Have you had her hearing tested?

Does she do a lot of herding of the other dogs?

I did loads of basics with Celt and he is secure in the heelwork and the other things which I taught first. He struggles with the fiddly things I need for HTM---probably he would have been a good lower class obedience dog.

He took 14mths to house train----once he lay on the floor and weed without moving. He used to walk along with wee running out.

rune

ps no she doesn't herd the others

Had her hearing tested and all is ok, eyesight too as I did wonder about collie eye. She will housetrain although this took a long time probably about 10 months, still will do a poo if I walk out the kitchen for 5mins and will smear iteven though the back door is open, however if she has me in sight she will happily go outside.
She is a clingy dog, will infact grab and hold tight with her front legs if troubled or stressed.
Still has issues of strangers touching her collar and screams.
wetting herself in the process.
Has confidence in the pack structure though and will often take a stand if another dog goes for one of the others...often by Bruces side (he's the protector of the pack) and will fight his corner....take the pack away and her confidence drops dramatic with people and will stand to the rear of me.
Has confidence with other dogs.loves kids to OTT, but shys away from load voices, luckily we don't raise our voice but if she hears anything like that she will seek a quiet corner and stay there

Sounds like a really bad start, poor girl. Lucky she found someone who has enough patience to understand her.

Very different from Celt. I would imagine her difficulties are just lack of confidence.

Do you clicker her? I found it really helps as it gets rid of voices until the dog is confident and then you can slowly add the commands.

rune

Thanks now thats a tip I will look into, never used clicker training but looks like a 1st start.
She is whistle trained and responds brilliant, again if I want her to sit or lie down signals work brill too. hand flat towards her will result in her staying and she will wait perfect....speak and she is lost
I also need to stop the clench/clinging to my waist or leg as once she has a hold her stress makes her really hang on, you almost have to break her off, and being a big dog with weight this can cause scratching on my body
One thing she is here for life, but if I can get her to understand added commands voice wise without taking the voice to a personal level (if you get my meaning) I think she will be happier and it will make me happier as sometimes she looks so upset and worried

You probably need to teach her a more appropriate action for the way she is feeling. What are the triggers? Is it when you leave her or just when she is generally unsure about things?

I had a dog which did it a bit, that was George who was very confused and very different but very clever, I clickered her and a light went on.

You do have to remember that the click is an absolute deal between you and the dog, that way it really helps with dogs with trust issues.

rune

I absolutely think it's possible.

For a while, when I first got Cain, I genuinely wondered if he was autistic. I read an article by Angela Stockdale and the symptoms she listed (lack of coordination, clumsiness, over reactive to sounds and movement, inability to communicate, highly intelligent), and really seemed to fit Cain.

http://www.dogpartnership.com/articles.htm

Now I do not think that he is autistic, just a dog with stunted social skills due to a bad start. However Cain still can't read some signs - a dog pinned it's ears and raised her lip at him recently and he just kept play bowing in her face . He still has absolutely no sense of spacial awareness, he will get inches from your face, he in clumsy, stamps on your feet, whacks his head on walls Yet he is amazingly clever, responds well to training, but can't handle any pressure. If he gets something wrong more than twice, he shuts down, goes to his bed, curls up and refuses to get off. I have to be very quick to lower the criteria back down if he's not successful, he is not very resilient to failure.

However despite a lot of the "symptoms" fitting, I still don't think he is any more. I think he's just a poorly socialised klutz

However I completely believe that learning difficulties in dogs do exist (although I think if ADHD was ever proven in dogs, it would be forever over used and wrongly diagnosed to describe or "excuse" the behaviour of dogs who are just under exercised, under stimulated and fed Bakers ).

My dog socialisation class trainer has a lurcher named Luca who she is convinced that he is special needs. I'm sure she'd talk to you about it if you were interested.

Good luck, I hope you find a method of communication that works for you both

Thanks for that I will remember
The parts in bold would be a good description of Tess.

She is wonderful with children, but can be reactive to adults when out on a one to one, its not a protect my Mom thing like Bruce would do, its definately a fear reaction, she becomes worried and she will take a defensive stance rather than run. However when in house she greets people but then becomes submissive for a while, once worried she will take a rigid stance but will go to the kitchen....so in house she IMO feels safer by going to the kitchen. However I have had a friend here who's OH will try and catch her/stop her by calling her and making an over reaction to her, this can result in her not being able to find the kitchen door so she will go all over the place until she can retreat away from him, he is a person that can get OTT and this is when she will panic

I had a dog diagnosed with ADHD Luckily brought on by his diet - kibble - changed to raw and he was much better, couldn't give him any shop bought treats had to make all my own for him