car chasing and lead pulling nightmare

I think your ‘many techniques’ is your problem. You need to be firm and consistent with your dog or they will get easily confused.
The easiest thing to do would be to hire a trainer that will come to your house and work one on one with you and your dog. The breeder could have taught her a bunch of stuff but then when she gets home the commands and teachings she got from the breeder aren’t enforced by you. If you have a trainer work with you, you will already know what you have to do and be taught.

Good luck.

thanks, I hear what you are saying but this isnt the problem, we are very consistant and are doing as the breeder did and I shouldnt have said that, what I shouldve said is “ tried a haltie and a choke chain”, cheers

You don’t have a panic-ing dog…you have a herding dog with an obsession…I’ve seen GSD’s, Aussies, Border Collies, Heelers…have obsessions on a variety of things that move…from cars, to livestock…even birds…

I’m sure that by now, you are feeling anxious when you hear a car coming…because you know she’s about to go berserk…a vicious cycle. Dogs are hard wired to feel/read body language, and your anxiety is going straight down the leash. In her doggie mind she’s thinking “ooo…mom doesn’t like cars either…I’ll double my effort to send them away”…WHICH, in her doggie mind she does, when they keep on moving down the road.

So…your first rule of thumb will be to remain CALM…

Second…your objective. You’re only objective is to desensitize her to cars and get her focus on YOU. Don’t try to get too many things done at one time…Like make walking her separate from this car thing.

Take her to a street where cars go by regular…put her in a sit/stay. Here is where timing comes in…Car comes down the street…you remind her of her sit/stay the second before her eyes lock on the car’s approach. Now she’s going go for it, but you are going to jerk UP and back, and put her back in her sit/stay, at the same time saying “NOPE! SIT/STAY”. Ok…second car comes…you’re going to do the same thing…catch her BEFORE she leaps, pulling up on the leash…”NO, SIT/STAY”…by the third time you’re going sense some hesitation…that’s what you’re looking for…her focus on her obession is getting interrupted by you. If by any chance the interruption is good enough that the car gets by her without her moving…PRAISE PRAISE…and more PRAISE!

Because you have a bad back, a prong collar might help you…they look ugly, but if you put one on your arm and give it a jerk you’ll see that it hasn’t much bite (especially thru as much hair as a collie has)…but this will allow most of the discipline happen betwen the dog and the collar…you just happen to be on the end of the leash. I have always used a prong because I’m 100 lbs, and my dogs always weigh far more than me.

Now, because this is an obsession…you may have to do this “stand on the street” thing for up to 30 days, before you can take her for a “fun walk” (fun for you, I mean :) )…for 30 days you’re going to have to be vigilant…and not let her slide even a tiny bit… A sit/stay is a sit/stay…period, end of story…ok? :)

Try this and see how it goes…the good news is…she’s still just a pup, and this is not a long time obsession…The by product of this training will probably be a dog who’s focus is on you 99% of the time…truly, all the pain in the butt stuff now, may just end up being the beginning of a great rellationship.

Let me know how this goes…keep your expectations down for the first week…keep your “goal” in mind, and remember baby steps…We can fine tune this. Techniques are general…but all trainers have an arsenal of fine tunings to fit individual dogs…let me know…ok ?

Another thing…keep your focus on the dog…don’t worry about bystanders…you’re doing what you’re doing because you LOVE your pup…and want her to be a good partner for life. She can’t focus on you, if you’re not focusing on her.

p