Dog loves agility, but not people :(

[cinnamon]

My sheltie and I are taking agility lessons and she loves the work. But we'll be walking toward another piece of equiment to work on and she will look at the instructor and start barking at her and take a step or two in her direction. I can call her and tell her to get back in beside me. She'll be fine then a while later does the same thing.

Once we are on the equiment or doing a couple of jumps---she is right in there and is fine.

She doesn't care for people at all if they come in our house and will usually just go lay down in one of the bedrooms.

Can I ever get her to tolerate strangers so I can do more agility? She's very easily distracted by the other dogs during class and we are working more on verbal control before I advance to a different class.

I do praise her if she's quiet while I'm talking to the instructor and she's praised if she moves on her own to sniff at the instructor,but will bark if the woman looks at her.

She's never been a brave dog at all, but she's pretty antisocial. If I take her to a friend's house to have a playdate, she will bark at my friend and then go play. Her hackles are not raised so I'm not sure what she's feeling when she barks at them.

She does bark at me a couple of times during agility, but I think that's because I'm not cueing her right or she wants to go before I am ready to send her. I can tell her to sit and wait until I am ready, then she's fine.

Sorry for rambling on...I just don't want to try competitions someday and she runs over to the judge and starts barking at him thinking he doesn't belong in her arena.

[Buddy'sParents]

Hmm. I'm going to move this to the dog training section in hopes that it catches the eye of of some who have extensive training experience. Good luck!

[adojrts]

Well, the first thing I would do is ask people not to make eye contact with her and to turn slightly away from her and be very none threatening. Then you ask her to stop barking, when she stops give her a reward. Then when she is not barking, have the person softly roll a reward in her direction, while still not looking at her. If every person she mets is a positive experience and she is rewarded for not barking, she should improve and look forward to meeting people.
Be careful about allowing her to bark at you while on doing agility. Although Shelties are known for being a bit barkie, if you don't stop it now, it can get very bad.

Lynn

[cinnamon]

She doesn't bark while working the equipment or jumping. She'll bark just before we start when I'm setting her up and I'm thinking it's just excitement. I agree, I don't want her thinking she bark on the course so I'll tell her quiet, get in beside me and I tell her to sit/wait. Give her a couple seconds to settle, then I'll cue her to go. She doesn't bark every time we start something new but I'm trying to keep a handle on it.

[adojrts]

Thats good