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ShellyF

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  1. Thank you everyone. I did ask our vet. They think maybe very mild seizure and have said at this stage just to monitor the situation. And we will keep a close eye for sure. Our little guy definitely isn’t quite a normal border collie as previous posts have documented so maybe he has something going on. He is a sweetheart though and very much loved ❤️
  2. A couple of months ago our then 20 month old was resting quietly beside me while I was at my desk when he suddenly got up and went and stared at the door. I thought he wanted to go out but he just stood and stared at the open doorway and didn’t respond to me. After a few minutes he lay down and although made brief eye contact he seemed distant. He lay there staring for many more minutes. The situation didn’t repeat so I thought nothing more of it and thought perhaps he had just felt unwell for a moment. This morning he came in from a walk with my husband around the yard during which he had been his usual frisky self and peed and pooped as normal. Once inside his routine is to wait to have his harness off and then rush upstairs to look out the window. Instead he went and stared at the wall facing away from my husband and again didn’t respond to anything. After a few minutes he lay down, still looking away and just staring. After a while my husband was able to coax him out of it and he rushed upstairs as normal. Thoughts? Is he trying to tell us something or is this indicative of anything?
  3. Ours has not been the same after neutering. The vet is at a loss to know why. Could be border collie collapse. Our vet doesn’t think so. All other possibilities eliminated. Vet says some dogs just don’t know what to do without their testosterone. We have buttoned it down with our guy to knowing that all the bad behaviour comes with too much exercise and too much stimulation and this is after months and months of consulting and observations But here’s the good news. Having accepted that we have a 15 minute dog (that’s the most he can cope with) we have settled down to life. He now only spends our supper time (1.5 hours) in his crate plus from 9pm to 9am (he’s been the driver of that). We entertain him with things he can watch - like watching the bird feeder from the deck or looking out the window from ‘his chair’ or rides in the car to a beech for a small walk and paddle. We also give him a mellow (sometimes two) a day. It’s a very low dose of valerian but it seems to take the edge off for him being frustrated. He’s nearly 17 months now and coping sooo much better with leash biting and settling. Alternative commands are the best in those situations and something that allows him to still ‘move forward’ like ‘go get a tog’ Or ‘what’s that over there’ and then we can gradually calm him down. Good luck!
  4. Mr Merlin loves the water and when he’s excited he warbles like a bird haha! you can ‘just’ hear a warble in this short video. Any other collie warblers out there? B85F11DC-DF4E-4EDA-A61D-F4BD8A8072D1.MOV
  5. At six months this would have been out guy until we recognised that he was acting out because he was tired. I wouldn’t hesitate to give him time outs in the crate so he can rest. Our 15 month old is down to a couple of hours during the day and 12 hours overnight but at six months our vet said he would be resting in his crate more than he should be out! Spend quality time when he’s out - little training sessions, a small walk and run and play, food etc then back for a rest. Your pup will soon settle into your family routine and you’ll feel more relaxed. Also, we found that at 9/10 months the baseboards stopped being of interest. More sofas. The more we said ‘off’ the more of a game it became. So we just calmly put him in his crate when he got like that. Sometimes it was (and still can be) like wrestling a monster into the crate when he’s over tired but we just say ‘oh dear - clearly nap time’ haha! He doesn’t wine in his crate anymore but when he did we just busied ourselves nearby and chatted or put the radio on but ignored him. He stopped soon enough It will work itself out. Remember this is your home and it’s not cruel that he learns boundaries which will be his crate while he learns to cope with ratty tiredness. Good luck!
