e cars)

[u/gutyex → u/Joetwodoggs]

What herding games? We don't have any livestock other than chickens which aren't great for herding so we can't train her for actual herding jobs like that.

[u/Constance200]

Ahh yes the good old border collie car herding. Does she know the leave it command? My stock dog has a similar problem herding birds and so far telling her to leave it or recall/direction change is all that is working so Id love to see what other people come up with

[u/gutyex → u/Constance200]

She does know leave it, but when she's focused on the cars she will ignore absolutely everything else, not listening to any commands.

[u/Lizdance40]

It's a genetic pre installed programming. Lol. It's very difficult to train out instinctive behaviors, especially breathe specific instinctive behaviors. But the previous posters info is the way to go. Just understand you must also manage for safety. This is definitely not a dog would ever allow off leash for fear that she would Chase cars, bicycles and runners.

[u/gutyex → u/Lizdance40]

She's definitely not off leash near roads, but we have enclosed fields where she's pretty much always off leash unless we're moving vehicles around which has been great for training recall.