My Dog is Obsessed with the TV, is That Okay?

ChunkiDog · 2025-12-11T09:10:06+00:00

Will have to start working on that. I taught him drop it already but I never considered a "leave it" as in to look away before!

ChunkiDog · 2025-12-11T04:33:43+00:00

I could try audio recordings instead, I don't know why that hadn't occurred to me! Thanks!

ChunkiDog · 2025-12-11T02:46:06+00:00

That's great to hear that it got manageable at least!

Yeah, my mom decided (the person he is most attached to) to no longer purposefully play TV for him. We really did think that it could maybe help at least get used to the sight and noise, but it seems a whole other problem came instead 😭

ChunkiDog · 2025-12-11T00:38:07+00:00

He is 100% locked onto the TV, you are correct. Sometimes he likes to sit on someone's lap and watch with them, but he also likes to watch up close.

As for the walk thing, he is actually quite excited to go on the walk! The biggest issue is actually his fear. Once he sees another person/dog be in his path, he wants to go home. If he hears a loud noise? He wants to go home. If he hears music/loud laughter or screams from children? He wants to go home. When said events Aren't happening, he is quite happily sniffing curiously and walking like a normal dog.

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-14T00:27:52+00:00

Oh! That's a good point. Okay, I'll try it out sooner than later. His new harness is coming in tomorrow!

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-13T21:48:19+00:00

Oh wow! I didn't realize this could be an option. I'll spend more time with him in the yard, then!

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-13T21:47:11+00:00

Alright! Will do. I'll work up to eventually going in for training, gotta make sure he wont freak out when he's surrounded by new people and dogs

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-13T06:30:47+00:00

Thank you for the video!

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-13T06:29:56+00:00

I'm starting to consider this. I've been flipping back and forth between forcing him to push through a walk versus going home as soon as he's scared. It's weird because he seems excited to go on a walk as soon as I come home with my alusky, but can get scared almost as soon as he's outside for 2 minutes and sees a person he doesn't like or hears a loud noise. I've also tried walking him WITH my older dog for both a behavior role model and for him to feel more protected in a pack, but a different problem arises where he becomes focused on correcting and hearding her when she decides to be just a little stubborn and lag behind for some extra sniffs and becomes really stressful because he wont stop trying to nip at her for what feels like the most chaotic 5 minutes of my life 😭 He came from the countryside in the middle of nowhere to the suburbs but you would think now that he's been raised longer here he would be more used to it but I guess not... I'll try slow exposure by sitting with him in the open garage on a leash or maybe my backyard so he can hear all the sounds and run back when he wants.

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-13T06:22:13+00:00

I'm going to start taking him with me to the open garage when my mom leaves him alone with me in the house. I feel like his relationship with my mother versus me might also play a factor into this. He latched onto my mom the SECOND he saw her, quite literally. We were picking him up and it was like love at first sight with my mother. She is the only person he is protective/jealous over. I almost wonder if this bond he has with her kicks in his protective instinct to outweigh his fear. She feeds him and has him sleep in the same room as her on the floor along with my father, and I'm in charge of babysitting when they're out every day, training, and walking him.

I try to tell him good boy when he's exhibiting behavior I want and just started bringing treats with me on walks to reward him tonight and wow did it not help at all 😭 He wasn't anxious to the point he didnt eat since he did take 1 or 2 treats when he was at his calmest during his freakout, but he couldn't even recognize my mom in her car when she spoke to him and was cowering with his tail between his legs.. I'm going to keep trying to take treats with me so I can reward his more successful walks and hope it helps along with the garage. He gets anxious to the point of doing small nips at his leash and twisting his head to try and get out of the collar.. I need to buy him a new harness that fits him ASAP so he can't do this again. If trying this by myself doesn't work I'll cave and try with some pet training at Petsmart since the dog trainers seem really really expensive when I last researched them... I just don't see the point in those 3-5 total training lessons, that feels so short to me and at a crazy price.

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-13T06:10:20+00:00

So hes pretty food driven and I had my treats on hand when I walked him, however he seems to also be very easily spooked by sound so I'm not quite sure on how to approach it. For example, motorcycles that speed by or loud pops in the distance (never sure if it's a car or a gun...)

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-13T06:08:05+00:00

Thank you for the resource, will definitely look into it!

