Can you help? In July we took on an 18 week old Border Collie x Springer Spaniel. He is normally a VERY friendly dog who will approach anybody and ask them to fuss him. However, he has given us cause for concern on a few occasions. At first he would constantly nip at me, whatever I was doing..but I put that down to puppyhood, and he has stopped. He has snapped at my 11 year old son o two occasions, not badly, more as a "warning". Both times have been at night when my son went up to say "Goodnight". Again, I put this down to the fact that he maybe did not like having someone in his face when he was dozing, and warned my son off doing this. He has growled at my husband and I when we have been trying to get him off when he has sneaked up onto the bed, and we dealt with this by making it clear that this was not acceptable...telling him firmly "NO", and giving him "time-out" in another room. The other two occasions that have caused the most concern are when he had snapped more aggessively at strangers. The first was when we first got him, I took him into the vet to buy a harness, and he snarled and snapped at the nurse who was helping me to adjust it to fit him. Now, he has done this again, we were getting a bigger collar and harness (he has grown a lot!!) and the staff in the pet shop had been making a huge fuss of him...and he lapped it up. Then, when they were helping to adjust the harness, he did the same thing and went for one of the staff. He did not draw blood, but the girl was very upset. She said she had never known a dog to do that and strongly advised that we re-home him somewhere well away from children. Our children are 13 and 11, but I do have neighbours and friends with young ones. We are now VERY worried that we may have a dog that could turn on and attack someone and do not know what to do. We have not had a dog before. We all love him to bits and want don't want to "abandon" him, but, obviously we are concerned. All we know of his history is that he was bought at around 8-10 weeks by a young lady who then re-homed him as she found she did not have time to give him the excercise he needs. Since then he has been with us. He did stay in a pets hotel for two weeks in the summer, where he really only spent nights as we took him out every day, and the staff there found him to be a lovely guest who never gave them any trouble...even when they put the harness on him!!! Have we got a "bad" dog that is a risk, or can we overcome this and have the loving pet that he is 99.9 % of the time?

I am not able to help with your problem but am very interested to hear its a border collie cross I have a border collie who is of a similar temprement she is wonderfull with my kids when she is awake but hates to be disturbed when she is asleep or going off (I hate it too so maybe there not doing anything wrong) I know my dog also hates being confined by other people she got very stressed when we had her harness fitted by a woman in a shop she held her down and the dog paniced she is now 18 months old and has taken a dislike to all strangers and hates other dogs I hope you dont get the same problems. Collies are working dogs and some of there problems come from the fact they need mental stimulation as well as physical I hope you sort this out and I will be watching your replys in the hope I will gain some advice from this

I would find yourself a very good dog psychologist/bahaviourist and get some training lessons sorted. My boy used to be grumpy, especially at night times, after contacting a behaviourist/psychologist and a few home visits we managed to sort it. Unfortunately the problem came back very suddenly and resulted in his being PTS.
It sounds like a dominance problem, he doesn't seem to have much respect for you, or your family and thinks he is top dog. Stop it now! Castreation can help, if his hormones are removed he may improve, it takes up to 6 months to kick in tho.
Get help as soon as possible, the earlier you start the sooner he will behave for you. You can expect to pay between £15 and £40 an hour for a consultation, it can work out to be very expencive but worth every penny.
As already mentioned, collies are working dogs. They are better suited to running round a farm all day to being curled up by the fire. I have met a few crosses, all of them have a naughty streak and a handful are very very nasty. The nasty ones, despite help, are still biting.
Its a case of perciverance, patience and love i'm afraid. Time will tell!!!!
I hope you manage to solve your problem
Rgds
Caz xxx

Any agressive issue should first be checked out by a vet to eliminate a health reason - it's rare for a dog to feel sufficiently strongly that it has to attack an animal which is is much larger than itself and often pain or physical problem is the cause.......... Once the vet has ruled out health issues then he should be able to refer you to a local behaviourist (preferably registered with the UKRCB or the APBC or APDT with an interest in behaviour issues........)