In Sept., I adopted a rescue dog from a local Planned Pethood. Roxy is 5 1/2, spayed, possibly border collie/sheltie/GSD mix (no one is certain of the exact mix).

She is a quick study, and easily learned basic obedience. She has never slept on our bed; she eats last; and she sits and waits for me to go thru doors, etc. All in all a very good dog.

My difficulty is on the leash. I tried just a harness, but she pulled like a husky with a sled. I then purchased a prong collar and checked on this website for its proper use. She does much better, yet she still pulls a bit - it's almost like she 'leans' into it as we walk. I have popped it - but maybe not hard enough? The DVD on dominance hasn't yet arrived so I'm hoping to see just how hard to pop it . . .

In addition, she is on "red alert" during our walks (we walk at a local park - 300+ acres of woods and wildlife) which is fine - except she will instantly lunge at a moving squirrel/chipmunk/whatever. I immediately stop and quickly pull back on the lead while saying NO - which only stands her on her back feet, still 'leaning in' to the collar. If I give a short pop then, she'll drop to all fours again and come back to my side, but her attention is still on the other animal.

She is a doll with everything else - this is the only 'problem' I have had thus far. I don't need/want a protection dog. She is my companion. But I need to know the steps to get her to walk nicely on lead.

If you don't correct when she starts to get ahead and let her get to the pulling stage, you've lost. Yes, your corrections just aren't getting anywhere with her; some dogs have higher thresholds than others. Next time, ensure you go out the door first. If your dog forges ahead, pull her back in. She *must* start off the walk respecting you. Once you're out the door, as soon as she starts to forge ahead, snap the leash harder than you normally do. You must find the level of correction that she heeds. When she's in place, praise praise praise. If she starts to go ahead, another correction of the same level.

When you correct her off animals, you cannot stop when she's still focused. Correct until she ignores the animals and correct for every single time she looks over. You have to tailor the level of correction to her needs. Also, correct *before* she lunges; when she fixes her eyes and ears on an animal, that's precisely when you correct.

You can also teach her a focus command where you spit treats out your mouth in exchange for her eye contact. This way, you can keep a motivational reason to stick by you and watch you as well as corrections for forging/not focusing on you.

Don't forget to give her lots of mental and physical exercise! She could be very, very high energy and so might benefit from increased exercise.

Okay, Diane! I will try your suggestions and see how we do on lead.

You also mentioned increased exercise. I am having a bit of trouble with that, as well, only because I haven't been able to find any toys she is interested in. We run around outside in our yard (which is fenced; 1 acre w/woods) and she loves that. We walk daily a brisk 3 miles at the park. But I'm sure she's bored in the house.

I've only had her a few months, but she is not interested in a kong w/peanut butter - she looks at a ball like it's a rock (even if rolled or tossed) - and nothing seems to interest her to play.

Any suggestions? (and should this question be placed elsewhere?)

She may just not be a peanut butter fan -- try other things (dog food, easy cheese, cream cheese) in there. There are a ton of recipes for kong stuffing online, too. Get creative with it!

Chews may help as well -- bones, rawhide, whathaveyou. My dog is all about the food and only plays with toys once or twice a week, never outside of the home, so I kind of understand where you're coming from. She'd rather have a single milkbone than a basket of tennis balls.

Aaahhh! This dog sounds exactly like the border collie mix I adopted 2 years ago. Please take the other's advice and be very firm about teaching her to walk nicely on the leash. If you don't nip that in the bud now it will haunt you forever...I never got it quite right and still suffer for it. She probably needs stronger corrections than what you're giving her.

Re: the exercise, are you a cyclist? There is a device called the springer (http://springerusa.com/) that you can attach to your bike so the dog can run next to it safely. I just ordered mine from Amazon but haven't tried it out yet. It may be a good option for you, but you might have to work on the lunging after critters first.

Roxy sounds a bit like my Border Collie. I got him on September when he was 18m/o and he was absolutley fixated on herding/nipping cats. I got him for a herding dog, so the behavior wasn't surprising. But it was still annoying and unacceptable. I pretty much did what Diana wrote, and I was surprised at the level of correction it took to break his "CAT" focus at first. But he did figure out the cause and effect cycle pretty quick.

To increase her interest in the kong, try skipping a meal, and then giving it to her.

Kipp had about zero interest in toy at first. I'd throw a ball, he'd start chasing it, and run right on past as something else had gotten his attention. As he has learned to focus on me more, his interest in the toy has gone waaay up. I started off playing with the toy in an area with no distractions, and acting super excited about it. I also tried a few different toys - a found a sqeauky ball was the best for him. It was WORK to get him interested! But little by little his interest went up. I've been working on it about a month now, and he will now play fetch/tug for a good 10 minutes 3 or 4 times a day, and has also started looking for the ball when I throw it into to bushes. I can also switch between a few toys now.

I've seen his attitude change in the last month or so. At first when I would let him out of his kennel it was like "I'm loose! yippee! where's the cat, squirrel, etc?" I also live next to a woods - talk about distractions to a young Border Collie! The more I've worked with him (mostly being firm about the cat rules, and working on his toy drive)the more it has changed to "you're back! what are we gonna do?!?"

You could also look into clicker training (check out the "Training with Markers" article here), and try training her to do tricks (I like the book "Dog Tricks for Dummies"). It would be a way to give her more mental execise.

Good Luck!

You guys are great! Thanks so much for all the help and suggestions - we'll definitely be working on them all!

blessings~
C