  6. For followers of Merlin you’ll know he can’t do too much physically or mentally (probs BCC) so imagine my delight when I took a chance and walked him down to the community mail box - 10 mins each way. On reflection we had a lovely normal walk! Just me and my pups walking pretty loose leashed, occasionally lying down for passing cars but able to now ignore some in favour of smelly ditch weeds lol! He’s really really exhausted now and that will be him for the day except for a yard walk and a wee game but for a short while it felt like normality
  7. Of all the issues we have - and we have our fair share lol - from a pup Mr Merlin had to come and sit by me for a brush before breakfast. It was more of a token brushing when he was little and of course a huge game but now he’s 15 months he not only happily sits while I brush him but if I put his breakfast down he won’t eat it but comes to me for a brush before he’ll go near his food. Despite all of that he’s always wriggly when I get near his tail so although I have the back of his ears well under control he sometimes gets mats in his trousers haha!
  8. Lol! Washed poop isn’t fun! i’ve stopped taking treats now because for the times I need it they have zero impact - no matter how high value they are! But the rags in my pocket work provided I keep getting new ones. I’ve started to leave them stuffed in smelly boots as this increases their value hahaha!
  9. Funny! We have definitely seen improvement with a different lead too. We ended up getting the cheap and cheerful IKEA ones - the wider/thicker of the two. They are strong but lightweight and a good length to not tangle around feet. I think he finds life less irritating with it too. We also stopped carrying poop bags on the leash clips because they were a distraction. Back to stuffing pockets with loose bags!
  10. Hey that sounds like great progress! Funny you mention laundry. I got Merlin to sit while I said ‘put it in the box’ and proceeded to put an old cloth in the laundry hamper. I did this a few times and then got him to do it. He did and I made a big fuss. He got very excited then and it was hard to repeat. I left it until the next day and repeated and so on. So i’ll keep trying that. We do the ‘find’ game. He really enjoys it with the first toy we ever taught him to find haha! 10 mins of these sessions is about all he can cope with before he gets ratty. At the moment we are getting out in the boat about every few days. When we go he gets to swim (although he tends to dig in the water and make silly noises ???) for a bit and then a couple of hours ‘watching’. He keeps his eyes peeled for other boats and gulls. Back on the dock he sits on the boat and watches the world go by. He’s tied on so that if people come by and pet him he can’t quite lunge to lick them so he’s getting good at just standing there and wagging his tail while they pet and he loves it. No guarding or stress. After a day like this he can barely cope with anything much for a couple of days other than being at home with his ten minute walks on our property, a bit of playing and the odd game. We rarely walk him on the road but when we do we keep it short and he’s getting less reactive. He’s getting much less leash bitey but when we come back in from a walk it’s all he wants to do. We tried saying no and sit and he responds immediately by stopping and sitting and waiting patiently for a command but then goes for the leash again. We finally figured that it’s as if once inside, even after just ten minutes outside, he just can’t switch off the adrenaline immediately and he gets loopy for five mins so now we have a selection of old rags by the door. Once he sits and waits he gets rewarded with an old rag. He tosses that around for a bit and happily gives it up after a while. He’s still pretty much our 15 minute Merlin lol!
  11. My words of encouragement are that we are our own worst enemy and for me it’s been having the courage to insist that people don’t pet him until I say he is ready. Most people ignore me and so I have to get inbetween them and Merlin to make my point My good friend has followed my instructions consistently since he was a pup. She stands with her arms folded and we tell Merlin to go to his bed. He doesn’t at first but instead of repeating ourselves we all stand calmly until he does. Then he gets petted and then he gets excited and jumps up so we rinse and repeat. This week when my friend went to pet him in his bed (after all the waiting patiently for him to go there) he stayed and calmly let her stroke him without behaving like a goof ball. Well it’s taken nearly 14 months but we all agree it’s progress haha!
  12. He self settles if we manage things. Take this evening. He hasn’t done a huge amount today but I was out all morning and even though he’s not left alone he is my boy so he was restless while I was out. He was a complete rat bag this afternoon and I had to enforce a little crate rest. This evening after his suppertime nap he was pacing and not settling so I tied him up just out the front to watch the world go by and let him dig under his favourite tree. Now he is back inside after just an hour and has settled - also because I am sewing in another room. It’s like he knows he can go off duty. When two of us are sitting around trying to have a coffee - that’s when he become a tyrant lol!
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