Suggestions for decent dog training books or guides. (Essay inside - sorry)

[Renegade40D]

Just wanting to see if there are any suggestions for some really good dog obedience training books or guides.

Basically never had an issue with training my lab, but after my gf adopted a friends border collie its been very hard to get them to listen/behave well (mostly on walks). They do the basics at home very well, (sit/down/come/eat/stay etc) but they are both 3 year olds so they get over excited and it takes a bit for them to calm down before they listen. When it was just my lab she would get excited but she would be very obedient, now with the border collie its like they feed off each others excitement, can be very draining.

At home its managable when you go outside they get over excited and jump around etc and i have started making them go to there beds before i will pay them any attention, so they are sitting down calmly before being rewarded. This has been helping but they still get very excited.

On walks my lab used to be brilliant, but the collie pulls like crazy and behaves horribly which has affected the lab, when she is on her own she is good though. The collie gets fixated on things and you can say his name, wave your hand in front of his face, click your fingers next to his ears, even put food in front of his face and he ignores all of it and stays fixated on whatever caught his attention. This means he pulls with no regard to how it affects him we couldnt use a check chain because he pulled so much he was actually choking himself, switched to a nose halter thing which worked brilliantly until his neck muscles strengthened up enough that it was not effective. Sounds like we are terrible owners lol, but that isnt the case they get everything they need, and we have been trying to get his behaviour under control with no luck so far.

And before i get the comments of you shouldnt own dogs etc this post is just concentrating on the negatives, they are both very clever dogs and when not over excited behave really well at home, ie we can put there dinners in front of them and they wont eat until they are told. Unfortunately i know we have an uphill battle with collie as the original owner never walked him/played with him or did any sort of obedience with him, and he lived in a small fenced off area that they called a "dog run" it was basically a mud pit and the hair around his chest and stomach was so matted with mud we had to shave it off when we got him. It took a week and many food bribes before he would even walk down the narrow hallway from the lounge to the bedrooms, he would drop to the ground and cower away when you tried to get him to walk down the hallway. A soft tap on his nose with even one finger when he misbehaves (ie jumps up) and he squeals as though you just kicked him as hard as you could. He was clearly mis treated as a pup.

They get regular walks and regular play sessions at the park where they go nuts chasing the tennis ball and frisby. Takes them half an hour before they are recharged and ready to go again *sigh* . Anyway this post wasnt meant to be an essay but i figured some history might help with some suggestions. And i repeat they are both well looked after and both very clever dogs, neither of them are aggressive just struggling to train out the bad habits the collie has developed because of the lack of training and mistreatment by the original owner. Makes me very mad that people can treat such a clever beautiful dog like that.

[Melzawelza]

Where in Vic are you? You need a professional trainer to come it and assess he dog and your handling skills and then put a plan in place. Books aren't going to help. You need to walk them separately for the time being at least if they are bouncing off each other. Let me know where you are, there's a few great trainers down in Vic I'm sure one of them will be near you.

[Renegade40D]

Forgot to change that, just moved back to NSW.

[Damianb]

isn't them being choked by the chain an OK thing as it makes them think twice about pulling on it again? lol