Okay, those of you who are probably already sick of hearing about her know that about a week ago McDeath and I got a dog - Diamond - a 1 1/2 year old border collie.
She is settling in well, except that she has started to do everything she can to escape from the house when she knows I’m going out without her.
I wouldn’t mind putting her into her kennel except that I’ve read (and totally understand) that she shouldn’t be in there for more than 3-4 hours at a time. There may be days that I get caught up at work and can’t make it home for lunch to let her out, and I don’t want to have her in there for 8-9 hours straight!
Yesterday she wiggled her way outside as I was closing the door. She ran a few houses away and then found herself backed into a corner, so I was able to grab her and bring her home.
I have the day off today so I’ve been trying to train her to stay back, but it’s not going well. I’ve done some searches on the 'net that recommend taking ‘baby steps’ - getting her used to me getting my keys, putting on my shoes, etc etc. This dog seems much too smart for that - she’s totally fine until I actually want to go out the door.
I don’t want to have to tie her up inside, but I don’t know what else to do so that she stays safe and doesn’t run away.
• Crate her and find a dogsitting service to check in on her and take her for a walk once during the day while you are out. Most at-home pet sitting services IIRC, charge about $10 per visit. You might only have to do this for a short time, or you might have to do it for life. You might be able to find a kid or a teenager who’s responsible enough to do it for cheaper, like $10-20 per week or something. (At 13, I’d have been all over a gig like that.)
• Another option is doggie day care, but that sounds pricey and a tad over the top, even to me, a notorious sucker for animals in need of rescue. Drop her at the kennel on your way to work, pick her up on the way home. At my kennel, the cost for this would be $10 per day – same as a pet sitter service.
• Her behavior sounds like classic separation anxiety, which my rescue had. I gave him Clomicalm (clommipromine – prozac for dogs. I called it dogzac.), which is an anti-anxiety drug approved for use in canines. Your vet will have to prescribe it, and my vet required one visit with her resident animal behaviorist to determine that my dogs really needed it. They were walking, furry train wrecks, so both dogs were on it. It didn’t make them sleepy or anything, just mellow enough to pay attention. Then I could work with them on some behavior modification techniques which got them through the sep. anxiety. Talk to your vet and see if there’s a behaviorist in your area.
The modification techniques were very simple: First the dog had to sit. Then they mastered sit-stay. Then I’d make 'em sit-stay and take three steps away. Eventually we worked up to me being able to leave the house for 4 hours and not come back to a destroyed living room or a poop-smeared crate. It took time and patience. Loads of time and patience. But now I can leave my dogs uncrated and unfettered and not worry about their safety. The thing is, this took about 15 weeks. I couldn’t accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish in one day off. Training dogs does not work that way. Talk to an obedience trainer at PetSmart if you don’t believe me. They need constant positive reinforcement.
Of course she’s fine until you go out the door – you’re trying to do too much too fast and her bitty doggy brain isn’t making the same leaps of logic that you’re expecting her to.
Perhaps others will chime in with additional advice.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to give the impression that I expect to be able to train her in one day. I was just hoping to get some groundwork done.
But … something HAS to be done in the meantime, for her own safety if nothing else.
I guess for now we’ll crate her and ask the neighbours to ignore her howling, and make sure one of us comes home every few hours to let her out and socialize with her. Hopefully over time she’ll settle in and won’t need to be crated.
Has she had basic obedience training? I agree with Dogzilla. Once she knows stay there shouldn’t be a problem with the sneaking out while you’re leaving. Border Collies excel at obedience, and it is fun for the owner, too.
My dog is half Border Collie, and I had to work. I would make him stay, and then tell him his job was to guard the house. I made up for it by long walks immediately on my arrival home. My best advice with a Border Collie is realize they are very active dogs. Take them out often for heavy physical activity and give them a job if you can. Make them good and tired and it will be easier. I’d always take my dog out for a good romp before work and that helped a bit.
Yep, she knows the basics and she learns very quickly. We’ve been working on “stay”, but it seems as soon as she realizes I’m going out, she forgets everything she knows.
I take her for a walk right before I leave, and as soon as I get home. I don’t make a big deal of coming and going.
The only way to get her to stay back from the door is to speak very forcefully to her, and then she slinks back as if I’ve kicked her or something! She was good for the first few days, but it’s like every day she gets bolder.
I don’t want to have to be harsh with her in order to get her to stay back from the open door - I worry that it will make it even worse, because she’ll get more anxious. Or perhaps she won’t like the harshness and she’ll start to behave better?
While you are in training mode, what about leaving her in only a part of the house? That way you could work on the separation turmoil without worrying about her getting out of the house. Once she’s learned to accept you leaving the room, it should be easy (or easier) to train her to not race out the front door.
For what it’s worth, I highly recommend crating. I had a lab that destroyed my house when he was left alone. But he was perfectly happy in a crate. He’d even sleep in there when I was home. The small space was definitely a comfort to him.
Get one of those electronic doggie fences and make her wear the collar. Set the boundary at your door, and she will have second thoughts about trying to escape.
Now, bear in mind that my dogs aren’t house pets - they’re working dogs, kept strictly outside, so I don’t know anything about crate training (which does sound like an outstanding option for a house dog.)
One of mine (the male) is a talented escape artist too. He’s not doing it out of separation anxiety, because he’ll do it if I’m home, but that dog can clear a six foot fence without any problem. I have to keep him tied up in my yard, although strangely, he won’t leave the truck unless there are cattle around.
