Hi everyone :)

I'm desperately in need of some advice.
I have 3 dogs. An 8 y/o Jack Russell, a 7 y/o toy poodle and a 3 y/o collie (working sheepdog).
I'm having serious problems with the collie. The two older dogs are bad for barking. The poodle barks at the slightest noise or when I move BUT will stop when told to. The jack barks when no one is there but stops fairly quickly.

I've been doing agility with the collie for 2 years and we were ready to start seriously competing at the beginning of the year when, he broke his leg :(
Vet said it would be healed in 3 weeks, but, 5 days later I woke up to him sitting on the couch with no cast on! So new cast put on and an Ecollar home. Well he would not wear the collar, totally freaked. Just over a week later that cast was off. Agility trainer recommended a comfy collar. Got one and worked fine for a few days (!) but again he had it off. At my wits end I bought a muzzle which he wore almost 24/7, he only got it off for meals. Weird that he was fine with a muzzle but not the ecollar. Anyway, he ended up having 6 casts and 2 splints (one of the splints was just as a precaution once his leg was healed). So the whole healing took just over 3 months instead of 3 weeks. Now he has major muscle wastage/damage in the leg.

The first problem is his barking (which did start before the break but wasn't an issue). At first it was just at home or work (I'm a dog groomer, so him and the jack come with me) when someone knocked or came in but he would stop when told. Now though he does this massive loud howling type bark and wont stop when he's told. Also in the car (he is in a cage in the boot) if he sees a person or dog he goes absolutely crazy, barking, growling, throwing himself against the cage. I have to idea what to do about it.

Second problem is he seems to be getting a bit aggressive with other dogs. He has always been great with other dogs, never snapped, barked, anything. Now though he'll throw himself at another dog (while on lead) growling, acting like a crazy thing. Off lead he'll run at the other dog growling and stand over it (he will occasionally do this little snapping thing), then just ignores it. I don't actually think he wants to fight or anything but I'm worried the other dog will and it would complicate matters. Again, have no idea what to do about it.

Obviously having almost zero exercise while in a cast has affected him but due to the muscles being damaged he can only do small amounts of exercise right now. He will be starting hydrotherapy soon and I've ordered a book to teach him new tricks to keep his brain active. Apart from that I really don't know what to do.

Any advice is greatly appreciated :)

I would get him to a physio/rehab vet or McTimoney chiropractor on suspicion of lingering pain.  Pain can cause all sots of problems and aggravate others, just as you are describing, and many vets can miss low level, chronic pain that a physio or chiro might pick up.  I've had it happen several times.  Both can also pick up on pain from compensation - altering the gait to favour the injured leg - which can have a lasting effect all over the body and I can say from personal experience that just that can make you very grumpy!  I've had great results from both people with my dogs, both in finding things the vets have missed, and treating those findings.

Hydrotherapy should help but it may be that he needs some physiotherapy to learn how to use the wasted muscles again properly in order to avoid more problems in the future (if none have already occurred as above).

Just a quick note to others reading before anyone leaps on this - I believe in saying 'Ecollar' that the OP is referring to a buster/elizabethan collar, not an electric collar!

Thanks for your reply :). The break has healed perfectly, the pain is coming from the pressure on the joint because there is no muscle support. My vet did suggest physio but he also said that he (my dog) would get really fed up with it because of the amount he would need. I'll definitely look in to it though.

How do I go about finding a physio/rehab vet? Would my vet refer me?

I should have thought about the Ecollar thing lol, it was an Elizabethan collar :)

you say about having to restrict his physical exercise which obviously has to be done but have you been compensating for this with mental exercise? Especially being a working bred sheepdog and having to have no exercise and now little while he recovers Id imagine he may be getting board and having all that pent up energy added to it could be causing some problems for him too. It could a combo of that and pain.

A relative had a welsh bred working sheepdog once and although they exercised the hell out of it they weren't working his brain enough and they ended up with all sorts of behaviour problems that sounds very similar to what your having with your boy.

I was pretty lax with mental stimulation while he was in a cast I must admit. I am attempting to remedy that now though. I've decided to go back to the beginning with him. Reteach basic obedience. I've also ordered 101 dog tricks as his agility training is out the window now.

Is there anything I can do about his dog aggression now? I was thinking about taking him back to agility training to just be around other dogs. But the problem is that he knows those dogs and will likely love it.

Just back from a walk. We met a little crossbreed off lead so I let mine off, absolutely fine. Met a jack Russell on lead but seen it sniffing a strange dog so left mine off. He sniffed it and attempted to play. It snapped at him and he just walked away. That's what he's always been like so I was pleased. then met two collies on lead and the man put a halti on one of them so I put mine on lead. Wasn't enough room on the path for all of them so had mine lie down at the side. As soon as the dogs were level he lunged at them.

Could you distract him with a treat next time and ensure his attention is on you rather than let him eyeball the other dogs?

Easiest thing is to prevent things from happening, and reward for that. I.e. if you use a headcollar you can easily turn your dog's head away from others, preventing them from eyeballing each other then the likelihood is much less that anything will happen When he sees a dog and does nothing, you reward. You have to be quick to make sure the praise and reward happens before he thinks of doing something. Teach "watch me" -reward for eye contact with you, and use that command when other dogs appear, so that he learns rewards will come when he pays attention to you and ignores everything else.

I've been doing this with one of mine and this week at training class was asked if I'd swapped dogs seeing as she was no so good at NOT reacting to other dogs.

All animal physios are registered on the ACPAT site. They are all human trained then go on to specialise in animals. Mine just simply asked for a signature from the vet to consent to treatment.