I have a beautiful 2yrs 6 months Border Terrier. As promised by all breed advice she has a lovely temprement, friends with everyone, great with the kids etc. She plays happily with a wide variety of dogs, greets most passing dogs with friendly interest, although can be cautious, has a pretty good recall, will sit, and stay at a distance and walk nicely on her lead. HOWEVER... From time to time on meeting another dog she will start to bark at it. This seemed to start as a puppyish thing to goad another dog into playing with her, but now it appears to have become a habit. If the dog runs intimidated she will give chase at full pelt barking her head off, if the dog stays by its owner she will circle it barking at full volume. This of course is very intimidating to both person and dog. Some kind people stand still and hold their dog so that I can try to grab mine but others become agitated and kick out at her or shout. I understand why they do this but needless to say it only winds her up more. Once she starts it is impossible to get through to her. I have been seen sprawled at full length on the ground with her in a rugby tackle whilest my dog walking friend tries to pretend she is not with me!!

I cannot predict which dogs will provoke this reaction, it might be a poodle, it might be a German Shepherd, but it seems to be becoming more frequent. I have consulted a couple of trainers and even sent her on a residential course to try to get over the problem, but everyone simply says what a lovely little dog. I am at my wits end, and constantly anxious when out with her. I can see she is exibiting typical terrier type behaviour and am desperate to find a way to break through it. She is lying here now with her nose in my lap the picture of doggie devotion, but on a bad day I have seriously thought of rehoming her on a farmyard or something where she could chase rats all day, and getting myself a quiet and timid replacemment! Have any other terrier owners cracked this kind of thing? I would be grateful for advice.

Hi Issy.
It appears your dog is not exhibiting any aggression while doing this chasing, so I don't think this problem is as major as you say it is. The fact that you chase, scream and shout and try to rugby tackle her will only excite her more and being a Terrier will worsen the situation. I suggest you call the dog to you upon seeing another dog and put her on a lead, praise her for being good, then if the dog is friendly and the owner agrees let them run together. I will say that my female Border does a similar thing, she does bark when running with the other dogs but certainly not aggressively, both my males have never done it.
Dawn.

Id go with what Dawn said - a good idea is to teach a 'leave' command with food, which you can then transfer to other dogs - I've just done this with a GSD with pleasing results :)

i agree with both the above posts, and to add my own thoughts, would suggest that you do allow her to mix and mingle but just don''t let her get out of control and start chasing round dogs and owners :D

It really doesn't seem to bad, although of course annoying/upsetting for you and other owners, as she isn't being aggressive but merely seems to be having fun. Also try distracting her with a squeaky toy if she responds to that - some terriers love the squeaky ones! and once she starts to obey, use it as a reward rather than a distraction.

Good luck

Lindsay

hanks everyone. I'll try all tips, especially working with the leave command. She will already 'leave' food, the cat, and guinea pigs at home and that might make it possible to interrupt the behaviour if I haven't headed it off in time. Some people say she is being agressive when she barks round and round another dog. I feel she isn't but I'm not very experienced with dogs. What would aggressive barking look like?

it sounds to me as though shes being confrontational, by circling and barking at another dog shes asking for trouble---the owners must see it as threatening hence the kicking at her.-my dogs over the years have twice been attacked by border terriers. -first time it was an akita puppy at a training class-a border pup flew and bit it in the face, teeth bared the lot----totaly unprovoked--and the second time i was walking a mature rottie male when a bloke came onto the feild, he didnt see us, but his dog did, when he slipped its lead it went straight for my rotts throat, --this dog was obviously a scrapper, -the rott pinned it down and held it there, i was fuming, the owner took his dog and apoligized, but it shot off after its next victim as soon as he released it, -----------im not sure if this was bad breeding-or rearing , ive met many others that where delightful, -but!!!!! they are terriers after all, so id take the matter very seriously,

A dog that aggressively barks will attack aswell, the very nature of a Terrier is to bark, its what they were designed for, to bay constantly untill dug to, so a barking Terrier is normal, that does annoy me when people say Terriers are yappy, what do they expect? Dizzy is right there are good and bad in every breed and it could of been the terriers upbringing, but, by far the most aggressive dog we have walked on our common is a black Shar-pei, not only towards dogs but children too, given the fact the owner has a wider studded collar than the dog, I lean towards the dog not being trained ot socialised properly, however I do not think in this case socialising or aggression is the problem. The dog displays behaviour that gets attention, controlling that situation in my opinion is to stop it BEFORE it starts, i.e having the dog on a lead untill in a safe area where other dogs are not present, or asking fellow owners if they mind the dog running with theirs, I am sure if this dog was intending to attack it would have done, Terriers are not backwards in coming forwards, they don't usually display "collie" tecniques like circling, they go straight in.
Dawn.

