Poppy ignores me when out with Ben

When we take Ben and Poppy out together, which is most of the time. We are finding it hard to control her. If we have the ball launcher Ben does his thing and runs and gets the ball and brings it back. Poppy is totally focused on Ben, she will run with him but either ahead of him or to the side, barking and collie nipping. He just totally ignores her. If we dont have the launcher then Ben will go and find a stick and Poppy just runs ahead and back towards Ben all the time. When we call her she totally ignores us. she is so focused on Ben all the time.
When I take her out on her own she is not too bad. she looks up at me when she is on the lead. and her recall on the long lead is good. although she is easily distracted.
How can I get them to focus on each other and me!. I want Poppy to come back to me when I call her. Ben does (most of the time) but she will not come back with him but stand a little way off, so we have to stand with Ben and the other walks up to her and treat her etc. It's like she thinks that's what she is suppose to do (if you know what I mean).
Sorry if I am not making myself very clear.

Another problem we have with Poppy is her barking at other dogs and bikes, prams etc.
We did have this with Ben but he stopped now. If he sees a bike etc, he immedially lies down. but Poppy barks and wants to run after them. I cant let her off lead while she is doing this.
Sorry for the long post. but I am getting frustrated now.
Elaine x

You will always get this problem, especially when the two dogs have bonded well, and I suspect it's just a case of "I'm not going to listen to her, I'd rather do what Ben does" coz I suppose he looks up to him. In the past, the only way I got around this (and I'm probably going to have the exact same thing when I take Zena out ) is to spend more time taking them out separately. As soon as my puppy has learned that I am the person to listen to at all times, then they can go out together much more, but I'm going to split it after her first initial walks out with us.

Re the barking and chasing of bikes etc, it's all because it's all new to them. I even had it with Georgie with the horses coz he'd never seen one before, nor a rabbit, but as soon as you accustom them to different things like that the better they will get. Maybe you can stop said person on a bike, I'm sure they wouldn't mind, and they can make a fuss of Poppy just to reassure her that people on bikes are not for chasing!

Good luck elaine, but I'm sure you'll find once you take Poppy out alone a lot, lot more, things will change, I hope so. That's all I can offer I'm afraid, but I'm sure somebody else will know the real answer!

PMSL.here.........sorry but that is Soooooooo funny, because if you looked back when Bruce was 6 months I was saying the exact same thing. And Shona will agree as she was pming me with idea's.........I thought that it would never end.

All you need to do is one of two things..........first let Poppy have her own ball/toy when out, which is hard at first because they are so intent on chasing after the other dog, but it falls into place in the end.

And she needs to be walked alone a few times a week.

ok I make it sound simple ....it's not and I know how frustrating it is, but it does fall into place eventually with them, Bruce now at 1 and abit, is alot less dependant on Skye infact he doesn't do half the whimpering,following etc that he used to.

Thanks Helena, you know it just helps that other people have had the same problems. I thought it was me or that there was something wrong with Poppy. cheers hun xx

Thanks Steph, I will look up those older posts, might make so good reading. I have tried with another ball, but she does not want to know. I know its all going to take time and yes I will just have to take her out more on her own. It's just that I hate leaving Ben in on his own. I wouldn't dare go out and leave Madam in on her own . she would tear up the House
Will keep persevering with her.
Elaine xx

One other thing you could try is a bit of training with both of them in the garden. I got the idea from watching a lady with several collies in the park taking it in terms for them to do things (I only had one dog at the time, but was really impressed that her dogs just waited their turn).

When its not too wet (so not often recently!) I take my two into the garden with some treats and some toys.

Then they take it in turns - hoki has to stay in a down while I do some heal work or recall with Stumpy, then the other way round.

They then get a bit of individual play while the other one stays in a down. Evidently you will need to work up how long you expect Poppy to stay before she tries to follow Ben, but hoepfully she will soon get the idea - particularly if the treats are really good (and if Ben isn't doing anything too exciting at first).

I've found it a really good way of making them realise that they need to focus on me and not just follow the other one around and without having to completely ignore the other dog.

Have to say, Stumpy is usually better than Hoki - Hoki tends to think she should be involved in everything - but then she is a bit of a velcro dog

Once they get the idea at home, you can start outside - sometimes I will make one of them stay with me while I throw the ball for the other one.

Hopefully this training will also help with her wanting to chase things as it will teach her to listen to you.

Hiya,

Have you tried training them together but giving them different cues? Like do your separate training sessions whilst at home and continue practicing with her on her own when walking just her, but also work on training them in the same training session. Ask one of them to sit and keep reinforcing the sit stay while you work the other, then swap over. Or go to a training class with a partner who can take Ben so Poppy gets used to focussing on you when Ben's there.

Have you tried clicker training? I was having trouble with Takara not wanting to come all the way back and then she just started blanking me on walks, I let her get ahead of me and just stood still (I knew that whilst her recall was poor, she wouldn't actually go too far from me). I waited and waited until she looked around to see what I was doing at which point I clicked. Because she's clicker trained she came running for her treat and I fed her a few, one after the other to make sure she wasn't running straight off. Then gave her a release cue and let her go.

Each time she happened to look my way (not at me, just towards me) I clicked and we did the same thing.

As time went on if she was coming towards me I'd say 'come' (I've always used 'here' or 'c'mon' so 'come' is a totally new cue, not associated with anything yet) and reward when she got to me.

It worked in just a couple of days, looking at me regularly and bombing back when called! We're now working on our rate of reinforcement and value of reinforcer to see if we can use praise and toys instead of food as much.

I have had several dogs for many years now and if I have a situation where one or more is not behaving the way I went when they are off lead together then they will get off one at a time . This has worked for me , when my whippets were young they were the thugs from hell so I started letting one off at a time . This I did for a year until they learned how to behave .
As for the barking at things that will come good in time she is very young and didn't get the best start in life

Oh and can't recommend 'Control Unleashed' (the book) enough!

Have a look, it's an experience!

Some good ideas Fiona thanks so much. Am going to take her out on her own in a bit
Elaine x

Thanks Lottie, what a good idea. I will try that when I take her out in a bit.
Elainex