10
votes
Looking for some insight / advice on dog behavior
I visited my in-laws over the holiday break. They have 2 border collies (and really shouldn't but that's a whole nother other...). Both border collies absolutely lose it barking and aggressively posturing when anyone but MIL/FIL enter a room they are in, UNLESS MIL/FIL are not home. Then they can't be bothered to even sit up from where they are napping.
I find this behavior really confusing. It appears the dogs are ?protecting? my in-laws, and that in-laws have somehow unwittingly trained them to do so?
After they're done barking they're affectionate and playful. I'd love to find a way to encourage the dogs to skip straight to the petting/play time.
Thoughts? Advice?
thanks in advance Tildes!
As a dogwalker of over 30 years… these dogs are under-stimulated and under-exercised. All the ideas you’re getting on how to train them will likely have limited effect until they get a couple hours of balls-to-the-wall running and activity each day.
When I get hired as a trainer the first thing I generally do is run the misbehaving dog to exhaustion. Only then can they actually hear me.
At the outset of your post you said they really shouldn’t have two border collies. That lack of attention and exercise, I figure, is why. These are the most obsessive working dogs there are. They are the smartest and need the most stimulus of ANY breed. It is not a whole nother other. That’s it. That’s the whole issue. You can’t make two border collies behave if they aren’t getting enough exercise. Not with all the “training” or even sedatives in the world.
Thanks. Makes perfect sense. Sadly, not much is going to change for the dogs daily exercise routine until something really bad happens. The situation is a total nightmare so something bad is going to happen...
<trigger warning animal abuse> they're not beating them, they're well groomed and fed, just the conditions they keep them in is so unsuited to the breed/any dog really.
I'm just ranting now because I'm sad and feel powerless in the situation
My in-laws are in their late 80s and "have to have border collies because they're the smartest breed". The dogs are mostly only let outside to use the bathroom. Most days they get 1 walk in the evenings, but that's ~10 minutes tops, and on the other end of the leash is always an octogenarian (it's like you're challenging their self sufficiency if you offer to walk the dogs). The dogs pull them around the block, and falls happen pretty routinely (MIL broke her wrist after being pulled over on a walk in mid 2024). In-laws have an acre+ back yard but if you take the dogs out to play fetch for more than ~5 minutes, MIL gets upset b/c you're 'over exerting them'.
Yeah, I figured. Poor dogs. They develop neuroses and obsessive behaviors when they’re in that situation and nobody’s happy.
When Covid happened I was listed as an essential worker and I was like “No no no… Save those designations for nurses and teachers.” But then nearly all the dogs I walked lost their minds and all the people living in those homes lost their minds in turn.
I don’t know how we’ve gotten to this point, but we sure are here.
My experience with herding dogs is that they will find themselves a job to do if not given one. Perhaps they chose this. Our family cattle dog would do something similar until we got her multiple beds, which she herded together like they were livestock. If she noticed someone leaving, she would still bark as they walked out, and she would still occasionally herd people walking through the house, but if she was entertained, she was manageable. They probably need something positive associated with people entering a room that gives them a job and engagement, so they can do that, instead of... this.
My guess is that they are participating in a herding behavior, basically trying to corral and separate you. Border collies are often used for splitting flocks or separating a single sheep from the rest of the flock (e.g., for shearing or veterinary treatment), and that herding instinct can go awry if it is not trained in a desirable direction. I think these dogs are in need of some kind of outlet for their instincts, like herding classes or treiball. But that is up to your in-laws to organize, not you.
As for what you can do, I suggest trying to find something that the dogs find irresistible (like an extremely yummy treat or a rousing game of fetch). Whenever you are about to walk into the room, give them that thing so that they focus on it rather than you, until it displaces the association between your entrance and their herding instinct. Once the old habit is broken, you should be able to wean them gradually off the new habit by, for example, waiting a beat before you give them the thing — then waiting five seconds, then ten seconds, etc., etc., until they can comfortably wait 30 minutes or more. At that point, you should be able to stop doing it altogether.
I've done a fair bit of training with my own and other people's dogs, and my partner is pretty experienced as well. Neither of us are professionals though, so take this with a grain of salt. Also without seeing the dogs myself it's hard to say, but...
Dogs are pack animals, typically following a strict hierarchy within the pack. If your in-laws are viewed as the leaders of the the pack, their dogs draw confidence and energy from their presence. When they're around the dogs feel confident enough to act aggressive towards outsiders. One of my own dogs is like this: when me or my partner is around no one can touch him without him throwing a fit, but otherwise he's a total pushover. That'd be my guess for the behaviour variance, but as to why the dogs are acting aggressive at all I don't think I can hazard anything without seeing them first-hand.
Hope this helps!
This is almost certainly the case.
How do your in-laws react when this happens? I'm guessing that they attempt to "soothe" them during/immediately after (instead of correcting the behavior). Most of the ways a human would consider comforting and reassuring (sweet tone of voice, petting and body contact, etc.) are the same things we do to reinforce positive behaviors in pets.
It's one of the most common mistakes people make with dogs: they think they are reassuring the animal and telling it to relax, but really they are rewarding and reinforcing those exact behaviors. "Oh, my human pets me when/after I do this, so I guess I should do this more."