p.s talking about Rotties on the field, my 10yr old Border went into bushes yesterday on the common, and came out with a Rottie! it was about 10 minutes before his owner came tearing over screaming "he won't hurt you" etc... waving his arms around, the dog (his and mine) thought he was nuts! but again, the guys behaviour could have sparked the wrong reaction by his dog, but on this occasion it didn't. He had apparently jumped out of the car and shot across the road when he lost sight of him.

dawn, ive passed many borders on walks, in the showground etc, they must be bred wrong then, as not one of them flew at my dogs, ---i still feel this puppy is pushing its luck,.
as for the shar-pei its shocking, id be ashamed if it was anything to do with me or mine, theyre not the most biddable of breeds once off the lead. most owners wont let them off as theyd struggle to get them back again, -BUT! i breed with a strong input on temperament so its something i take very seriously, it might be an idea if the black pei is people aggressive to have it reported .its not common in the breed and certainly shouldnt be allowed, -but there again if hes walking it around in a thick studded collar. -what image do you think hes trying to give the dog ,do you know its a pure shar-pei, as a fair few are crossing the breed,either way it should be stopped.

Yes Dizzy it is a proper Shar-Pei, not a bad one either looks wise. The guy who has him thinks he is clever, you know the type. He has been in trouble with him before, for attacking dogs and he grabbed at a child, I can't verify how much the dog meant that though, I didn't see it, apparently the boys t shirt and trousers were ripped, but as I say, I didn't see it. The dog is a mature dog now, probably 3yrs or so, he tends to keep it on a lead now, but Tuesday I notice he has one of those huge studded harness's on him, so of course the dog has all his weight behind him and is raging all over the place. He seems to be the sort of bloke that thrives on attention, confronting him would feed his arrogance. I will say the dog is in fine condition.

I don't doubt you will find aggressive Borders just as you will everything else, like you say, temperament should be of paramount importance when considering breeding any dog, but upbringing is also a factor, I believe the Shar-pei is a perfect example of this.

I also believe the Border is pushing her luck, BUT I don't think she displays aggression as such, just behaviour that gets attention, one day if it is not controlled, she will come up against a dog that will not tolerate it, which is why I suggested she is put on a lead to stop the situation BEFORE it can lead to that.

I've a rescue Border and you might have seen some of my other posts. My dog does exactly what yours does. Sees another dog, runs for it, circles the owner/dog and barks and also attacks the dog. I know he wasn't socialised as a pup and therefore I give him some leeway and am trying a lot of training on him. If yours will "leave" the cat, he/she's doing a lot better than mine! What I'm doing at the moment is getting him to be OK with people/children and when I walk him I avoid other dogs and if I can't I lead and muzzle him. He knows why I'm doing it but he's taking time to learn but I'm being strict and he's getting better. I think we all expect dogs to rush in and be big cuddly bundles of joy but they're not. Some have baggage and we have to deal with it. My dog is a challenge but I'm enjoying it and him. I also have learned a lot off this site and thanks to everyone.

CG

I've been reading all the posts with interest. My Border has never actually bitten or attacked another dog just barks her head off. However, I have heard people say their dogs have been bitten by other Borders. I've been putting her on the lead when we see dogs we don't know and preventing the behaviour with 100 percent success so far. I would still like to work with her to teach her to stop and calm down when I tell her if she begins to bark though.

Y'know, I really think this is quite common with Borders. I have one (un-neutered, male) who is an absolute darling, and even likes most dogs, but hates certain types - mainly Great Danes, Dobies, Wiems, Rotties (yes all the big dangerous looking ones!!) I have never quite worked out what its about. I think its fear agression and bravado. Like "I'm going to get you before you get me" kind of thing. As he NEVER goes off lead anyway (BTs are notorious for running off and he does not have good recall outside) I can usually divert him away. I have been working on desensitising excercises - there is a book called Feisty Fido by Patricia McConnell just comeout which you can get on Amazon and it is all about dealing with dog-dog agression. In the most basic sense, it is about avoiding confrontations at all costs and slowly de-sensitising the dog to "scary" situations by treating the dog big time whilst it is still calm - e.g. at 50 feet away from the other dog. You slowly move up to more challenging things, but eventually the dog associates good things with dogs and not bad things - i.e. if you shout and yank at the lead / dog when it is braking at another dog it will re-inforce its belief that dogs are bad things becuase bad things always happen.
It seems to be working quite well as BTs are very food oriented, as a rule.

God luck. They're clever little devils so it should click before too long

julie

I had a BT bitch when i was a child. She was my friend, sister (i was an only child) and a great family member. Unfortunately she was a total embarrsment when out for her walks. If it had four legs and a tail she was sure as hell gonna have it! We consulted ves and behaviourists and read all the bumf. Its in their nature to serve as a hunting dog. Therefore some are intent on attacking enything they see as prey.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. Some good socialisation and training classes should help. Time, training and patience should sort out the problem.