A work colleague of mine has bought a Red and White Border Collie. Dexter is now four and a half months old and  doing that lunging thing at passing traffic.

My colleague Elaine, has asked me to get her some advice on breaking this potentially dangerous habit. Currently, she is trying to get him to focus on her and treats while they watch the traffic from a roadside seat. I wondered if a clicker might help. What do you all think?

Dawn R.

When my puppy started doing this at a similar age, I did use a clicker (but had already been using it for some time). I stood on the pavement beside the road with him at a corner where the cars came fast towards him round the corner, which was where he reacted most often. Lunging barking etc were ignored. Gaps between cars when he sat calmly were rewarded. When he sat calmly as cars passed he was also rewarded. It needed only a couple of short sessions for him to behave well.

> Gaps between cars when he sat calmly were rewarded. When he sat calmly as cars passed he was also rewarded. It needed only a couple of short sessions for him to behave well.

This worked for me with a Bearded Collie bitch.  Not because of lunging, but because she was petrified of lorries.

Someone told me to cuddle her!  Which would have been rewarding her fear.  I didn't try to drag her along when she was frightend, but just stood there and waited for the lorry to pass.  Once she started to wait for one to pass without showing fear, she got a treat.  I took it slowly, until she was happy to continue walking without any sign of noticing the traffic.

> This worked for me with a Bearded Collie bitch.  Not because of lunging, but because she was petrified of lorries.

Lorries and buses are fairly similar in some ways. He didn't have an issue with them because we live on a main road. I used to carry him to the nearest bus stop most nights and sit there with him watching the traffic and people go by. Buses can be as scary as lorries, with the air-brakes hissing etc. but after seeing buses pull in and people getting on & off, lots of noise, hissing brakes (the ones we have here also hiss when the doors open as they lower themselves to the pavement automatically). He was taken on buses from an early age and learned to love them, which he had to as I don't drive. So lorries are another type of bus to him, bigger, bit more noisy, and people don't go on them. Trains were just another sort of bus - another noisy thing we go on, and sit on, with other people. He was six months before his first real trip in a car but by then, quite clearly, a car was just a small bus with only two people in it :)

Is your colleague familiar with clickers? To be honest, it wouldn't be the first route I would recommend as I find many novices take a while to become accustomed to the timing of the clicker etc. With something as potentially lethal as car lunging, I would plump for the reward based approach.

Away from traffic, I would practice the "watch me" command (or whatever command is preferred). This is something I practice with all my dogs at a young age (has SO many uses it's invaluable). Then I would introduce traffic in a fairly sedate street (without exciting buses and lorries and only occasional cars) and bring in the "watch me" command with treat rewards. Up the ante with busier streets from there.

It's not something I have ever had with my collies at all. I have no idea why that is - maybe sheer luck!! There is a collie at a nearby farm who flies out the drive and into the path of cars. I went ballistic at the owners as it almost caused me to crash into a nearby telegraph pole! They told me she wouldn't actually run directly into the path but stops just short of the car!! I couldn't believe their idiotic rationale! How is any car driver meant to know that?!! I serve like mad for pheasants and rabbits so imagine my reaction when it's a dog!!

has she considered taking her collie to herd as a hobby worth giving Jackie Goulder a ring she is brilliant with herding breeds      http://www.spanglefish.com/beardedcolliesforshepherding/ (she also does other breeds)

Mine will lunge when cars go past slowly - I always make sure that she is under control but just occasionally she will make a sudden lunge if I am talking to someone.  She is afraid of traffic and all the training and experience of traffic has made no difference - what has confirmed her ideas of danger is having the bad luck to have a car back-fire near her.  It happened twice in the same place on one busy main road and once since we have moved back to our old town which is narrow with no pavement in one part that we have to walk.  I have to keep stopping and telling her to come back to my side, watch me then proceed until she pulls forward again in her anxiety.  She won't lunge at traffic then but if a tractor is in the field when she is off lead then she will chase.  I think her instincts will always override her training because of her personality. 

One has to anticipate the lunge and use distraction methods - once collies get their eye in then distraction is very difficult.  The adrenalin starts racing.  Maybe a squeaky toy will get the attention away from the traffic and back to the owner - but it will only work for a short period if that traffic worries the dog.  It depends on his nature.  An emergency down could be useful.  Rather than just sitting watching the traffic - do some training.  I didn't get my dog out with traffic anywhere near enough when she was a puppy.  I carried her about through the town when she was tiny but she was about the same age when I tried doing the same as your colleague.  I think that I should have spent a lot more time when I first had her but I was afraid to take her out before she had had her vaccinations.  At four and a half months it is serious training time rather than getting used to traffic.  Correct me if I am wrong someone.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'll show Elaine your advice. Cheers.

Dawn R.