Ever since we have had our 2 year old Border Collie "Boots" castrated his behaviour has changed. For example when any of my family or friends get ready to leave our house he barks continuously at them whilst trying to nip their feet, he also jumps up at them sometimes knocking them off their feet. He never does this to me, i assume he knows im the boss. Whenever they go out of the house i make him sit and stay but i can see that he still wants to bark and nip them. But im not always there to do this. Any ideas?

Jenna and Co.

I think the castrating him and this behavior happened simutaneously, so you assumed it had something to do with the castration. That is highly unlikely IMO. Since a Border Collie is a herding dog and has very strong instincts to keep everyone together, he is getting upset when everyone is spreading out, thus the nipping and acting out. He may not have shown this previously simply because he was younger and it hadn't developed yet. I've seen it a hundred times with this type of dog. My GSD did not nip, but wanted to keep everyone grouped if the family was on a walk and started spreading out and he'd run back and forth shouldering everyone so they'd get more grouped. He herded our piglets when they got loose one time and wasn't ever taught anything about herding. He just didn't like that they were unsafe, spread out and he shouldered them together, making it easier for us to catch them.

Even my Doberman shows this instinct to an extent. My son's friend had a Heeler who chased my horses around and nipped at their hocks, much to my disturbance and then I told him he can't bring his dog around anymore or a horse might kill him in once swift kick.

Anyhow.....this instinct is strong and the nipping is part of the job of herding with this breed of dog. I guess you'll just have to try and give him an appropriate outlet so he can do this job, but not on your guests. Give him an hour of some exercise and maybe read up on BCs where some herding training could be implimented. These working breeds NEED a job to do. LOL.

Carrie

I agree 100% with Carrie on this. I would say he is displaying typical collie behaviour, which he would be displaying whether or not he had been castrated. Is he from 'show collie' or 'working collie' lines? How much exercise, both mental and physical, does he get?

Thankyou for the reply's. We have always had Collies, which were from working lines who never showed this type of behaviour, (suppose we were really lucky) Comparing Boots to our other Collies we have owned i would say he is more to show lines, more stocky and chunky, Can't be 100% sure what lines he is as he has no pedigree papers.

As for physical and mental exercise, he gets plenty. Two long walks a day, and i have recently took up jogging so he also comes along too, which i have introduced gradually for him.
As for mentally, i work on his obedience whilst out on walks also at home. He also has lots of toys and treat balls that keep him busy.

Will do some research into this on the herding side, my college is on a farm where we have a trained (herding) B. Collie so maybe they could help with the training.

Thanks.

Jenna and Co.