"talkative" collie

[merlin]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and would appreciate some advice about how to calm my very talkative collie. Merlin is 4 years old and is normally a quiet dog,however, when we start to link some of the moves for Heelwork to Music routines together he becomes very vocal. He's an extremely sensitive hound so i have to be very careful what I do to dissuade him and we have tried quite a number of suggestions already, with varying degrees of success or otherwise. His noise is possibly down to a number of things - excitement (he really enjoys some of the moves eg weaves), anxiety (new move, not sure / sounds inside building / etc) and at times I dont think he is even aware he's doing it.
We've tried -
1/ a marker word and turning away. result - works at first then he gets stressed after trying it a few times and flattens. doesn't want to work in case I ignore him again.

2/ stop instantly and train other dog in front of him. result, fine, he likes watching dogs , goes into "sheepdog mode" and lies down to eyeball.

3/ Put out of room. result, distress and reluctance to work after.

4/ reward all quiet work. This is how he was originally trained so we went back to the beginning to see if it helped.result, have to reward EVERY STEP. Tried to build this up gradually but despite being very steady and careful could get no further than 3 steps before noises come back.

5/ Using ball as reward also "scold" the ball gently instead of him when he makes the noise. result. worked a treat at first then developed a fear of the ball.

I could go on. I'm getting desperate because he's a terrific dog and well worth taking the time to help but I'm at a loss now. There's no way he can handle physical correction (and I wouldn't do it anyway!) but I'm sure there's some idea out there that will work for him if only we can find it.

[nick_j007]

Originally Posted by merlin

Hi, I'm new to the forum and would appreciate some advice about how to calm my very talkative collie. Merlin is 4 years old and is normally a quiet dog,however, when we start to link some of the moves for Heelwork to Music routines together he becomes very vocal. He's an extremely sensitive hound so i have to be very careful what I do to dissuade him and we have tried quite a number of suggestions already, with varying degrees of success or otherwise. His noise is possibly down to a number of things - excitement (he really enjoys some of the moves eg weaves), anxiety (new move, not sure / sounds inside building / etc) and at times I dont think he is even aware he's doing it.
We've tried -
1/ a marker word and turning away. result - works at first then he gets stressed after trying it a few times and flattens. doesn't want to work in case I ignore him again.

2/ stop instantly and train other dog in front of him. result, fine, he likes watching dogs , goes into "sheepdog mode" and lies down to eyeball.

3/ Put out of room. result, distress and reluctance to work after.

4/ reward all quiet work. This is how he was originally trained so we went back to the beginning to see if it helped.result, have to reward EVERY STEP. Tried to build this up gradually but despite being very steady and careful could get no further than 3 steps before noises come back.

5/ Using ball as reward also "scold" the ball gently instead of him when he makes the noise. result. worked a treat at first then developed a fear of the ball.

I could go on. I'm getting desperate because he's a terrific dog and well worth taking the time to help but I'm at a loss now. There's no way he can handle physical correction (and I wouldn't do it anyway!) but I'm sure there's some idea out there that will work for him if only we can find it.

Hi

This is not a discipline I am experienced at, and wonder if you would have more luck in a forum that is specific to your interest?

I'm sure that barking/vocal collies must be common in such a discipline and that there are tried and tested ways to overcome it.

I would say that the dog is excited and letting it out vocally. Are you geeing the dog up too much?

I'm a fan of calm dogs rather than allowing dogs to become (or encouraging them to become) excessive in the their behaviour...even if that is excessive excitement.

What do you think?