Hi All

Would be grateful for some advice. I have a 16 week old male Border Collie who is driving my patience towards insanity. He is a lovely dog but has now started to become slighty aggressive towards me when, believe it or not, I'm clearing up his toilet. Plus he will also occassionlly growl at me when I try to open his mouth for examination. On the other side of the coin, he has also become over-attached and is always trying to seek my attention whether by becoming destructive or crying out in distress. He hardly sleeps, even when he is obviously tired, and is usually on the go for 6-7 hours before he will rest for around half and hour. Then its up and off he goes again. His first weeks in this world were fraught with severe illness, which I nursed him through, but he has subsequently grown up very, very quickly. That is, he had his full adult coat at 10 weeks and completed teething at 12 weeks. Its almost as if he became a full grown dog overnight but without the necessary and obvious training required for a growing puppy. HELP!!! 

I'm sorry to hear about your puppy. I'm afraid i can't help with your specific problems, but i just wanted to say that i have a 2 year old border collie and it is very rare for her to sleep at all during the day. Sometimes she will be playing ball until she looks absolutely exhausted, she'll lay on the floor, ball still in mouth trying to keep her eyes open, but she won't give in, she gets up and starts whining for us to play again, which gets worse if we ignore her. If you take her for a long walk, she might nap for 5 minutes afterwards but she is soon ready to go again. Welcome to the mad world of the border collie. I am hoping she will calm down soon, but it doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon!!

Hello
Welcome to the forum

I to have 2 8 month old Border Collies, but I have to say I never had the issue's that you are having, I take mine for walks twice a day and they sleep for about an hour when we come back. 16 weeks is very young so don't worry he will be ok. The aggressive needs looking at, there will be someone who can advise you on this though.

Even though they are really good we are having issues with one of them so rest assured there are other people in the same boat.  Lucy and Megs owner knows about the issues I'm having with one of mine!!!!

Lots of people can help so don't worry.

Another thing that helps my 2 are dog chew bones, they don't normally last long but they are quiet whilst they do have the,!! ha-ha

Hope that helps

Jo

I have several border collies some of whom were becoming 'aggressive' towards their owners before I took them on - so here are my thoughts.  First of all don't clear up his toilet in his presence if it causes a problem.  If opening his mouth for examination is causing him distress then stop doing it for now and teach  him to accept this by a gradual process.  I would feed him a treat with one hand, whilst placing the other hand very gently over his muzzle so that it was between my thumb and first finger for just a second and build slowly from there.  The attention seeking and over attachment are probably a consequence of the severe illness that you nursed him through.  Try to only give attention when he is being good!!  Border collies need lots and lots of mental stimulation and are constantly outwitting their owners.  Try clicker training.  Teach him to retrieve.  Make play constructive.  Stay positive.  Don't get cross.  I have a collie who was going to be pts at 7 months for being aggressive but he was just defending himself.  All of my rescues were being nagged, told off and punished by their previous owners which is why they became problematic and subsequently unwanted.  I'm not suggesting that is what you are doing - just warning you not to.

Sally

hi, I assume this is the pup from the pet shop as in your previous post.  This being the case his upbringing and breeding would have been less than ideal and both of you have had a lot of problems to deal with in a few short weeks.

I think the first thing that you need to address is his relience on you in everyday situations, this is very important as he is getting stressed out about it.

If he has the run of the house then this needs restricting.  Get a child gate and restrict him to one room, usually the kitchen is the easiest.  By using a child gate you will stop his freedom unlike closing a door on him, he will still be aware of you around and find it less stressful.  If you are around all the time, make sure you go out and leave him for short periods, don't make a fuss about going, just go and when you come in don't fuss him. The only interaction he should have from you during this time is on your terms.  Call him to you for short training sessions, just sits and downs, shake a paw anything like that, during these times you can praise him when he gets it right.

This should also give him time to chill out and sleep, it is the stress he is feeling making him unable to sleep and relax at present.  The other issues can be addressed after he has got used to this, in the meantime, don't put yourself in a position where they arise ie put him away when you clear up after him.

Hope this helps, keep us posted.

Sandra

Working collies are bred to work ALL DAY so it's not very surprising that he has the ability to keep on going like the Duracell bunny.  However, it may be that diet is also playing a part - what is he fed on?

Thanks guys for the excellent advice. It does seem that my initial problems are a common trait within the breed. Especially with the love affair he has with his tennis ball. Yep, he can go for hours chasing it and even though he is plainly exhausted, he refuses to fall asleep. I think what has surprised me most by far is the intelligence of this Border Collie. Although he was very, very ill when I first got him, within 11 weeks, and with very little training, Strider had already learnt to sit, stay, give me his paw, retrieve his ball, find items I had hid and so on. In fact, I only have to teach him something twice and he's got it immediately. Outsmarts any other animal I have come across. Hopefully, will commence puppy classes soon, which I Know he is going to enjoy. Will keep you all posted with progress. Many thanks.

Lorraine

Lorraine, please don't let him go for hours chasing ball at this age, you can do immense damage to his bones.  This type of excercise will only wind him up further, you would  be much better doing 10 minutes of training every couple of hours and stimulate his mind, I assure you this will make him far more tired then hours of ball throwing. 

He shouldn't have this type of excercise until he is at least a year old, even then restricted to short sessions until 18 months.

Please stop now, concentrate on his training.  I really would recommend you buy the book 'Understanding the Border Collie' by Carol Price, you can get it on Amazon.  This will give you an insight to why you are having these problems and how to overcome them.

Sandra

Thanks for the advice Sandra. The problem is we never started with the tennis ball in the first instance. It was HIM. He found the ball and started to paw it and then chase it himself. Now he's addicted to the thing!!! I try to prevent the problem by removing the ball at times. Do not get me wrong, I would never dream of throwing a ball for hours constantly. Apart from it being exceptionally boring for the both of us, I haven't got the time!!! I'm hoping to commence clicker training classes next week whereby I can get some training advice for him.

best
Lorraine

Hi Strider,
Can't add to the advice, just to say I had a BC who was ball obsessed - failing a ball, a stone, half a brick, sticks - anything!!!! Follow tha above advice & try to keep his mind occupied.
Just wondered - are you sure he's only 16 wks? Very strange to get all his adult teeth at 12 weeks, especially after a bad start.