Training a border collie to ignore cars

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So we have 18 month old border collie. We have worked really hard at training her to be calm around cars. I did all the clicker training, she sees a car looks at me gets a treat etc. if a particularly fast loud vehicle is coming I get her to sit and tell her to wait til it passes and she gets a treat. So we still need to constantly manage her around traffic. The problem is I would say she is actively looking for cars when we are out now. It’s a bit game for her. Car coming turn around focus on it look at mum get a treat . Cars are such a big “thing” to our walk on pavements. How do I get to the point where we can walk and she just ignores them? Or maybe that’s not possible and I need to accept where we are now. She is very food driven. So to her cars = treat. The more cars she can find the more treats she can get.

i watched that dog training video the other day where he used aversive training to stop lunging at cars and I wondered if this is actually going to get a better result.

Please don't ever use aversive training on your dog.

Your collie is obsessed with cars because she's a collie. They're bred to herd sheep that run past them so in their minds, cars are another thing they should be able to chase and herd.

She needs to be desensitised to cars altogether - so cars shouldn't mean treats or attention, they should just be part of the landscape that she ignores and doesn't react to.

You need the help of a trainer who specialises in herding breeds.

Well done you for actually training your collie, they're so smart aren't they! You need to stop with the treats now and then phase out the clicker, bringing them back in if required and then phasing out again. Is there somewhere you can go and wait with cars passing safely - this would help too. As pp it is heeding instinct but not all collies do it - they all have their own personalities. My current two collies have never shown any interest in chasing anything except each other, the ball and sadly other dogs away!

I ant see your problem?
What is wrong with her turning to you rather than lunging at the cars?
Use her daily food allowance so she is not getting extra food.

To make it easier for her increase your distance from the cars and see at what distance she is less likely to react - this is where you need to walk for a while to get her to ignore the cars. Then you can decrease the distance over time and the need for treats will stop.

However can you imagine the self control she is showing to look back at your rather than chase the car - she is being awesome and a total superstar I would want her to know I recognise that

I can't see the problem (sorry!)

Yes I do understand the herding instinct. Sometimes she turns round and lies down ready to herd them which we always try to
preempt. I have worked so hard with her on it. It’s just it would be nice to get to the point where we could walk and cars wouldn’t be an issue. She can’t be walked by anyone else as they dont understand It. It feels like we are in constant training mode. I see other collies out who completely ignore the cars and I just wonder how they get to that point. Or maybe as I said this is just what we need to do with her all the time.

I read somewhere on a border collie Facebook page that using treats around cars can actually make the problem worse if they are trying to herd the cars. So it just made me wonder if I created a problem.

I’d recommend finding a trainer to work with you

You have trained her to look at you when she sees a car but now are not happy she’s looking at you when she sees a car…

Do you have the option to walk places there aren’t cars for a while so it’s less stressful for you?

I live rurally and there are lots of collies here. It feels like pretty much everyone has one sometimes!

The ones who don't chase are ones who have a job to do - they're farm dogs or do agility and have some other outlet for their energy and instincts, or they're ones with retired owners who are out walking for hours.

I presume you work but could you sign up for something like agility or fly ball? Collies are incredibly smart and I personally don't think they do very well in "pet" homes unless they have a job or something else to do with their time.

I could do scent training with her. Have done a bit in garden. She has an injury which means I can’t over run her. She is a great companion. Her job mainly is coming out and about with me, she loves to meet people and go new places and find new smells. I know a lot of people may judge that. But She is very happy and loved. It’s just the car issue, I started to wonder if I went about it the wrong way.

I'm not for one minute saying you don't love her! But my experience is that collies need an outlet of some sort - they are bred to work not to be companions.

I'd really recommend finding a trainer who specialises in collies, like DingBatt or similar - they really are such a specialist breed, you need to understand their motivations.

I just walked her today somewhere where their are lots of cars going about 20 miles an hour - buses, lorries etc. but there is a small wall between the pavement area and the road. And we walk about 10ft from the traffic. She is absolutely fine and doesn’t react here. It’s when we walk local to our house and the cars are inches from us as us they go past. I do walk between her and the traffic but it’s not enough. Just a shame she can’t relax. But I guess she is doing pretty wel regardless

Remember she's still young - I'd say border collies don't really mature properly until 2-2.5 years old.

I don’t think we have any good border collie specialists local to us. I could use an online trainer perhaps. I tried a few trainers locally to me when she was young and they all seemed eager to tell me what a difficult dog she would be and how awkward it be training her. Without actually offering any solutions, so I just trained her myself in the end.

A lot of dogs do this regardless of breed. Its not a border collie thing only. Both my dogs did it they are not collies. You don't need a specialist border collie trainer. You need to desensitise your dog to traffic. Your dog loves treats so distract with food BEFORE the car passes reward as cars passed. Take a big food pouch have it attached within easy reach also a full hand.

Oh no it’s nice to hear it can happen in other breeds. It gets tiring hearing “well that’s border collies for you” !

Did it ever get better?

No, I am sorry to say that it didn’t. She is ok when cars are say 10 m away. We are fine in car parks etc. or in parks where cars can be seen on nearby roads. But pavement walking I just avoid altogether as it is so stressful

Sounds like she would love mantrailing!

My collie is 6months and exactly the same she’s fine with slow cars, or if I’m 10m away but pavement walks next to the road she stalks the cars as they come ahead or behind and ready to lunge. Was hoping you would say as they mature they grow out of it but that’s a shame

Yes this is exactly what she does and what she still does. If I could do it again, to be honest I would avoid pavement walking when she was little as I think around 5 months of age they look for their “sheep” to herd. And once they have found their thing they want to herd it’s difficult to get them to change their mind. So try and get focus on something else when they young before introducing cars. Lots of pavement walking unfortunately doesn’t help them to slowly grow out of it.

disclaimer - I am not an expert!

but also please don’t feel too disheartened as they do make up for it in lots of other ways, they are lovely dogs x

Aw that’s such a shame but yes you’re right they are beautiful dogs! Hope my girl gets better as I can distract her 90% of the time with a treat and then there is no lunges but she constantly scans if she hears one coming before she can see it! I’ll try avoid being too close to the pavement for the next 6months where I know there is no triggers and I don’t need to distract her and hopefully I might see improvement but we will see

Good luck x

I think you are half way there the fact that she looks at you is good replace the treat with some direction. Teach her a good solid leave it command.
it doesn’t matter what you teach her to leave as long as she gets it means stop doing that.
working collies how ever hard wired they are to work will equally understand that they stop and leave when asked.
i think you are right that at the moment she thinks you are rewarding the looking at the car.
you need to reward the leave it, with your voice and plenty of enthusiasm and move on and away.
she sounds really bright you will get there.
I hope that makes some sense I could show you really easily but it’s hard to put into words because it’s mostly down to timing.
good luck.