Hi everyone, I'm happy to have found this site! I hope it's okay to talk about Border Collie crosses.
I have a 1.5 year old female Border Collie/Aussie cross named Jet. We have had her for about 4 months now, her previous owner wasn't able to keep her and we adopted her from them. She is a wonderful, smart girl. Very submissive and sensitive to any reprimands. I have taken her to basic obedience and she is very good with come, sit, down and leave it...EXCEPT when my 10 yo twin boys come running thru the house and she goes into full herding mode. She jumps at them and does air bites clacking her teeth near them. She never bites just does this air jump and snap. If we say no firmly, she seems to get very upset and cowers, but then leaps back up and gets even more jumpy. I have found that redirecting her as soon as I see her start to think about going after them helps..."where's your bone, or lets get a snack" but I need some ideas on some better solutions. We also have horses and she really goes after them as well, she is very good at coming back to me when I say "leave it" or "no ponies" but as soon as she comes to me she turns around and goes after them again. Any suggestions?
Thanks everyone, I will definitely use your advice and have the boys work on their behavior as well. The Behavior Unleashed book sounds like a must read. Thank you! I will post of our progress. I will say that Jet did very well this morning when I let the horses out after a big rain and they all started rolling. Jet crouched outside the fence and I gave the cue I'm using "No ponies"...she stayed right where she was and just watched She got big praise after that one!