Undoing damage

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BBP

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I’ve been working on taking pup to yard and getting him calmly watching the horses. After saying how good he’s been, he got away from me this evening whilst I was swapping his leads over and went for my companion pony, who kicked him (no harm done luckily). Pup was going to react back but thankfully did come back when I whistled.

Suggestions please on how to undo any damage I may have just done to how he behaves around horses.

He is brilliantly behaved 95% of the time, but when he is reactive he is very very reactive.

As my first dog of my own I’m really worried that I’ve totally messed up now. :(
 
I'd say the kick will be the best lesson. Instant consequence for unwanted behaviour. At base level, that's how animals learn.

A collie will have a natural chase/herd instinct. You haven't messed up. It is just genetics, just keep a closer eye on him and learn from your pony ;)
If I can offer some constructive criticism, you seem a bit stressy over normal, minor, breed-typical puppy misdemeanors and are focussed on things being perfect - you're doing fine, try not to stress, as the dog will certainly pick it up.

l bet he's a lot more wary next time.
 
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We had twp JRT pups, who were over-adventurous around the horses. Our fabulously wise old Clydie mare taught them both that horses are dangerous. They were messing about round her feet and she side-swiped them both with a back hoof. I'm sure that they were more surprised than hurt but they both yelped in shock and never went near a horse again. I will say, though, that we have always been very careful since then to keep dogs and horses well apart, not all horses are as clever as the Clydie was, nor as well-meaning.
 
CorvusCorax said:
I'd say the kick will be the best lesson. Instant consequence for unwanted behaviour. At base level, that's how animals learn.

A collie will have a natural chase/herd instinct. You haven't messed up. It is just genetics, just keep a closer eye on him and learn from your pony ;)
If I can offer some constructive criticism, you seem a bit stressy over normal, minor, breed-typical puppy misdemeanors and are focussed on things being perfect - you're doing fine, try not to stress, as the dog will certainly pick it up.

l bet he's a lot more wary next time.
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Funny you pick that up, you’re absolutely right. He’s actually the most incredibly easy puppy who isn’t really doing anything wrong, just being a herding breed baby. I’m geverally really proud of him and how his training is going.

I think I’m this stressy because after 2.5 years I’m facing a diagnosis of Lyme disease (probably to be confirmed tomorrow), so I get terrible pain in my head all the time as well as other symptoms. It makes me prone to feeling a bit on edge and wanting to burst into tears a lot. Luckily for me it’s hard to be miserable with a puppy around. But it does mean the yappy hysterical behaviour sticks in my mind as I’m so hypersensitive to noise, so it’s like daggers in my brain! I try not to let it affect how I train him, but I find I lie awake at night feeling anxious about doing everything wrong with him, my job, my life!
 
I agree with CC, don't panic - no harm done, he has now learned that horses can hurt. He will obviously need to be tied up or crated around them, unless he has an excellent stop whistle, which I don't think is normally taught to pets (but I can recommend it!).
 
Hey BBP, any update on a diagnosis? It sounds horrible. I hope you’re going to be ok.

Don’t beat yourself up re the pup, mine used to be fine round horses then decided to chase/bark. They’ve never been allowed up again, I just didn’t fancy the risk with two, but I think yours might have learnt his lesson, bless him!
 
Hi, yes, thanks for asking, I was diagnosed with an active Lyme infection as well as 5 associated viral Coinfections (didn’t test for the other bacterial coinfections that often go with Lyme as I couldn’t afford it) and chronically suppressed immune system. No wonder I’m tired and run down all the time, as well as my stupid brain and neck pain! The next stage is working out a plan to tackle it, it can take a couple of years on antibiotics and immune boosters apparently, which is pretty brutal (and not sure I can afford treatment if the NHS won’t support it - they don’t accept any blood test other than their own which is notoriously unreliable.) so I’m a bit stuck. Had an awful day last week where I thought I was having a stroke or something, the pain in my head was so severe that I couldn’t remember how to lift my arms to type. All good this week, much milder symptoms. But a lot of people have worse things than me so got to keep soldiering in!

Took pup back up to field today and was really careful not to let him get stressed out, but got to the point where I was working him 15 feet from the bonkers black pony (on other side of the fence) and he was super, really listening to me and running through all ‘tricks’. When he did look at the pony he then settled back to me again. So that made me feel a lot more relaxed that I’m doing ok!
 
Hard at work ignoring the (fat) pony.
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BPP-having seen the amount of thought and effort you have put into your namesake over the years, I am sure you will be an excellent dog owner as well as horse owner. I really hope you get the help you need with he Lymes, I had no idea the NHS were so backwards on it.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
BPP-having seen the amount of thought and effort you have put into your namesake over the years, I am sure you will be an excellent dog owner as well as horse owner. I really hope you get the help you need with he Lymes, I had no idea the NHS were so backwards on it.
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Ah thank you, that’s a nice thing to say. Right now he is sparko by my feet and one of my cats is curled up asleep by me on the sofa. Just need cat number 2 to feel relaxed enough to join the gang and life will be complete. They definitely make it harder to have a bad day, even with bad news. The pony is the left out one at the moment (as you can tell by his waistline) as I’ve felt really unwell for riding and then when I felt ok he went lame from buggering about in the mud so neither of us are very fit right now!
 
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