jami74

Be aware that if you start with a puppy, the daily routine changes a lot depending on age. I had done a lot of research but had sort of expected to have my adult dog daily routine by the time he was about six months old. By that I mean I imagined that we'd be doing nice lead walking round the block once or twice a day, long hikes and runs, sitting outside cafes and watching the world go by etc within a few months of having our puppy but even at ten months old we are a long way from that. Our daily routine was very different at 3 months compared to now at ten months, and I am expecting it to be different again when he is 2 years plus. So if you are planning to get a puppy then rather than researching how much exercise an adult border collie needs or can tolerate, spend lots of time reading through the threads to see the challenges that people face with their younger dogs or rescue dogs. I hadn't realised before quite how many hours of training had gone into those calm looking border collies that trot nicely off lead by their owners side ignoring traffic and sleep peacefully by their owners feet at cafes and pubs. I believe that I will one day have a dog like that, but hadn't imagined that it would take a couple of years to get there.

Yes we do hiding things too. Sometimes if our boy is pushing to pay fetch with the ball I make him wait and hide it and then release him to find it, just adds a different spin on it. Unfortunately our boy destroys balls now, otherwise I'd hide balls all over the house to find. I've started getting our boy moving stuff. As he has a knack for finding socks I now put a pile of socks on the floor and get him to take through and put them into the washing machine one by one. Or I'll tip all of his toys out and get him to pick them up and put them away. At the moment he needs input from me for every item but I'm hoping one day he'll be able to do the washing and tidying up all by himself . He honestly often just needs a job and if I don't give him one he's a pain in the backside.

Our boy also jumps in excitement when I get home. He seems to be able to sit for a short time for a nice greeting but if the greeting goes on for more than a minute he starts jumping. He can be the same when greeting other people so we try to keep greetings really short and try to move on before he goes over the top. If you're okay about using treats for training then dropping the treats on the floor, or even throwing them slightly away from you will help him to keeps his feet on the floor. Although if you think the aggression is around food and worry that it might make him worse maybe there's a favourite toy instead. If he likes playing ball maybe when you could get home you do a quick sit, stroke and then throw/roll the ball before he has chance to jump, again that will help keep his feet on the floor rather than jumping at you. I also have a Kong or chew ready for when I get home so after we've had our quick hello I can give him something to keep him busy and calm while I get changed etc.

I've been given similar hand-outs at our puppy classes, suggestions such as Kongs and snuffle mats and using part of their daily food rations as training treats. I don't think that article is suggesting that everyone stops using a food bowl for their dog. Probably wouldn't be appropriate for older dogs who are content with their usual routine or working dogs, I expect the article is used as a hand-out for people looking for new ideas. The danger comes I suppose when people feel they have to rigidly follow the most recent thing they've heard/read. Or get offended because the information doesn't apply to them. I can't remember how old your puppy is, I've got a feeling he's younger than mine. I certainly noticed that bonding and aiming to please was something that developed over time rather than a quick instant thing. Our boy was certainly far too self obsessed to care about what anyone else wanted when he was younger

I don't have any helpful advice really other than to say I remember having excellent days and horrific days at about that age, he's ten months now and the days have certainly levelled out. I remember one day being on top of the world thinking I must have done everything right and been really lucky to get such a clever perfect dog, and the next thinking I'd made a big mistake thinking I could cope with a border collie. Beautiful pup! And lovely view.

It sounds like he was never taught appropriate behaviour as a smaller puppy. Hopefully with the right sort of help and advice you'll be able to work through it. To start with though, could you shut him in a different room when you are preparing any sort of food? Our boy would try and jump up on the counter if I'm preparing Kongs or his food but I ask him to lay on the mat before I start and toss him the odd treat for staying there. In the beginning he needed lots of sending back to the mat and lots of treats to keep him there, now he just knows to go and wait on the mat.

You keep talking about how submissive Tama is with your boyfriend as though it's a good thing. Why would you want to be dominant over your (dog) partner and companion? You sound really insecure, are you worried that your boyfriend is going to ruin this special thing you have? I am sure Tama loves you very much and feels safe and secure with you, but when someone else walks in who is only there for short periods of time they are going to be interesting and exciting, and if he's been harsh in the past maybe Tama feels he has to work hard to keep this person happy by being submissive and doing whatever it takes to avoid the reprimands.

Does chewing help? Our dog settles when having a good chew and I've just realised that he'll turn to chewing and trying to tear things apart when he's in a highly aroused state. To start with I saw it as him being 'naughty' when he started grabbing at his blanket in the car (usually through busier traffic) but I think he's actually trying to self-soothe. He has rubber chew toys and sometimes if he's finding it hard to settle I'll smear peanut butter on one, some of them have holes or bobbles so they take a bit of working at. He also has some soft toys which he'll shake and throw and try to rip apart (obviously supervised).

