As some of you know, I have been having a few problems with Tess. We went to see a behvaiourist who wasn't very helpfu and really stressed Tess out. they advised not to take her to Obedience classes as she reacts to the other dogs and gets stressed.

However i chose to ignore this as she loves to learn and I;m hoping that will help her get better at being around other dogs.

So...we went back to obedience classes this evening.

There were only 2 of us there as it is so cold. Despite barking at the instructors when we arrived Tess did really well. She calmed down quickly and did some lovely recalls and retrieves. She loves the dumbell!!

We had a few goes at an A recall which was fun.

By the end of the class she was sitting there looking at other dogs with a relaxed posture!!! Hopefully as we go regularly she will relax more and more

Fingers crossed

Great news :) Nice that there was only 2 of you as well!

We have the same trouble with our dog Ben, he gets stressed with certain dogs when we go to obedience, though he does tend to settle and relax mid way through the class.

We also dont want to stop taking him to classes as we feel it would make him worse around dogs, and we are trying various methods to help him over come his issues.

tbh leanne some behavourists leave alot to be desired, & alot dont really get the whole collie thing. Continue with the classes, try to suss out what stresses her there & ty to avoid it, also try to get her tuned in to a exciting word, a good one to take her mind of stuff is somethinh like "ready steadieeeesssss", proof it outside the class envioroment by saying that then getting her really excited, then you should be able to use it, at the first signs of stress, say it & take her mind off of what is stressing her!.

Pleased your classes are going ok.
keep up the good work.
runningdog

Good for you Leanne - and Tess.

I know she has been giving you some problems with other dogs but i think she will get there and you are doing the right thing by not giving up beersmilie

Thanks everyone - it is hard work but she's definitely worth it. I'm really lucky that the people at training are so helpful and understanding.

Even the other owners are really supportive and give me space etc. They also congratulate her when she's doing better!

Hoping that in time they will be able to come over to her and have a fuss etc

Really glad that the obedience is going well.

Some dogs do get stressed at other dogs but something that Silvia Trkman says, a trainer in Slovenia who competes at the highest level in agility, made a lot of sense to me. She had a Pyrshep who didn't like other dogs, was nervous of strangers and she had trouble working her as this dog was destracted by all the things that scared her. Why? Because she kept being forced to try and get used to these things. Being introduced to other dogs and strangers when she didn't want to be. This made her more nervous when they were around....fearing she would be taken up to meet and greet when she didn't want to be.
After a while Silvia realised that she might as well stop trying to make the dog get used to these things and focus on her training. Once she did this, the dog stopped stressing at other dogs and people and focused on her work. She realised that their presence didn't matter anymore. She didn't need to be defensive or stressed. She was now happy to simply ignore them and do her work. In some dogs, this is the best you can hope for.
There are some dogs that will never want to play and socialize with other dogs no matter what you do and I do reckon that keep trying to force them or encourage them can actually stress them even more.

So, keep doing your obedience and have Tess enjoy it as much as possible. Soon, other dogs and people won't matter. She'll ignore them and do her work. You might want her to be friendly with people but don't try to force it. If she's going to do it, she'll do it on her own if you just concentrate on her obedience and other training.

Just like Poppy - she will walk with a group of dogs of lead but doesn't want to play with them and doesn't like anyone touching her except for me and Mark.

The more i pushed her the worse she got, so now i just let her be and she is happier and easier to train. I found the trick is to ignore the other dogs so she did and agility is easier now.

Ooh I can add replies from work now for some reason!!!

Anyway - I think that this will probably be the case with Tess - at least as far as dogs are concerned. She will happily walk alongside them and run around but is not interested in playing with them. She will chase the ball alongside them but as soon as they get in her face she doesn't like it.

With regards to people I think it may be different as she loves having a fuss once she has got to know someone and it is only on the lead that she doesn't like being approached.

I do think that things are very much on her terms - she likes some dogs and not others and some people more than others - I am happy to let her pick and not to pressurise her into things. The only thing I do want to manage is her reaction - she can't decide to nip every dog she doesn't like or bark at people to protect me when she's on the lead. I'm hoping in time she will realise that she doesn't need to as I will protect her!

It's not really a case of convincing her you will protect her because then she'll think there is something to be protected from. Sort of counterproductive. If she's taught to focus on you all the time doing heelwork, retrieving or any other type of training you try out with her, she'll learn to be more interested in that than stressing at people and other dogs. I don't think it matters if she doesn't want to play with other dogs but her being able to tolerate the presence of other dogs close by whilst offlead is all you need really. I know what it's like to have dogs that would go for any dog close by if they were allowed near it and it is such a bind. I'm glad Sleet and Wren aren't like that.
Given by the sounds of Tess, her behaviour towards people may improve quite a lot over time and I think it will just happen on it's own whilst you concentrate on her training. After all, if you feel even the slightest bit nervous about how she'll react to an approaching person/dog, she'll pick up on it. She'll think it's because you view that person/dog as dangerous and so she reacts. The key is to pretend nothing bothers you at all. Other people and dogs don't bother you so why should they bother her....If she trusts you and lots of training will reinforce all that, she'll also trust your judgement but you just have to be careful what messages you send across. It's too easy to send the wrongs ones across.

So my advice would be to just lose yourself in loads of training with Tess and have lots of fun and I can bet lots of other seemingly unrelated but positive things would happen. She might learn to associate the other regulars at obedience class as being something to look forward to because she always does fun training when they are around. This alone might help her to feel more easy around them.