Collie scared of noises and keeps running off?

[curly&buster]

Hello!

I have a 6 year old male collie, he was secondhand over 4 years ago, he is very well behaved, especially in the house and out walking, he is rarely on a lead, only if in town or near roads. He has lots of exercise and fed properly.He loves whils out walking finding people to drop his ball, so they throw it for him, a couple of throws and he returns.

He has the usual collie traits of being scared of certain noises, some vary, these are, fireworks, shotguns, bangs, police sirens. But more recently jet planes and the local hovercraft.

It was never a problem, just something we dealt with, never getting annoyed or shouting at him, we carried on as normal,he would just trot off a little but would return, there was certain places we would take him due to shotguns in the past, he stopped going out after dark but that was not a problem either, i did stop taking on his morning walks to the local park last year when it became a touch worse, however i just took him to the local beach, with i used to occasionally in the mornings, it is a much nicer walk and he likes a swim. Also i flick stones/pebbles with his ball thrower which he chases whilst he has his tennis ball in his mouth. its good exercise for him and after an hour of sprinting about was shattered.

However something happened last week, he was just scared of any noise, he would, will just trot off out of sight until he finds someone where he will drop his ball and look at them to throw his ball, this has been the same in the afternoons too, we cant take him any where off the lead, he will just run off..

Does anyone have any advice, i think a little perseverance usually helps, keeping him on the lead too, i have in the past tried playing noises through speakers whilst playing games at home, the desensitizing method but he is too intelligent he could tell the difference between this and real noises.

Many thanks in advance!!!!!

 

[gypsysmum]

You may well need a professional behaviourist from either COAPE or APBC to help you. There is a lot that can be done.

It may be that he has started to associate you with the noises and is avoiding you. A friend's dog would refuse to leave the house if she was going, but would go out with her son.

Could you take another tennis ball to entice him with?

 

[curly&buster]

Thanks Gypsysmum! It is a common problem with collies, they are mad! i have asked on collie forum too, as there should be others with like problems.

There is a great saying, there and dogs and there are collies, they dont think alike! thanks again!

 

[eingana]

Hi curly&buster

It certainly is a bit of an expected trait with collies, along with chasing cars, hot air balloons, runners and all sorts of other things that look like they need chasing. I used to walk a border collie that would have the red mist descend and then be off after a kite or whatever, and she could do all sorts of amazing things but would almost magically disappear when certain noises happened. Very strangely, they didn't need to be particularly loud noises, just very particular ones, sometimes ones which I could barely make out from the background noises.

I'm afraid we never found a way around these noises making her run away. We dealt with it all by making sure that she was only ever off lead in places where it was safe for her to do her disappearing act and then to get herself back together without being at risk. She walked on a Lupi harness and a longish lead, allowing her lots of space to meander about the rest of the time.

I hope you find a solution to your lad's problem as it sounds like he's really got it into his head to run away. Have you tried introducing a new noise like a specific whistle to call him back? Did this interrupt his fleeing at all?

 

[curly&buster]

Thanks for your time, funnilly he can hear things i cannot or way before i can! i think its just a rough patch! he is still just scared of going out but perseverance and taking him out ion a lead will sort him eventually, that and lots of encouragement and patience, i will try a whistle! his fear of noises was not normally a problem there was just places where he did not like or would go no further as he had previously heard a certain noise there, at the moment its walking anywhere!

i shall keep you all posted..... This no doubt has happened to other collies!!!