This is our blog category page for border collie reactivity – go to the bottom of the page for blog posts offering help for how to prevent or reduce border collie aggression with people, other animals or traffic.
Border collie reactivity is a very common problem, with collies reacting by lunging and barking at people, other dogs and traffic. This is often related to fear, with the dogs developing the reactive behaviour to defend itself. This behaviour is then reinforced over time when it starts to work and keep the scary things away, but why are border collies so prone to such reactions?
Border collies have been bred for many centuries to work in the peace and quiet of the countryside, where people, traffic, and other breeds of dog are not very common. Dogs that need to be able to work sheep live amongst farm animals on farms and crofts, only coming into contact with their immediate family and visitors to the farm. They rarely encounter traffic, certainly not huge volumes of traffic on main roads, and they only encounter a small number of other dogs.
When these dogs are then kept as pets in cities, full of other people and many other different breeds of dogs, they really struggle to cope. Even those that are very well socialized as puppies, which is vital with border collies, can still be really scared if they encounter other dogs or people that they perceive as threatening. Other dogs that growl or attack them, as well as dogs that are very “over the top” and over-friendly are all likely to scare young border collies. And, because border collies are very sensitive, as well as very quick learners, they can be badly affected by such encounters, especially if they happen while the dog is under two years of age, and still going through different sensitive periods. When dogs are pushed into situations in which they feel threatened, they have two options – fight or flight. If they are on a lead and unable to “flight” then they may be forced to choose “fight”. Once they learn that barking, lunging, growling and snarling tends to keep other dogs away, their very learning mechanisms mean that it very quickly becomes an established habit, which is reinforced every time they bark and lunge at a dog that then moves away.
A fear of some people often starts to begin during adolescence, when the dogs are around 8-16 months. Whilst they may have been previously quite happy to meet new people, your border collie may suddenly start to be very wary and reluctant to approach new people. This can be made worse if owners or visitors made a big deal of the behaviour and force their puppy to interact with strangers by getting them to take treats or waving toys about in their faces. They are much more likely to come through adolescence without a fear of people if this stage is handled carefully and sensitively, by getting help from a behaviourist who is a breed specialist.
Finally, reactivity with traffic is very common in collies. As outlined above, border collies are not used to large amounts of fast-moving traffic. If you pick up a puppy from a farm and try and walk it along a main road, the chances are it will be absolutely terrified. Dogs have no concept of pavements being safe. As far as they are concerned, these great big roaring monsters rush by at great speed, and every time one approaches, the dog has no idea if he is going to be hit or not. This invokes the fight or flight response and, again, he is on the lead so he can’t “flight”. He therefore fights by lunging and barking at the traffic. And, instead of hitting him, the traffic carries on past. In his head, he has caused the traffic to go away. He therefore repeats the barking and lunging next time, and again, the traffic carries on past. He starts to believe that the only way to keep safe around traffic is to bark and lunge, and the behaviour becomes more and more reinforced every time he walks along a road close to vehicles. His owners are unable to get through to him because he is so overwhelmed by fear and by his attempts to protect himself that he is oblivious. If he is told off and shouted at, this makes things even worse, because not only might each vehicle “get” him, but each vehicle makes his owner scream, shout and yank at him as well, making the approach of cars and lorries even more terrifying.
The world can be a pretty scary place for many collies, and it’s important that owners understand this and are able to access help from breed specialists as soon as they need it. The following articles might help you to understand and manage your collie’s fear responses…
Border collie aggressive behaviour is one of the most frequent behaviour problems that I am asked about, but there is rarely one cause or one training plan that fits all collies. Aggressive behaviour generally includes growling, barking, lunging, snarling, nipping, snapping or biting. As behaviourists, we always need to find out why the dog is … Read more
The ladder of aggression, first created by Kandal Shepherd, is a great tool for summarising how a dog’s behaviour changes from mild concern to bite. On the right hand side of the image are a series of behaviours, ranging from the bottom of the diagram in greeen to the top of the diagram in red, … Read more
Border collies, on the whole, are not aggressive dogs, but they can very easily become overwhelmed and defensive. They are bred for working on farms, in the peace and quiet of the countryside, in close contact with their owner and a handful of other collies or farm dogs that are generally respectful of each other. … Read more
Contrary to expectations, border collie puppies tend to be a bit nervous of other larger animals, especially horses, cows and, surprisingly, sheep. The first few times they encounter them they may be alarmed to see a much larger animal, that does not appear to communicate in dog language, which may cause them to hide, back … Read more
Max is a 2.5 year old, gorgeous, big (27kg) border collie who came to us for help with border collie lead reactivity with other dogs. He enjoyed the company of other dogs until he was about a year old, when he started to get a series of unfriendly greetings from other dogs that he met … Read more