Willow is a challenge. That's about the best description of her there is!
Will was another of my failed fosters; I really am not very good at it. She began life as an accident, one of a litter born to a female who was shut outside in a shed during her season and got at by a nearby male. She's a tricolour farm collie, working lines and she certainly shows it. Endless energy, a complete ratbag and a total challenge!
Willow's first owner was a friend of a friend, with a nervous dog. She asked me and our friend for advice when she wanted to get a companion for her (nervous and not good with dogs) dog; both of us told her, 'do not get a bitch; do not get a puppy; do not get a collie.' So naturally, she got all three. It took all of 10 days before neither she nor her dog could cope, so Willow went to stay with my friend. 10 days after that, the woman tried her for another weekend with the same result and as one of my friend's dogs was not coping with her either, I offered to look after her. By this time she was 11.5 weeks and practically unsocialised, aside from two unsociable dogs, one OTT collie and the car, and a few chickens. The critical socialisation window for a pup is 4-14 weeks, and she was nervy so I had my work cut out: 2.5 weeks to get everything in.
I didn't succeed entirely, unfortunately. Willow is by nature not only a very nervous dog, but also a super-submissive one when it comes to other dogs - her first response at any hint of unpleasantness (which could be the slightest 'back of a bit, kid' grumble) is to go uber-wiggly, grin her face off, scrunch her eyes shut and badger face in the hope they'll realise she's a total worm and not worth hurting. Of course, the vast majority of dogs find that intensely annoying, so they told her off; that worried her, so the behaviour intensified. The reality is, with only 2.5 weeks left in that socialisation window, I simply did not have enough time to get her around enough calm, sensible dogs to overcome that behaviour at her pace. She is vastly improved now, at 16 months old, but it's been a long slog and with a long way to go.
What hasn't helped was the run of bad experiences earlier this year - in February, her and little Jolly trotted off to say hello to some not terribly stable dogs, ignoring my calls. They soon came back when they decided the mastiff X was too much to cope with, and I was proud of that decision; unfortunately, that particular matiff X has rubbish social skills (having been raised with a reactive GSD), so it chased them both and loomed over them, frightening the heck out of Willow. As we got past that dog, her two friends - both serious bullies - took over and frightened her more and just before they left to catch up with their owner, one of them tried to bite Willow and Jolly both on their backs. She did at least recall but the damage was done. Having *just* gotten Willow over the dog reactivity that was sparked when she hit her second fear period at 7 months old, she was thrown right back to square one and then some.
A week after that, a dog I've known for some time - River's twin in looks - came hurtling over to say hello to me while his owner walked off, oblivious to what he was doing. While I was trying to keep River still to protect her back (slipped disc), he was trying to climb up mine, and Willow was completely freaking out.
Then another couple of weeks after that, on a trip to Derby, an idiot with a rottweiler on a choke chain let it get right up to Linc, wrap its paws around his neck and nearly bite his face before the idiot got it off him. Willow went absolutely crackers.
Since then, being the nervous type she is, she's become highly reactive to dogs and it's been very hard work. She is beginning to make some progress now but it's very slow - being a collie, her reactions are lightning fast so often she is reacting before I can; but we are getting there.
She has so much potential - like any collie, she could turn her paw to just about anything but we have to deal with this dog problem first. I will not be one of those owners of a snappy, barely-controlled collie who comes over the last jump of an agility course and straight into the nearest dog because they've simply been distracted by the sport but never taught how to actually behave around dogs so the adrenalin takes over; so that comes first. But I have made enquiries and found a local training club who will let me hire their field and equipment so I can teach her and a couple of the others how to do it by themselves, then they will not have that stress when I eventually put them in a class situation.
But, dogs first.
