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Rescued Border Collie acts very possesive and protective over me.


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Just curious if anyone else has similar problems, if it's a Border Collie thing or a rescue dog thing. My Border Collie was abandoned by her original owner, who moved and left her behind. She is virtually a perfect dog, except she doesn't seem to trust my husband. She will constantly watch him, if he moves toward me or touches me, she will whine and move closer to me. If I saw the word ouch, or we are goofing around she will start barking, throwing toys or various items at us, and has even gone as far once or twice, to nip him on the butt and try to pull him away. There was also an incident with my mother-in-law once. She tried to smack a fly on the recliner I was sitting in, clipped my leg a little, I jumped and touched, and my Border Collie immediately jumped up, laying sprawled out across me, growling at her, until I told her it was ok. Since she has done the same type of behavior with my mother-in-law, and my husband, I know it's not just a "guy thing". My husband gets very annoyed by this behavior, and it's a continuous argument between us. She is very attached to me, as I am to her, and she is so glued to me that if I move, she moves. It seems that lately my husband has become increasingly annoyed by a lot of her behaviors, and the fact that she has to always be close to me. Originally I teased him, that he was jealous of her. Sadly I'm almost starting to almost think that it may be true. Honestly I am more of a dog person then my husband. Growing up I always had a dog, that I took everywhere with me, so I guess maybe it just seems more normal to me. I'm just curious if anyone else has seen similar behaviors in their dog. I'm wondering if this super guarded behavior is due to her Border Collie nature, or the fact she had a rough start.

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It sounds like you might be inadvertently perpetuating the behavior, if your husband really isn't doing anything remotely threatening to set her off. I don't let my dogs resource guard me; my terrier mix has a bad habit of getting possessive of me on the couch when someone else approaches, but he gets summarily dumped on the floor or put in another room when he acts out.

 

In my mind, it's a matter of the dogs respecting all the people in the household unless there's a clear threat - this is partially a safety issue for when we have kids visiting. It also staves off some fear-based insecurity - I am not my dog's possession and I am not their security blanket.

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IMHO, it is not due to her border collie 'nature', but some of it may be due to her past experiences and some due to how you are handling the situation.

 

I am sure you will get good advice here. I am going to recommend the book "Love Has No Age Limit" by Patricia McConnell. You can purchase it from her website. I like it since it is a short and concise book that addresses the most often encountered problems in rescue dogs and suggests a good starting point for dealing with them.

 

Good Luck.

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Other than the flyswatter incident, I agree this sounds like resource guarding and that you should discourage the behavior. Resource guarding has a way of escalating and can turn ugly. At the very least, it is disrupting what should be a friendly relationship between your dog and your husband. I would be very annoyed if a dog in my household thought it had the right to growl at me and tell me where I could go (near you) and what I could do.

 

 

I try to teach my dogs that resource guarding will lose them exactly what they are trying to lay claim to. If my Lhasa growls at a dog while on my lap, he finds himself on the floor. A dog who thinks he gets all rights to a chair, is told to get off. If I am handing out treats and one of the dogs snarks at another, he gets no treats.

 

 

I would not let my dog think it was ok to growl at other people who live in my house or guests I invite in. I get to tell him who is ok and who isn't. If he doesn't agree, he can keep his distance but I expect him to be polite and follow my lead, not take charge and police human interactions.

 

 

You can also take a positive approach to discouraging resource guarding which is called Bar Open/Bar Closed. So the dog would get your attention or rewards (food, petting, praise, play) while the person or other animal is near by you and as soon as the person leaves, all attention from you stops. The dog may begin to associate good things with the person she wants to chase off. Right now she is being reinforced every time she growls or postures and your husband/MIL back off or move away.

 

 

You can search on these boards for resource guarding. There are a lot of threads with a lot of good advice. It is a common issue with dogs, not just among Border Collies.

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It can be hard to stop a dog resource guarding if you think of it as the dog doing something because it loves you. She's not so much protecting you as being that weird friend who will stop others hanging out with you to control your social life.

 

Even if it was absolutely protecting you- that would mean she is frightened, she thinks that normal people are dangerous and scary. Not strangers acting suspiciously, but people she knows and lives with. That is something that should be fixed for her own mental health.

 

I knew a border collie who did something like this and got a reputation for biting small children. It was never corrected and escalated to the point where the dog would out-and-out snarl at certain people who came into the room with its owner, and bite to the point of drawing blood when left unsupervised with others, and had to be kept outside. Not a good situation for anyone. It was a miracle the dog was never put down for it.

 

Having said that most of the dogs I've known who did it were untrained, insecure small dogs, or dogs who were kept with no rules and no social interaction with strangers.

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Hi your dog sounds so much like my Max. We got him in May from thr humane society. He came from a hoarder house with 11 other dogs. The owner died and for 6 weeks someone came and threw food on the floor before anything was done with the dogs. Max is a momma's boy. He follows me everywhere. We went to a trainer/behaviourist and she recommended having hubby feed him special treats, cooked chicken something quite yummy. It will help the dog build up trust. She also recommended hand feeding. Max is slowly coming around to my husband. It takes time and patience. Good luck.

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Definitely do not allow this to continue, or it may escalate as others have said. If the dog growls at another person in your home, she should be put out of the room immediately. I would do this very gently but also very firmly, taking her by the collar without scolding or any roughness at all, and simply walking her out of the room into, say, a bathroom, where she is isolated for 2 to 5 minutes. Then let her out again, once again without fanfare or comment. If you feel the need to make some sort of comment to the dog before taking her out of the room, I recomend a simple "uh-oh" spoken in a neutral tone of voice. Behave as if her having to leave the room is just a simple consequence of her growling, the way that gravity will cause something to fall to the ground, and not with an attitude of punishment. Since she is so attached to you, removing her from your presence should make an impact on her. Be 100% consistent with this, and you should see the behavior diminish and cease.

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Definitely do not allow this to continue, or it may escalate as others have said. If the dog growls at another person in your home, she should be put out of the room immediately. I would do this very gently but also very firmly, taking her by the collar without scolding or any roughness at all

If a dog is growling and intensely focused on another person/dog and you (or someone else) touch her neck while standing behind her, she may perceive this as a sign of aggression from the 'enemy',. It may in turn provoke her to move forward and attack the thing she is focused on. If you feel you must take her by the collar, then do it from the side, where she can see you and realise it is you. YMMV.

 

But then, I tend never to lead my dogs by grasping the collar ever since I had a rescue dog who would start screaming if her collar was touched ( she had been seriously abused before I had her).

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If a dog is growling and intensely focused on another person/dog and you (or someone else) touch her neck while standing behind her, she may perceive this as a sign of aggression from the 'enemy',. It may in turn provoke her to move forward and attack the thing she is focused on. If you feel you must take her by the collar, then do it from the side, where she can see you and realise it is you. YMMV.

 

But then, I tend never to lead my dogs by grasping the collar ever since I had a rescue dog who would start screaming if her collar was touched ( she had been seriously abused before I had her).

Good point.

I never take a dog by the collar from the back or the side, only from the front, moving slowly, so that the dog is sure of what is coming, and I am sure of the dog's reaction. I should have mentioned that in my post.

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