Strange behaviour from Collie

B

Basset

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Hi Guys, i am hoping for some advise here on my collie girl. I have a 2.5yr old collie bitch who we rescued at a 1yr old. She has always been slightly fearful but generally a very happy and trained dog. Over the last 2wks she has started to refuse to go for a walk, she runs to her cage and shakes, nothing has changed for her as same location, times ect. The only thing we can think of is she is very noise sensitive and one day she heard the wood pecker having a go at the tree. But I have taken her out and she has heard the wood pecker since and been fine, but now this has transpired to when we are out she is fine one minute then she will just go down on the floor and not move. I wont drag her and I can usually coach her to get moving again and we carry on as normal.
Have you come across this before? Ive had collies before and know they can be neurotic over various things but this is a new one on me, she is happy and normal in every other way. I am even thinking of getting bloods done at the vets in case her hormones ect are doing funny things although she was spayed after her first season. Ant advise welcome please
 
my collie also does the lie on the floor and refuse to move thing, but its ususlly when he doesnt want to do something
 
not sure what is causing it, but maybe try leuring her out with favourite treats etc......

does this work? or is she dead adamant she is not going anywhere? Has she had any other scares whilst being out on a walk? like from other dogs? or cars or anything like that?
 
I'm just sitting here wondering what on earth is going on with mine!!!

She keeps coming to find me - even when I was in the bath!! I realise it's because I have put a washing on and don't have the radio on. This means the house is quiet and the pipes are making noises! Also the cat is lucking about indoors as it's raining. They are a strange bunch - the collies!!

I think your girl has had some sort of fright and related it to her walks. Perhaps you could fox her by changing routes or routines?? Of course you have to remain "jolly" too and try to ignore any fearful behaviour as it will just back it up if you "pander" to it. Treats or toys or anything that she loves might help jolly her into a walk. Do you do any obedience work with her, if so then you could try a bit of "work" Mine will walk to heel over hot coals - her need to work beats her nuerosis (usually).
 
You could try a Dap collar and see if it would help with her anxiety, she obs feels secure in the crate, could you maybe put one in the car to coax her into the car with a positive secure reinforcer (crate) and exercise her from the car as opposed to from the house, or even travel around with her to get her confidence up, and leave the boot open for her to see, and gradually coax her out, but stay confident yourself.

I would also get her vet checked and maybe a behaviourist in to actually see what she is doing.
 
thanks for the replies, i spoke to my trainer last night on the subject and we suspect hormones as we have had this before but las time she was petrified of any door that opened!! and she got over that. she will come out with treats and last night she was fab at training, my trainer said she has heard of bitches before that still have hormone issues even after being spayed. so im going to keep a diary and go from there she is due for her booster jab in 2 wks so will also get the vet to check her out just in case and discuss hormone issues as well.
 
I would agree with those who think she might've had something happen outside that might've scared her a bit - as you know, Collies pick up on EVERYTHING so it might be something that you didn't notice at the time or indeed it might not have seemingly bothered her at the time (hence you didn't notice an issue until recently).

My Collie for example has a slight issue with keys - the more keys on a keyring, the worse her issue. I don't have a clue why, we've had her since she was 5 weeks, but we can only presume somethings happened involving keys being maybe dropped near her or something. She's now 3 and a half and still doesn't like it when I hold keys. She's slowly getting over it but its taken 3 years to get there!
 
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