I am fortunate enough to be able to bring him to work with me, so he’s only tied up in the afternoons when it’s too hot for him, and at night.
You mentioned a kennel outside? That sounds like a good option, although it might need work. A concrete slab that the bottom of the fence fabric can be bolted to is good, and it keeps them from digging out. A roof is essential in my case; he jumped out of a six-foot unroofed kennel last weekend without even a running start. And make sure the latches are border collie-proof too. That might entail a clip on it, because a flip type latch certainly isn’t.
Unless you’re in extreme weather somewhere, she’ll be OK in a kennel outside during the day. Give her some toys and hope for sympathetic neighbors.
Someone suggested the electronic fence, but that only works if you can bury a wire around the perimeter of your property - not terribly feasible at your front door.
I’m not sure that this sounds like Separation Anxiety. (Quick and unscientific test: does she sleep in your bedroom at night? SA is rare in dogs who don’t. My SA observation - it isn’t a dog who’s worried because “Mommy is gone and I’m all alone.” It’s a dog who’s worried because “My Dog, I’m responsible for that human and she’s out of my sight!” usually a dog forced to be more responsible than he/she can handle.) If you really think it is SA, go to www.shirleychong.com, look for Mind Games (under Training Tips on the left) and follow the directions. I had a dog with SA and this really, really helped.
Otherwise, you need to tire this dog out, so that she is eager to sleep when you’re gone. Do NOT attempt to do this with exercise, you will end up with a very fit, athletic dog who needs to be tired out. Mental exercise tires a dog out quickly, and scent work even more so. Make her work for her meals. Scatter the kibble in the grass and make her sniff it out. Do a lot of obedience training. Give her a frozen kong or Buster cube in her crate while you are gone. (A healthy dog will sleep 12-18 hours a day. It won’t hurt her to be crated all day while you are gone, as long as she gets out, gets appropriate exercise, attention and loving.) Teach tricks, have her heel and actively try to shake her, so that she has to work to stay in heel position. Use your imagination!
For a herding breed, if there is anyway at all that you can let her herd, do it. I have a friend who takes her Terv to the park and lets him herd the Canada geese. They go about once a week, and it has made a huge difference in his behavior.
Could be seperation anxiety, could just be her testing her limits. Dogs are like preschoolers in a lot of ways, and limit-testing is one of those ways. They’ll push to see how far they can get before you push back. Take Dolly, for instance. She has to sit down before I’ll put her food bowl down. She knows this, it’s been our ritual for nearly three years. But every now and then I’ll catch her trying to get by with just kind of squatting instead of actually sitting, or just jumping around like a fool, barking at me to put the food down. Usually, all I have to do is say her name, and she pops right down. She was just seeing if she could get by with it, is all.
Without actually seeing the dog in action, and knowing how she behaves when you’re not home, it’s hard to say whether she’s got real issues or is just testing you. Since she seems like a very attention-driven dog, I’d try just saying her name once, quietly but somewhat reproachfully, and looking at her. It doesn’t work on all dogs, but it works a treat on Claudia, and often on Dolly, especially with things they know they’re not supposed to do. Claudia always looks horribly ashamed and goes slinking off, whereas Dolly just gives you a “yeah, you caught me,” grin and backs off.
Escape artist? No - my german shephard is an escape artist. He taught himself to unlock the windows of my house and let himself out. (mind you, he destroyed the windowsills in the process) I ended up putting burglar-proof locks on the windows to keep him in. I tried invisible fencing - he learned if he hit it hard and fast and then went swimming it would kill the collar. I tried crating him - he literally ripped the welded bars off the door of the crate. I got him from the pound and I’ve had him for 11 years. He’s cost me literally thousands of dollars in dog pound fines (my county doubles the fee each time the dog is caught. Last time I paid $500 to get him out) and damages to my house. But I still love him. He’s so dependant on me I couldn’t ever find a new home for him, although I suppose the ideal home would’ve been with an older person who was home all day. He’d probably have made a great police dog or guide dog. But I love him, no matter what.
We just adopted a 2yo Border Collie two days ago. I am re-learning just how smart these dogs are. Our last beautiful dog (Alpine) a Lab was smart, but nothing like this.
As far as the door dashing, just a thought. I would condition her/him to you leaving. Leave, come back in in 20 seconds. Leave, come back in in a minute. Leave come back in in 1.5 munutes.
Thanks all … she’s settling in nicely. She’s learned to “get back” from the door when it’s open and she hasn’t tried to scoot past us the past few times we’ve gone out. I think she’s figuring out that when her leash is on and we say the word “walk” she gets to come along, and otherwise, she’s on her own.
It’ll still be a while before we can trust her though - we still shut the door very quickly behind us.
She’s even getting a little more playful. She still doesn’t have any interest in balls or chew toys or her Kong … but she has a couple of doggie toys that I heard her playing with a bit last night. So it’s nice to know she’s relaxing a bit and finding her groove.
CCL, yes it seems like she’s just testing us, since we’re her new mom & dad - she’s figuring out the rules, and what she can get away with, and what is a definite no-no.
After a great weekend together, it was hard to leave her this a.m.
Have you tried a soft drink can with pennies in it yet?
If she disobeys the stay command to slink to the door, shake the can at her and remind her to stay. I remember the trainer using this techique on breaking my dog of chewing on my shoes.
If that doesn’t work, you might try one of those air horns and blast her silly away from the door. Hopefully after a few “scares” she will wait until she has a leash on before exiting the house.
