Our lovely 10 month old male border collie seems to be going through a testing period. We have various problems with over-excitment with children/dogs. He is very friendly, but far too friendly. We are slowly overcoming the jumping up problem but he tries to mount all dogs he greets and most human's legs. The problem we have is when mainly when we are out how do you stop a dog jumping up when greeting and being over-zealous with other dogs. The problem is a bit easier to control in the house. We have tried to keep hold of his collar when people come to the house but he tries to jump up and when he realises you are holding on to him tries to bite us.

Another problem is if we tell him off for something quite severely (ie. pinning him down, growling, trying to put him out the room, etc..) he tries to bite and really badly hurt my partner the other day.

The final problem is to do with recall. We have been to classes and of course he does what he's supposed to do then in a controlled environment but out for a walk OFF LEAD he will bolt (at sight of other dogs/children) and no amount of calling will get him to come back. He pretends he can't hear but we know he can. Once he has bolted he knows he's in trouble and then definitely won't come back. I spent 20 minutes the other day trying to get him back from playing (over zealously again!) with another dog and there was no way he was coming back. I always have treats with me but he's not in the least interested. We also have tried whistles but he goes deaf to those as well. We have tried long leads/lines, they all work when he is attached but he is not daft he knows when he's not on a lead he can get away and there's nothing we can do about it.

Any ideas?

10 months or thereabouts is a typical age for the dog to hit adolescence. And we all know what teenagers are like - surging hormones, angst, tantrums, staying out all hours etc! Dogs seem to be exactly the same!

I've always been reassured by the fact that, if they were well behaved before they hit this stage, they will be well behaved when they come out the other side. It's just the in-between bit that's hellish!

When he does eventually come back to you, have you ever scolded/punished him? Although you probably feel like thumping him, all it will do is teach him that, when he comes back to you, he's going to get punished! So grit your teeth, smile sweetly, and praise him!

It's easy to say, and difficult to do, but please don't call and call him. The more often he gets away with ignoring you, the more he'll feel confident and do it again. If you don't feel he's going to come when you call, don't call him (unless he's in danger of being run over, etc). At the moment you're not the best thing in his life (all teenagers like to be out with their mates rather than be at home with the "old folks".) and the next thing to do is to make yourself more interesting to him than anything else.

I'm sure others will have ideas on how to do this.

I agree 10 months is a fun time for owners and manu adolescent dogs will and do get given to rescue around about this time.

The best advice i can give really is to have a chat with the trainer to tackle specific problems, and to keep at it - my dog has gone through monster phases but comes out well the other side, due I feel to training a little every day.

If things go wrong, have a cuppa - most important for dog training! - and maybe go back just a little to more basic training.

Training does need to be done on a very regular basis and several times a week to reap the best results. I walk my dog every day, but train probably for half the walk. I love it so much it is no hardship.

Re the jumpoing up, you can actually invite the dog to jump up by begin excited and use a silly voice, but turn away when it does, and reward with praise and a liver treat with 4 paws on the ground. Do it say, 10 -15 times to start, and twice a day at least for maybe a week and there should be progress. Then progesss to visitors doing this, etc. and the message starts to sink in. I hope you see what i mean, I am not alwasyconvinced training descriptoins come across well via email :)

If you get very concerned, and feel you have had enough and just cannot cope any more, do try a reputable behavourist if the trainerhasn't helped as much as you would like. You will get back up and support from them.

Anyway good luck

Lindsay

Many thanks for your advice on my border collie problem. Very sound advice. I think you are right about not calling him when he is not returning. I shall start that right away. Normally when we do get him back we tell him he's a "bad boy", etc but don't do anything more.

He has actually got better with the jumping up, I've been spraying him with a bit of water when he does it and it's working a treat. He is hardly jumping up at all when people come to the door now.

Thanks for everyone's advice on my '10 month old' problem. It's very good to hear that it's a difficult time for most dogs. We shall persevere and hopefully he will come out of it alright. We certainly couldn't be without him now.