Hello,

I have a 19mth border collie bitch who is terrified of traffic. She wasn't walked enough near roads etc when she was younger, and now she is an absolute nightmare to walk. I generally have her on a gencon and this seems to stop her dragging me along everytime a car goes past, but it's stopped being a joke now. Yesterday I had to walk along the main road to get to the fields I wanted to take her in, and my other 4year old male BC (who's fine with traffic) too. She got so nervous she refused to walk and I had to carry her. Put her down to cross the road, got to the other side and a car went past, she tried to scale a 5ft wall to escape. Everytime a car goes past she spins in circles and tries to pull me either very fast forwards or very fast backwards. I am determined to sort her out with traffic but I'm at a loss as to how... is it best to take her up to the main road and just sit with her for an hour or so, so she gets used to it? I have the next two weeks off school so can devote as much time as I want with her. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Char123

Hi,

This is a hard thing to crack, but keep trying.

One of our beardies was very scared by a HUGE logging lorry when he was just 12 weeks old and it took over a year to get him used to large vehicles again, this is how we did it, may help with your problem to.

When out for a walk and a large vehicle was coming, we stepped back off the road (we live in a village with no footpaths), made him sit, crouched down with him and gave him a tasty treat for sitting still while it went by.

This slowly changed to just moving back and making him sit and rewarding, then making him sit and rewarding where he was and now he looks for a treat whenever he sees a bus, lorry or tractor and is only very slightly wary of them.

Good luck, it is a long process and you will need patience!!!!

manda
x

I found that with my border collie she didnt like fast moving objects traffic being the worst of her fears so we started slowly with skate boards and stuff just standing watching then we moved up to faster things just standing watching she is now more confident with most traffic she still doesnt like the large lorries but she is a lot better they can be a bit nervous and traffic seems to be a problem with a lot of them

I was able to help my young border collie overcome her fear of traffic by first of all keeping her away from it completely and then finding at what level she could cope with it and building up from there over a long period of time.   Sainsburys car park is a good start.  The odd car or two doing 5 mph.  Do you have anyone who could give you and the dog a lift to the fields?  Perhaps if you offered to help with the shopping later;-)

I doubt this could be sorted in 2 weeks, but it will give you a good start.  As the others have said, you need to take it VERY slowly, and this may well mean not walking in the places you usually do.  Start off by walking where there is as little traffic as possible, at as greater distance as possible (a playing field for example - don't forget the poo bags ;-)).  the next step depends on wether it's the speed of the traffic or the vicinity which bothers her.  If it's the vicinity it's no good walking her around residental streets where she may be forced into walking close, however if it's the speed which worries her, this may well help...  If the closenest of the traffic is a problem, then a car park with very little traffic (such as the parking area for a local picnic spot) where you can sit with her and watch the cars - each time she doesn't react - reward her.  Slowly decrease the distance between vehicle and dog - each time she freaks (although we are trying to jude it so she doesn't) go back a stage.  It may take a week or so, an hour at a time, before she's happy to be in the vicinity of a moving vehicle.  Then slowly introduce her to faster moving vehicles, making sure you don't push her beyond what she is comfortable with, and rewarding her for each positive experience.  As she is a Collie it may be that food treats don't have the same impact for her as a retreiving type game, so bear that in mind.