10 year old Collie HELP :)

Twist · 05-23-2007, 07:44 PM

Hello everyone I had a few questions about my little angel Nikki.

She is a 10 year old pure bread collie and has recently had some arthritis in her legs.
She is a very laid back dog prefers to sleep during the day while my mother plays at her PC but at night will bark at my door to take her on a walk. In fact at this point she grabs the leash for me.

She seems to becoming very stubborn she was always a very obedient dog but here recently she has been ignoring certain commands such as when we are eating dinner we wont let her lay at in the kitchen but now she is doing it when we are not looking.
I thought perhaps she was going deaf but I did some tests with the word "treat" and she had no problem hearing that no matter how silent I was so I think she is being selective on what she wants to hear.
Is there anything I can do to help put a stop to that? I have been trying the old fashion way of training her but it doesn't seem to work like it did when she was a puppy. She does well during training but doesn't seem to work during dinner etc.

Also as I stated before I take my dog on a nightly walks but like most the problems she is now trying to pull me during the walk which I think I could walk her longer if she didn't try to fight with me...is there any tricks I could do so she would walk more beside me rather then trying to pull me?

Thanks

DogsforMe · 05-24-2007, 01:17 AM

Hello & welcome to the forum.
My 14 y/o Border Collie has ignored commands for over a year now, but she's deaf. Even the hand signals that she used to know, she ignores except the stand signal when I groom her.
Your dog is in her senior years now & IMO I would let her have a few creature comforts. If you don't want her around when you're eating, try putting her in another room until you're finished.
Have you tried treat training instead of traditional training, its a kinder way to go for an older dog, in fact for any dog.
If she's pulling when you walk her you could try using a head halter or front attaching walking harness. We have success with them at my obedience club.

Twist · 05-24-2007, 02:23 AM

Well I thought treat training was the traditional all my dogs so far have been trained that way but yes I do.

Far as creature comforts go we spoil her rotten just dinner is the time when she seems to get in trouble we have always been very strict when it comes to that.

Thanks for the reply tho will try locking her in "her room" while we eat from now on and will try that harness and see if that helps at all

DogsforMe · 05-24-2007, 03:14 AM

In Australia where I'm from, traditional trainers still use check chain collars with collar jerks etc. My obedience club switched from that method in 2000 to positive reinforcement training.