Border Collie that is scared of houses/streets/people?

Hi everyone,

I've not been on here for a long time (been mega busy lately with one thing and another) I intend to start coming back here more often

In the meantime, I thought I'd pick everyones brains to see if anyone can think of anything I've not already thought of.

Here are the basics - ex working sheep dog, now aged about 4, re-homed to a normal household but one whom has owned dogs before (albeit not collies) and whom walk the dog often enough and for suitable lengths of times (alongside playing games, teaching tricks, taking it to training classes, etc).

But the dog still is very nervous of people in general (until it gets to know them well) and will shy away when on/off the lead and indeed pulls like a train to get away if need be. Although is not too bad when they take her to training classes. Dog is alright with other dogs.

The biggest issue they have is that the dog seems to hate walking along a street. There doesn't appear to have any problems with cars, traffic of any kind, lights, etc. Just doesn't like houses (so it seems!)

They've tried walking with another dog, tried a DAP spray, tried to keep really calm and not make a big fuss. When she pulls like a train they don't make a big issue of it as they've been worried that if its fear/anxiety then that might make things worse.

When they get visitors to the house the dog often chooses to hide behind the sofa or in another room. Yet isn't visibly scared of them. She just chooses to get out of the way.

Nothing appears to make a difference. I've got my ideas thay I will be suggesting as I'm seeing this case next week but in the meantime, I thought I'd pick your brains too to see if there is anything you might be able to think of! This isn't an obvious one at all!

Always tricky to know what sort of background she's had as a working dog in the past, I dare say this is probably at least 99% of the reason to explaining for why she is now behaving in this manner. Difficult thing is getting her to change for the better

I`ve had a nervous / abused dog and also an unsocialised dog, and both of them took a year to settle. I think it just comes down to time and patience and letting the dog go at his own pace. I wouldn`t push a nervous dog. It is tempting to coax the dog with treats as well, but then you are rewarding the behaviour.
I find just persisting, being matter-of-fact about the walk and rewarding the minute the dog stops pulling or leaping about best. The `watch-me` exercise is useful, rewarding the dog when she looks at you, as then she isn`t eyeballing the enemy, as it were.
Re. visitors. I ask all visitors to ignore my dogs. That way, the dog isn`t under any pressure, so doesn`t get stressed. After all - the visitors haven`t come to see the dog!

Thanks for the reply - and true indeed about the visitors not coming to see the dog!!

Has anyone ever experienced a dog that is absolutely spot-on at times (albeit rare occasions) even when under pressure of walking past small groups of (sometimes noisy) people yet 99% of the time the dog freaks out even at the sound of one person making a quiet noise in their garden behind a fence the rest of the time?

It is from one extreme to the other with this case.

I have a very nervous rescue collie.

She actually finds small groups of people, even if being noisy, less frigtening than individuals and 'one off' noises.

Collies do 'association' like no other breed I know. If something scares them in a particular spot - that spot can become scarey because they are expecting it again.

This can make it hard to work out what is actually spooking them because sometimes you're looking for something that isn't there (but was the previous time and the collie remembers even if you don't).

I know 'they say' that 'dogs live in the moment' but I'm not sure that always applies to collies

For example mine is scared stiff of the sound of a golf club swinging and decided that she wouldn't walk down the road in the afternoons because in the afternoons you can sometimes hear the golfers on the nearby course.(mornings were no problem becuase she'd never heard the sound in the morning!).

So if you'd have turned up to try and help me on the afternoon walk, you'd have had a scared dog who wanted to turn back even though you could see/hear nothing for her to be scared of

The owners need to get the dog excited and happy about walking down the street. Find her most favourite thing (whether it be a toy, treat etc) and get her totally focused on that. With my girl, it was her water pistol - a few squirts of her favourite water pistol got her past the 'sticky points (and I don't mean I used it as a punishment - she absolutely loves chasing the water jet). We then continued on to the river and had great fun before coming home. I only need to do this 3 or 4 times before she's now fine walking down the road again.

The other alternative is to get her completely focused on training. When Stumpy gets a bit stressed I get some really tasty treats and just make her do a series of relatively easy tricks in rapid succession - e.g. 'paw' other paw, down, sit, down 'paw. This won't work where the dog has gone well beyond uncomfortable but can work well when they are borderline.

Thanks for your reply. That does sound rather like this case - goodness only knows what might've set this dog off in the first place!

I shall try to ascertain what toy might enable us to get the dog down the street without too much hassle.

My collie (whom thankfully doesn't have any issues like this!) is obsessed with squeaky toys so I can see my bag-of-training-aids-and-goodies containing LOTS of toys for this case!

Great reply from Hali.

Although newish here, I have a great deal of experince of collies, rescues and sheepdogs as well as beign a pro dogffesional trainer.

The single biggest chance in my view from a working home to a noen working home is the nn working aspect of it.

Many collies with no history of good socialisation, even those tht have been chained in a pen when not working all their lives, can often still totally overcome the lack of socialisation and experince if they know EXACTLY what their job is. Ive seen this so often in working dogs who have to do demo's at country fairs. They would never cope with being "walked" through the fair, But cope easily when working sheep amongst the bang and whirs and screams of such a place.

In my view the dog should be positively trained onto either a ball or tug, or say a precise heelwork position so tht it KNOWS what it is supposed to be doin g in this circumstance.

Obviously, the dog will possible become calmer with repeated exposure to such things, but it may bnot as well. My noise phobic rescue collie, never got over her noise phobia - unless she was already hooked onto a ball game before she heard it - until she finally went deaf.

I would allow the dog to seek sanctuary behind the sofa, my first resue did that too, though she was obviously scared, and it took about 18 months I htink for that to stop.


but the mot importatnt thing is this. Dogs, like humans, beome biologically addicted to their state of mind. Chemicals released when happy or sad can become addicted. The secret in very simple terms with this type of dog, is to change the addiction. . The dogs HAPPY side of the brain needs to be switched on as often as possible. Whatever the dog LIKES or LOVES to do , should be done more often. And if possible, doing this love chould be extended not just in frequency,m but in location too. So, if the dog likes a ball or game of tug or clicker training, then extend the a,mmount of time doing this and then increase the locations. Take the ball (or whatever) to the edge of the road and play catch, play it on someone elses front lawn, just up the road (ask permission first obviously), take it to the vets, play with the ball with house visitors (the dog doesnt have to) between humans if the dog doesnt become involved. etc.

SOunds an interesting case. Id love it. Have fun! And good luck to the owners.

I had my Teagan from a 7 week old puppy, I did all the right socialisation things, took her down high streets, obedience classes, etc, but she is still a nervous girl. I do agility with her which she loves, she can cope with an agility show with hundreds of people and dogs, but can't cope with 1 person walking a dog over the park. She is ok with people she knows and recently even new people at class seem to be her best friend (she's nearly 8 years old). She's also scared of things like our cat, squeaky toys, thunder, gunshot (our neighbour does clay pigeon shooting and there's sometimes birdscarers in the farmers fields around us). I turned her fear of the birdscarer into a bit of a game, she knew it fired twice and the first shot had her running for cover, into the nearest ditch on the 2nd shot she'd come out as if nothing happened and we'd have a game, this has made her a lot better with guns firing, but the odd 1 still scares her.