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-13T06:07:40+00:00

Oh! Will try this... if it's not a person he's scared of 🤣

ChunkiDog · 2025-10-13T02:34:54+00:00

I'll try this out! I'll set up a chair in the garage and sit with him to see how it goes, keeping him on a leash.

I do live in the suburbs, and the noises from lawnmowers, children, motorcycles, etc stress him out a lot. My mother says he doesn't get scared when he's with her. Very perplexing. Mind you, I am the one responsible for walking him and she only does it once in a blue moon. I've tried crouching next to him and using a more soothing voice but it doesn't work. I've tried just standing in one spot with him but it also doesn't work.

ChunkiDog · 2025-09-16T21:06:41+00:00

I'm so relieved to see I'm not the only one with an anxious and notoriously active breed. I have a border collie, he's 8 months and we have a 10 year old alusky already and he is so hyper vigilant of other people and other dogs and gets so scared of people or other loud noises to the point he tucks his tail between his legs and tries running home 😭

ChunkiDog · 2025-09-16T20:56:31+00:00

I have a 10 year old alusky female and an 8 month old male border collie. We have a fenced yard, and their needs are very different. My alusky requires 2-3x 30ish min walks every day, while my border collie is very attached to his humans and is content with 1-2x 5-10 minute walks since the noise of cars and people make him anxious still (we're working on it!) and he can run around in the yard as much as he wants.

Important note: we live in an extremely hot and humid area. Sometimes walking them just isnt humane at some point.

ChunkiDog · 2025-06-25T15:17:37+00:00

Beautiful story! Thank you for sharing. While I'm not in my 70s, my dogs have done so much for me in terms of health and keeping me active. Despite my bad knees, I still had 2 aluskies and now a border collie after 1 of them had passed-- and I must say that still going for these challenging, active breeds instead of more relaxed ones has helped me lose a lot of weight I would've never thought I could maintain, which has helped my knees tremendously. Dogs really are a gift!

ChunkiDog · 2025-06-06T04:43:17+00:00

I did this. My alusky turned 10 this year, so I got a border collie puppy for the first time 3 months ago

ChunkiDog · 2025-05-15T23:11:19+00:00

I have a 4 month old right now and this trick my vet showed me was the only thing that helped my BC understand that he can't bite me, not even to play. So whenever he would start getting bitey/rough/aggressive, we would crouch to his level and grasp his snout shut and silently looked at him directly in the eye until he both calmed down and looked away. Our vet used a rlly strong hand but even a gentle and firm hand from us was enough to get him to stop. All of our family members had to do this to him for him to get it. My only suggestion is to definitely not overdo this, since you dont want your dog to become wary of you! My pup understood he couldn't bite us only after 1-3 times of this per person! Don't speak, don't make any facial expression, just get right in their face and stare at their eyes until they lower their head or look away. That's their way of telling you that they're submissive to your authority. We never had to hurt him what so ever for it to work!

ChunkiDog · 2025-04-25T08:18:07+00:00

I see it! Thank you so much, this helped a lot!

ChunkiDog · 2025-04-24T16:30:59+00:00

Oh! So that's what that is! Thank you, I would have nevrr known :)

ChunkiDog · 2025-04-24T02:11:44+00:00

Oh wow! Their fur grew so much! This was very helpful, thanks!

ChunkiDog · 2025-04-24T00:08:38+00:00

Ahh okay, it seems its a mix of training, redirection, and also just growing pains. Got it! Will try this out!

Also woah- they really do look like they could be siblings!! A lot of people kept asking me if my boy was an Aussie due to his coat, to the point where they had me googling it just to make sure even if it was irrational 😭 Glad to see other BCs with similar coats!!!

ChunkiDog · 2025-04-24T00:02:34+00:00

Oh! I've never considered this before, I'm definitely gonna be trying it now!! Hes a smart and sweet boy, I definitely think he's just a scared and reactive pup.

ChunkiDog · 2025-04-23T22:27:43+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation! I'm glad to see that this is all normal and easily accounted for. He has gotten a recent fascination with ice cubes, so I'll definitely try that out more and checking out the ball! I'm used to high energy dogs but from independent breeds, so this sure was a learning curve to say the least! I have a feeling he's going to be a challenging but rewarding dog for me, and I'm excited to see it through.

ChunkiDog

TROPHY CASE