Hey GKL,
It's hard for me to give a full behavior modification plan with out our questionnaire and seeing the dog being reactive. Her body language can tell us a lot.
Golden rule no matter what:
More attention for being GOOD than being bad..
Teach her to speak... I know it sounds wrong!
Then put the first word she ever learned "NO" with it "NO SPEAK"
Just like a light switch on/off
Also she is a herding breed. Most have very HIGH drive and Border Collie's tend to have strong herding instincts. If she is trying to move "herd" the stranger or anyone for that matter. They should become a tree. Do not even look at the dog.
The dog should be redirected when she becomes reactive with an obedience command SIT or DOWN STAY, missing that throw a ball or toy to redirect. Basically give her a job to do.
If she is just alarm/alert barking then teaching her to speak should work.
If she has the herding instincts kicking in, redirecting and giving her a job to do should work.
If it's a learned behavior it becomes more difficult to change. If she has been doing this for over 5 years or so now it maybe more learned.
Borders also can be very OCD, again harder to change. Create a secondary reinforce and use it to redirect the bad behavior.
But again:
Golden rule no matter what:
More attention for being GOOD than being bad..
Good luck and keep me posted.
Thanks, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all that !
We do give a lot of attention and praise for good behavior and we have made some progress but it is very gradual.
Redirecting her attention is a good idea, I think I read it before, I just have to remember to use it more.
One thing when she would keep barking I would scratch/rub her hind quarters as she could not bark at the same time, sort of like a person who can't walk and chew gum at the same time
While she seems to be more border collie, the "beagle" side shows thru sometimes, she has a very keen sense of smell, can smell the sidewalk and tell someone has walked on it recently, also occasionally she'll "talk" like a beagle, especially when she really wants your attention, sort of like a "o roh roh roh roh" sometimes talking like that for about a 10 second long sentence
Here are some pics, the first one was her online "petfinder" pic where we first saw her as available to adopt from an SPCA.
The next one was when she was a little older, and then the last two after she seemed to be pretty much fully grown and fully grown.
aboard!
