Hi. I am new to this group. I have a female Collie, Shelley, about a year old, who is causing me a LOT of problems. I also have a little Pack of four Italian Greyhounds, and the occasional rescue, as I do Italian Greyhound Rescue.

OK. Shelley is a VERY, VERY high energy, high drive, hard, dominent dog. I have never had a Collie like her. She is smart, I have been working with her on obedience, and she picks it up quickly, but only does it if she happens to feel like it. When she comes inside, she barrels in like a cannonball, knocks over furniture, leaps on the sofa (which is dangerous, as usually there is a little, old fragile IG there), and frequently leaps on me. She has knocked me over several times. She is also something of a bully with the IGs--she hasn't hurt one, but enjoys standing over them and intimidating them. I have to let them outside separately.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I have started using a prong collar with her, which helps, but getting it on is really hard, as she leaps about.

I am not an inexperienced dog person, but Shelley is totally out of my experience, and I am very discouraged. I know she needs something as an outlet for all that energy, but I am somewhat handicapped and cannot work her indefinitely. She does have a large yard to run around in.

Thanks for any help.

Catherine

Can you direct her in an activity like fetching a ball? Having a large yard is great but dogs rarely utilize it to run laps. Also I like to mix obedience in with fetch. That way she's rewarded for obeying by doing an activity tht she really loves. If that isn't possible perhaps you could hire a teenager to exercise her. Because as long as she's bored and full of energy you're going to have problems. A tired dog is usually a well behaved dog.

I would try to anticipate her behavior and not allow it to happen at all....meaning, keep the dog on a leash in the house, for starters.

When you come in, the dog must keep the leash on. Use OB for control( especially the down). Work on leash all the time for now, and put the dog in a crate when you are not directly with her. Take her out for short time periods(frequently), and * very important*...bring her focus onto you (if she likes food, use it)in short little OB sessions.Heavily reward for attention and put away on a good note.

Take her out of the crate on leash only, and outside on leash, unless you are throwing a ball, of course. But, still keep food bits on you even when throwing the ball, so you can give treats for the dog coming back to you and handing you the ball to be rethrown, and to call the dog back to you to leash up for your return inside. Keep the treats ultra desireable, and TINY. Try cooked liver, cut up into little tiny pieces (thanks Deanna, for that one!!)

Hope this helps <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I truly sympathize with you. You can see Tig in my signature. Her impact on other dogs is more like a force of nature than another dog. Her prey drive is intense, almost on the level of my coursing dogs.

And we have 4 rescue IG's living with us (too wired and weird to place).

At 20 months, Tig is slowing down enough to notice the little dogs when she's out of her crate. Before that she would've just mowed them down. Not a good thing, because she has a strong conviction that screaming things want to die.

IG's are so emotional and unpredictable. The boys we have might fight, or scream, or flirt, depending on what 15 seconds it is now. And you know how fragile they are. Plus, mine are monster teases. They are as bad as cats for running up and down to torment crated dogs. Not good sense from fragile, little dogs.

So Tig gets crated when the IG's are out. And when she's out with them it's always on leash, and only when I can focus on her 100%.

I don't forsee a time when I ever trust her with the IGs, any more than I would trust one of my really high prey drive coursing dogs. Disgusting, sad, things can happen too fast.

Italian Greyhounds are a wonderful breed..but unfortunetly..People that just wanted sales..proceeded in breeding paying no attention to the breed///genetics.Glad to hear about rescue orgs. Catherine,First recognise that shelly is a pup..in big size.Her excitement is abit different from the IG's.Gathering from what you said you have fragile IG's...and within them they are a pack.Collies are wonderful dogs..they are high drive not necessarily aggressive..The IG's are high drive dogs but in a different sense.Don't expect for shelley to join in the pack..as they have different genetics behind them...and purpose within those genetics.What I would do would be to totally separate Shelley..in a comfortable area.Then go forward with the obedience that you know.Let her mature.Then introduce one dog at a time to her for just a few moments..over a given amount of time.Basically speaking..you can't take this little pup that is in a big body..and expect for her to pay attention to you...when their is an already established pack. She will try what she can..to join the pack.Just be one on one with her and give her a pack sense with you.....then go forward. I hope that made sense. Get her focus on you first.