I have an 8 month old kelpie cross collie.she is a fabulous dog and a very affectionate companion. But the issue here is that she has from the word go been a Chaser with a capital C.

Sheep, leaves, balls and to my great alarm cars which for the first few months of her training was the major focus and she has come on fantastically.I still dont feel she can be trusted around cars and keep a very firm hold on a short lead,and my eyes peeled for any sign of a chase, but she now mostly goes down when a car comes our way and does not pull me onto busy roads aiming straight for the wheels .believe me she can pull.

however living in a livestock area means that so long as there is the possibility she may chase sheep letting her off the lead could well get her shot.Of course we do go to sheepless places,and these are not easy to find round here where she can run to her hearts content whilst i scan the horizon for sheep appearing. 

 my question is if a dog with such a strong working instinct can be happy as a pet. would i be working for the rest of her life to curb this behaviour,and be going against her nature. would training to not chase sheep and playing lots of chase the ball  be a satisfactory alternative for both canine and human parties,or will she be unsatisfied and unbalanced?

Please if you have a view,or experience on this matter do respond because i am seriously considering finding a crofting home for her where i hope she would be able to flourish.

she gets lots and lots of exercise,and seems to be happy with me.

 

Hi Myasam,

 I have two part pet / part working Gun dogs in the form of a Labradors.   I kennel them during the day to keep them bored when they are not training / exercising.  I take them out twice a day.  In the evening I let them into the house to be pets

 This approach seems to be working as the eldest has flourished to trial standard (experience pending). .

 If this seems uncomfortable for you you may benefit from kenneling for 30 mins before (bored dogs are easier to get interested in training), and 30 mins after (lets the training sink in to even the softest minds. 

Also by introducing kennel time makes an easier pet to train.

There is a saying  in the country, 'no flock, no collie'.  This is as a result of their intelligence.  This act of rounding up sheep in the wild is from their 'prey drive'.  In a well trained sheep dog the 'prey drive' is not rewarded.  Running up on his own and trying to bite or trip the sheep not encouraged and should never happen.  This is it's own reward and takes you out of the equation (he is quite happy to do that without your approval).

Firstly sit/stay then recall exercises. 

 Then My suggestion would then be a series of Steadying exercises.  I may be wrong but until you have a dog under control you will not be made very welcome at sheep dog training.

Start in the garden with no distractions.  Put your dog on a long lead so you can control him (never chase him yourself). Ask your dog to sit, then stay (verbal/ hand signals / body language which says you mean it).  Step away from your dog. Then throw balls/ toys/ dummies / loud things / quite things.  If he gets up at any point, calmly (v.important) and firmly say No! Then return him to the sitting position and say sit.

If you get annoyed or frustrated, stop the exercise immediately or you run the risk of letting him down.  You must remember that if he knew what it was you wanted he would do it!

Once you have taught the dog to control his 'prey drive' you can start taking him out in the lead to introduce more interesting distractions.  Rabbit pens are great for this. Eventually you will reach a stage when he will be able to control himself.

At the stage when you exposing him to new 'real world' animal distractions I found it useful to use a rattle, or bottle with gravel in it, this gives your no! a bit of bass. and can be very effective.  But do not be tempted to over use it.  it has to be used sparingly else he will stop responding when you use the voice command.

Please do not look at re homing him to make him happy.  Because it won't.  He just needs patience and 15 mins twice a day. Most important thing is that every time your puppy chases anything your training is going backwards. Keep her on a long lead untill she realises that she cannot get to what she wants to chase.  And reward your dog everytime he/she ignores the chasable things.

 Good luck.

 

Hi I train Working German Shepherds for the Police Dog Section. They have high drive, energy and enjoy chasing anything that moves. We train them to chase people and to track a scent starting with a very very young puppy. Serious trianing starts at about 12-14 weeks of age. As their training progresses we kennel them in an outside kennel or inside crate for 1.5 - 2hours with no toys so they are very bored and are more focused for training. One of my shepherds is a real bird chaser. We have worked hard on recall stay sit on command and now she will stop what ever she is doing and obey the command given, she is then praised with her favourite toy her ball. If the dog appears not to want to train we just simply give up and finish the session with a game rather than finish it on a bad experience. Either try again a little later or another day be persistant always praise for good behaviour. Bad behaviour give a stern No and place back in Kennel no need to get cross the dog has forgotten that it did wrong you must correct the behaviour as soon as it happens so the dog can associate his actions resulted in no fun and back in kennel. Repeat this training until you have got it to a T. A working dog can be happy in a pet home as long as you give it enough to occupy its mind and body. There is lots you can do to channel a dogs energy, Fly ball, agility, search and rescue or simply hide and seek with the children or hide a toy or a ball etc. I hope this helps