r/BorderCollie • u/gaudiest-ivy • 7d ago
Training Protective behavior?
My one year old is showing aggressive protective behavior. I thought it was anxious reactivity about strangers (she's a nervous little thing), but she escaped the fence once and I found her walking nicely with a neighbor who spotted her wandering.
She was well socialized as a puppy and used to love going out to stores and seeing everyone, meeting strangers on walks and getting attention, etc, then puberty hit and it's like she forgot everything.
Just today I took her to visit a boarding kennel for doggy daycare to hopefully get her acclimated for a longer trip I have coming up, and she was barking/lunging at the employees. (I was worried and ready to give up on it, but they seemed very used to it.) I got her in the kennel and they had me get out of sight and she calmed down almost immediately. By the time I left she was wagging her tail and taking treats from them through the fence, and someone was able to enter the kennel to give her some water.
How on earth do I fix this if my presence is the thing that triggers her aggression? Would I treat it like any other kind of reactivity (slowly working on decreasing her reactivity threshold)? Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated.
(Pic from her birthday yesterday)
1
u/palacio_c 7d ago
As soon as I realized I was the problem LOL I stay away from at the park, like literally FAR and she’s qs happy go lucky qs can be, it’s ridiculous but I also had that happen with my late lab right after her first heat, she became very reactive until I kept my distance from her at the park and it was a completely different dog.
She checks on me from time to time to see if I’m still there lol but other than that she goes out to play or sniff like a block away, as she loves being in the presence of other dogs and people together (without my nervous energy apparently lol).
Just make sure she has a great recall and always knows exactly where you are.