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My dog is really weird. Advice?

   
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Reboot, SDIT

Squeaky? Where's- the squeaky?		 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 12:55am PST 
So, I've been trying to do some task training with Boo lately, and this bizarre issue she has is making it really difficult. I know Border Collies are quirky dogs, but this is just... strange.

If I try to teach her anything when we're in the living room, she freaks out. She wants no part of it. She jumps on the couch and lays down. I tell her off, she gets down and dives under the recliner footrest. I tell her to come, she gets out from under the recliner and jumps on the other couch again. And back and forth and back and forth.

However, if I take her outside and do it on the patio, she's great. She's perfect and wonderful and focused.

I didn't worry about it during the summer, but this is going to make training during the winter awfully hard. Does ANYONE else's dog do this? It is really frustrating me, since I have to take her into the kitchen now to do it, and she isn't impressed with that, either, but it's easier than trying to get her to stay still in the living room.

The weird part is that once I get a command down, she'll do it fine. If she's walking INTO the living room and I say 'sit' she'll stop in her tracks and plop her butt down, but if I try to get her to come sit in front of me and do a command while in there, she jumps on the couch or under the recliner thing.
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Donovan'sMaj- esticJet of- Solace

Street sweeper!		 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 3:39am PST 
Try using a short leash to show her what you want her to do. Reward her every time you catch her in the living room being calm and not on the furniture. Cute pup, I voted for you in the dog/cat contest.
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Reboot, SDIT

Squeaky? Where's- the squeaky?		 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 4:14am PST 
Aww, thanks for voting!

She's usually great in there though, that's the thing. Unless I try to get her to DO something when we're in the living room, she's fine. It's just when I try to get her to do something or do training she freaks out. thinking That's why I'm so confused!
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Jackson

Christmas Eve- Baby
 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 6:02am PST 
Goofy question, but do you have hardwood floors that might be surfacing a tactile reaction? You are right, Border Collies can act pretty odd at times. We have hardwood floors, a large area room rug and several smaller rugs. On the occasions when we have to roll the large area room rug up to clean underneath, he enters & exits the room by using the furniture -- and we have a similar odd behavior when fall/winter comes and the concrete floor in the garage gets cold. Unfortunately, most answers to Border Collie questions end with "because he's a Border Collie".smile
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Reboot, SDIT

Squeaky? Where's- the squeaky?		 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 8:09am PST 
Strangely, the kitchen and dining room where she'll work fine are hardwood, but there's an area rug in the living room where she freaks out. I don't think that's it... thinking I agree, though. "Because she's a Border Collie" seems to be the best answer here!
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Kiona CGC

The Prettiest- Princess
 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 8:17am PST 
If she is on a leash then she cannot run around and dive on and off things, right? And how are you keeping her attention? Maybe a higher level reinforcer is needed.
thinking
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Chandler

Code name:- Farmcollie		 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 8:32am PST 
My first thought would be to break it down.
What is the trigger?

Is she comfortable in the room at other times?
How much time do you spend in the room?
What is she comfortable doing in the room?
Hang out? Eat? Play? Just pass through it?

What signals "training" vs other activities?
Treat bag? Clicker? Working vest?

What kind of training are you doing?

Unfortunately, because she's a border collie probably is the answer.
Herding breeds can be very sensitive, one scary stimulus accidentally paired with training can start a phobia.
Chan mysteriously became afraid of one house on our walking route when he was two, despite the fact that an aussie he liked lived there. It took months to convince him the boogyman didn't live there too.
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Jackson

Christmas Eve- Baby
 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 9:17am PST 
I agree with Chandler that you'll need to take a step back and consider everything & anything that might have happened in the room, might be part of the room, etc. Using a short leash will teach a dog what you don't want (such as getting on furniture, etc.) by not allowing it to happen in the 1st place & become habit, but I think using it here, in Reboot's case, is flooding. I know that Jackson would put his own spin on this; he'd go from not working in the room or freaking out to not wanting to go into the room at all.

Reboot is nine months, Jackson is 11 years old. You're going to be going thinking a lot!big grin
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Chandler

Code name:- Farmcollie		 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 9:20am PST 
...and that 8-9 month old time is prime teenage fear period.
Chandler didn't seem to get out of those until he was over two years old, but he was probably the most cautious pup in his litter.
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Reboot, SDIT

Squeaky? Where's- the squeaky?		 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 8, '09 9:31am PST 
I leashed her and she just decided that throwing herself on the floor and rolling around was a better option than doing anything I wanted. Sigh!

She's totally comfortable in the room at any other time. She'll play, sleep, eat, whatever in here until I grab the clicker and treats and stand up in the middle of the room to try to get her to do something. I try to make it a game, but the second she figures out that hey! this isn't playtime! she stops.

We spend a LOT of time in here so I'm not sure why it is training in here that offends her (I'm trying to teach her to turn the lights on and off currently.) Maybe it's because I never trained her in here before and this has always been the "play" room? I dunno. She just wants no part of it. I've never yelled at her or anything, it's always been really upbeat positive clicker training and she's a very soft dog, so I make sure not to raise my voice or anything, so I'm not sure what could've scared her.

(She does make me go thinking a lot. Like yesterday morning, when she opened the back door to my house, which has a round knob and not one that a dog can easily open, and came trotting in like it was nothing.)
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