I have a 5 years old Border Collie who is very territorial about the house and it is a real problem that I can't ignore any more. He will go frantic, barking and growling, hackles up & snarling if anybody comes to the front door. He will eventually go into the lounge where I can shut the door but I have to tell him a couple of times and he goes off still growling and making a fuss. Nobody can come into the house further than the kitchen. I daren't let strangers meet him in the house.
If we have visitors coming over that my dog hasn't met before we have to take him out on the lead onto neutral territory for him to meet the visitor before they can come into the house. Even then my dog is very antsy around them and demonstrates fearful/aggressive body language for a while before he calms down - which is unpleasant for visitors and worrying for me. Once my dog has met someone though he will happily let them come back to the house and is happy to see them.
We had a particularly unpleasant incident when we were staying with my inlaws. They didn't understand the problem, I think they thought I was being dramatic because they have only seen him as the nice dog he usually is, and they let a visitor in. My dog firstly ran under the table growling and backing off but then rushed at the visitor snapping. Fortunately he didn't bite but I felt awful and afraid at what could have happened.
This is no way to live and obviously causes problems for simple things like having workmen in the house. I am also TTC and know that, God willing, at some point I will have to have Health Visitors at the house. I do not want the added pressure of a snarling dog. Also I know that this is my house and it is ridiculous that my dog dictates who can come in.
When my dog is in this mode of fear and aggression he won't listen to me and will not be bribed with food treats. I have read about guests throwing titbits over the threshold and ignoring the dog but I know that my dog isn't food orientated when distracted & to me this kind of training would be a recipe for disaster.
We are moving house soon and I wonder whether this will be a good time to make some changes for the good but I don't know where to start with tackling this problem. I am also worried that we will have a couple of weeks of staying with family before the new house is ready and I am worried about a repeat of the incident at my PILS house. We have a fabric muzzle but I don't want my dog to have to constantly wear that - that isn't a solution and won't tackle the deep behavioural issue.
I think that because we have never had many visitors since having him as a pup - we moved away from family and friends - that this is the problem and he is unsocialised in this regard and I feel guilty that we have let him down. Having said that we have another Border Collie who is 4 years old and he is totally different. He is not fearful and loves visitors.
I'm sorry for the long post and really, really hope that somebody can give me some pointers, I am at the end of my tether on this front.
Thank you!
If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.
The doghouse
Can I ask for some advice about my dog and visitors please?
poutintrout · 16/08/2011 15:40
Fools - am not ignoring you, but want to spend time replying properly and give your question a proper response (polite, I promise 
), but I now have to do poo patrol (don't ask, DH wants to cut the grass) and get everyone fed, so it will be later.
OK, I am now back. :) I am trying to be polite, because Fools you ask a reasonable & sensible question and I don't mean to be rude, but I may come across as harsh as I think flooding a dog is really stupid. I don't apply this specifically to collies, although they have more extreme responses because they are sensitive intelligent dogs and have the ability to "over-think" things.
Flooding a dog is an old technique that was used by old fashioned trainers to make a nervous dog give up. In a nut shell, what flooding means is, the trainer would constantly harass the dog unmercifully until that animal accepts it?s fate of death (In their mind, anyway) and gives up. Or to put it another way the dog trainer would make the nervous dog so nervous that the dogs brain would finally shut down.
When some people see the immediate result that the trainer accomplishes with this type of behavior modification method, they are impressed. They are impressed because what they see is effectively "a cure".
This is probably without a doubt the absolutely stupidest way to deal with a nervous dog. The most common responses you will see in a dog when he meets new people after he?s gone through the flooding treatment are, (1) he will make sure he acts like a bigger maniac the next time someone tries to come near him. or (2) he will slink away from everybody.
In either case the dog will pretty much be miserable.
All that has happened, is that you have negatively reinforced the fact that (in the case of the OP) strange people/crowds are big scary places and he cannot escape. if mum and dad trys to reasure him, he's confirming in his mind that it's scary because mum and dad are not behaving normally, but instead are telling him he has something to worry about. Therefore, in his mind, he is justified in feeling the way he does.
Say Fido is scared of strange dogs, but we keep walking him past strange dogs and offering him Scooby Snacks. He might take them?or he might not, but is food what?s really on his mind? If you say it depends on the dog, you?re right. But you can teach a dog to take food in the presence of other dogs and still have a dog that is scared of other dogs. If you want to teach a dog not to be afraid of other dogs, the best way to teach him is to provide him with escape from other dogs when he does any behavior that is not as scared as what he used to do. (i.e. positive reinforcement).
We do this with our collie girl who is terrified of kids. When she wants to get away from a scary situation - kids, she goes to her bed, where she is not disturbed. That's positive reinforcement, because she is able to get away from the kids and she has a positive result from her actions (gets away from kids). What we absolutely do not do, is expect her to interact with children. It scares her, makes her fearful and snappy. And besides, why would I want to deliberately frighten my dog? Take the same dog to a crowded place on the end of the lead, and she goes into complete meltdown. There are numerous places we've had to take her which are crowded - we haven't ever "deliberately flooded" her and each time where she hasn't been able to escape it's just reinforced that she's trapped in a nasty situation.
fools - when you were advised to flood your dog with a floor covering, did you give it treats and reinforce what a good dog it was when it crossed it? The reason I ask, is that you'd have had time to associate the floor covering with something nice, the dog can show the required behaviour (walking across the floor) and you positively reinforce it straight away. i.e. walk on the floor, get a treat, therefore, floor not scary - IYSWIM.
A dog going to a crowded place is "unlikely" to exhibit the behaviour you want because it will be too busy panicing. All it will be thinking is "Ohshit ohshit ohshit" and it will be very, very difficult to reinforce good behaviour positively, hence the flooding becomes a negative way of training. Plus, you will not be able to remove the dog from the situation instantly you get the required response, which turns the idea of positive reinforcement on its head.
As to collies, the reason I would say you need specialist advice is because 99/100 they out think their owners. 
A collie learns bad habits quicker than it learns good habits and if they are not mentally stimulated, they find their own jobs to do.
I'm probably not making myself really clear, but I've tried to explain what i mean. I am not a collie expert, i just know them better than other dogs in that they are "my breed" like GSD's are dogsbestfriend or Greyhounds are Scuttlebutters IYSWIM?
Fools I am totally biased, I wouldn't have any other dog than a collie (except maybe a black lab gundog). Provided you get the right one, you will have an amazing, intelligent family pet. If your home situation is the right one, DH would be a fool not to get a collie.
I really think, OP, you need to ring Wiccaweys. Paul is a collie specialist and he's seen this behaviour countless times before.
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