Why is Ellie so weird?

Ginger is not protecting her territory/ it is not her house/ so it is unclear to me whether she is confident dog or not. She seems to be laid back enough not to be bothered by Ellie issues.
I am lucky to have behaviorist who is running daycare and our training facility so I direct all my questions to them. Overall I would say socialization is a key to have balanced dog... humans can teach bunch of tricks but we can not teach doggie socialization...We do not take our boys to daycare because we are not at home as a matter of fact it is kind of PITA to drive all the way back and forth. But Leo gets placed with dogs that help him figure out he is not toughest boy on earth and Che gets placed with dogs that help him with his issues/ Che is sensitive to large sized dogs due to my fear of them/
Last visit Leo was placed with shy 10 months old Doberman and they did great together- Leo is waay overconfident puppy helped Dobe to come out of his shell and Dobe kept Leo at bay...
It well worth the money if you can find some daycare that operates on evaluating dogs and placing them appropriately, even once a week.
And if Ellie does not go to any classes I greatly suggest it. IMHO every Sheltie needs a job and if you do not provide one for them they either become neurotics or find one themselves which you may not like.
 
Thinking back with Ember, just I took her everywhere. If she acted up I didn't worry about it. I didn't care if she got along with strange dogs like at day care or a dog park(didn't go there)just that she didn't try to attack them or bark at them. Ideally she would ignore them. I took tons of puppy classes, training classes and that helped her know what to do. I did have Justice, who is Mr. Calm Cool and Collected and he always went with us. In fact, the first few times I took Ember by herself somewhere she was about 2 yrs and she did have a few really unsure moments. She always did better with Justice around. I started taking her places more by herself at that point and she slowly learned to handle it better. Exposure was the key.

Now days, Ember goes most places with Diva. Diva is also a supremely confident dog. So I do think Ember is taking cues off the other dogs. I still do make a point of taking Ember by herself often on rides, to stores, class to make sure I keep up her socialization. I never let Ember interact with dogs she doesn't know.
 
I would agree that socialization is the way to go.

You can do it formally through classes which works well because they give all kinds of tips on how to deal with different types of dogs.

Another alternative is to gradually introduce her. Go to a park and just sit on a bench. Let her watch people and other dogs walk by.

If someone tries to approach you, just tell them that you are training your dog, and "please, another time". When Ellie seems to have chilled enough, then you can start to introduce dogs. Walk on the path. If you see someone approaching, put Ellie into a sit. Tell the person that you are training your dog and ask them to stop to 'talk about the weather" and also have them sit their dog - without contact. Then move on.

Gradually, you can move to having the dogs sniff each other, etc.
 
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