August 26, 2025
Our Border Collie is scared of noisy things like trashcans, shopping carts and skateboards. High value food rewards don't work in these situations. Do you have any suggestions?
Full Question:
Our high drive border collie is scared of noisy things that are new like trashcans, shopping carts, skateboards, etc. She has always been a little jumpy/noise sensitive and highly reactive even for the breed (we are experienced past border collie owners).I am able to get her comfortable with objects by playing frisbee around these objects working them into games (jump over the trashcan, get the frisbee from my hand while i am skateboarding), but then a new object later will trigger her again to the same degree.
High value food rewards are far below the distraction value.
Any suggestions or videos that I can attain more knowledge on training techniques?
Cindy's Answer:
I'd suggest some of the Michael Ellis videos, the 3 foundation titles for his training system focus on getting and keeping engagement with your dog. the work in these videos will help you increase food drive and value the dog has for the food by making it a reward event, not just a piece of food.
Playing frisbee is good but not as useful as an interactive reward around scary things, I prefer to work on transferring high value food to tugging so the dog and I are interacting in a connected way with the tug or ball on a strap.
Playing frisbee is good but not as useful as an interactive reward around scary things, I prefer to work on transferring high value food to tugging so the dog and I are interacting in a connected way with the tug or ball on a strap.
User Response:
Thank you very much, Cindy, I will take a look at these videos. Quick question: These videos seem to address the power of redirection to these events (specificially, un predictable events living in New York City). Are there any tips to desensitizing these events to decrease the intensity of the competing distraction?We are increasing the reliability in the call off and call away (Michael Ellis recall video), but it is still very difficult to do so when my dog gets surprised by something or is something that I can't avoid with distance.
Cindy's Answer:
Desensitizing to unpredictable events is one of those things that can be challenging or even impossible for a sensitive dog in a crazy environment like NYC. All you can do is keep trying to redirect the dog until that behavior becomes reflexive when they are stressed. The key is for the dog to find comfort in engaging with you when something challenges them. For a certain type of nervous or overly sensitive dog, it may be impossible to desensitize them completely due to the nature of the environment.
User Response:
Cindy,Hello and just wanted to update you that my dog has almost eliminated her sensitivity to loud rolling wheels, skateboards and shopping carts. She has also almost bulletproofed her recall to the point where she will not chase birds or squirrels even if they fly/jump only 10 feet away from her.
Leerburg's training and your advice is simply the best out there. Thank you for everything and will send periodic updates.
Cindy's Answer:
That's just great, good work. Your dog is lucky to have an owner willing to put in the time and energy into helping her work through her challenges.
Thank you for the update, it makes my day!
Thank you for the update, it makes my day!
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