Border Collie Dog.

She invites trouble by staring at other dogs.

Question.
My border collie dog, Kalma, is always being attacked, usually by Staffordshire Bull Terriers; but she's also been attacked by Jack Russells and German Shepherds since she was a pup. She's now three years old.

When she makes eye contact, giving them the Border Collie stare, they think she's being aggressive although she has no nastiness in her at all.

Until now my border collie dog has escaped being hurt but one day she might not be so lucky! I can't put blinkers on her, what can I do?

Answer 1.
Border collie dog dogs can stare at approaching canines fur a number of different reasons so it is important to determine why Kalma does this. It would be helpful to see her in action; from your description it would appear that you see her behaviour as nothing more than an innocent interaction which is being misinterpreted by other dogs.

If this is the case you need to teach her an alternative reaction to the approach of other dogs and to establish some form of verbal command which will signal to Kalma that her behaviour is very unlikely to be rewarded!Teaching the leave command would be a good place to start and combining this with training to make eye contact with you on command might enable you to rapidly break her eye contact with other dogs; after all she cannot be watching you and them at the same time.

This method of modifying behaviour is sometimes referred to as 'response substitution' and that is exactly what you are aiming to do. Teaching this will hopefully enable you to feel more in control.

Answer 2.
Trainer Charlie

I would recommend border collie dog dog training discs to break her eye contact with other dogs. I have a similar problem with Toby, my young Rottweiler - he seems to attract trouble by making eye contact with other dogs so we have to be very aware of what he is up to. I use the leave command which we introduced when feeding him. You could also introduce Kalma to clicker training, so that when she hears a click she needs to look at  you; either way you need to have a signal that will interrupt her as it is very disconcerting for dogs to be 'eyed up' by a working-type Collie.

Dog training discs need to be introduced by someone who has experience of using them because they are quite a powerful tool and work by interrupting a dog's train of thought.

Another solution would be to use toy training as Collies can get fanatical about a particular toy. If you can motivate her this way then her attention would be focused on the toy and not the other dogs.

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