Kiera lives with a gentleman and his mother. The lady unfortunately is not well and seldom goes out. She is not really well enough to look after an energetic young dog all day, but her son brought Kiera home.
Whenever six-month-old Border Collie Kiera does something the lady doesn’t want, the lady shouts at her. NO!
Mostly Kiera ignores her.
The lady unfortunately hasn’t the mobility to quickly get up and move her away. After all, she’s not being taught what is good behaviour, only being scolded for bad. Scolding does at least get her some attention.
Energetic dog creating her own stimulation
During the day Kiera spends too much time creating her own stimulation. She digs in the garden, wrecks the plants and has become possessive of a spot under a bush.
Then, when the gentleman comes home in the evening, she is over-stimulated by him. Excitement and stress causes the energetic Kiera to fly at them. She attacks feet, bites clothes is destructive. She scratches at chairs, carpets and walls. She is deaf to NO. She barks continually at him until he takes her out – which he does.
Her active brain
Throughout her puppy-hood Kiera has learnt that bad behaviour gets the attention. She has to be doing something with her active brain, after all. They feed her on a commercial brand of food known to cause hyperactivity because it contains additives and colourings. They also give her lots of unhealthy extras and teach her to be a nuisance at mealtimes by feeding her from their plates.
She has so many unearned tit-bits that food rewards have no value.
Meals need to be regular and healthy, and treats earned. Then, when she’s doing something they don’t want, it will be sufficient to call her away and divert her onto something else, because she will realise this is when she gets a treat – not doing nothing at all or just to shut her up.
Kiera needs some boundaries. The energetic youn dog’s behaviour is so clearly a result of the behaviour of the humans in her life. People need to be consistent, calm, patient and kind.
She needs encouragement and reward for the desired behaviour and no attention for unwanted or wild behaviour.