Our boy (now ten months) has been having his food out of Kongs since I discovered them at about 3 months. They're just stuffed with his normal food (kibble and a bit of canned food, sometimes topped with peanut butter) and frozen. As a younger puppy he wasn't very enthusiastic about eating but always loved the Kongs and they keep him busy for half an hour or so which is useful for us. He also has a wobble Kong which has a handful of biscuits in. He's not a very hungry dog and will rarely eat kibble out of his bowl but does play with the wobble Kong and eat from it every so often. And we use food treats when training, they're not rationed as he's not greedy and is going through a sleek stage. I've just started giving a meal out of his bowl, usually on days where he's done more running around and is more tired or looking thinner. I expect as an older dog he won't want to 'work' for his food from Kongs so much, or if he was out working sheep or hiking or doing agility all day then I'd expect to feed him from the bowl. But for a young active dog that does not have unlimited space it keeps him busy, satisfies his chewing needs and gets food inside him. It also seems to de-stress him if we've been for a particularly arousing outing.

Do you think you'll go on to have human babies with this man?

Our boy used to cry at the door when anyone left, whoever was at home would rush to distract him. Now he's a bit older if I leave early he takes himself to find someone and lies down on the floor next to their bed quietly until they wakes up. I think when he was younger he thought if someone left he was all alone, know he seems to know where we all are at any given time. I also always give him a good-bye biscuit, it seems to be just enough that he'll carry it to his bed to eat it rather than follow me to the door.

Do you think she's tugging because it's a fun game that she's trying to initiate with you rather than because she's being possessive about stuff? Mine loves tug as well, which means if he has something in his mouth that he's not meant to have and I try to take it he immediately leans back on it. I read somewhere that they can't let go if they are tugging so to get it back we need to avoid that tug stance, after that we stopped trying to take things from him and instead we ask him to give them to us. We started by giving him a command when we were paying fetch with a ball to put it in our hand instead of dropping it at our feet, obviously here the reward is that the ball gets thrown again. Then we used that command if he had something in his mouth we didn't want him to have. He does get rewarded well with if he gives me something I ask for. It is hard in the beginning to not say "Oh no what have you got, you naughty dog?" and try to snatch it back, instead you have to be happy and pleased and say in an excited voice "Ooh what have you got? [command for giving it to you]" and when she does, lots of praise/treat/playtime. We practiced a little bit with tea-towels, I 'accidently' drop it on the floor, he picks it up and puts it back into my hand, I praise him lots and we go get a treat. Sometimes he now brings things straight to me without being asked. Occasionally if I'm tired or busy I forget to ask him to give it to me and will go to grab it, if I do that he'll think the game is on. I think when someone tries to take something from you the default is to hold on to it tighter so I try to always remember to ask nicely for it back. We have one toy for tug. If he seems to be trying to get tuggy with something (trying to put something in my hand but not let it go) then I get the tug toy and we play with it for a bit. Nothing else is for tug. Our boy growls when playing sometimes but it doesn't feel threatening, I think there is a difference between being vocal when playing, and showing you threatening behaviour. If we touch his nose when playing tug he gives a little growl, we're trying to put a command to it but it hasn't quite worked yet. I haven't ever felt threatened though when he has something in his mouth and I'm trying to get it out, if I did that would be another matter. His tug growl is part of the game, we all get excited and growl and laugh together. If he had something I wanted and I thought he'd threaten me if I tried to take it from him then I would remove him from the thing (eg by calling him away and offering something else) rather than trying to take the thing from him. I read something ages ago about not taking a bone away from the dog but taking the dog away from the bone. Saying that, I regularly give him nice things then take them away after a few minutes to smear some peanut butter on it or add a bit of sausage or something before returning it.

Yes UK. Wasn't talking about rehoming sites, I was talking about websites that are free to advertise on like Gumtree, FreeAds, DogsAndPuppies. A quick search on Gum Tree today for England reveals a 6 month old border collie/kelpie needing a home due to owner having a bad back, 17 week old female as owner doesn't have time, 11 month old with behaviour issues due to town environment, a 14 week old as owner has 'bitten off more than I can chew" and a 5 month old due to a change in work commitments. To me they all sound like people who hadn't realised that Border Collie puppies need as much time and energy as they do. Yes exactly this, it depends on the owner. And probably their previous experience/current expectations/living arrangements (farm vs apartment. work from home/retired vs full time job. adult only household vs family with young kids). Disclaimer: I do not condone buying/selling dogs on free websites. I don't know why I look at them, our family is certainly very much complete for the time being. While I did find our puppy very hard work for the first couple of months that is not to say that I did not enjoy it. I have no regrets about inviting him into our home and I have not nor would I ever consider rehoming him, he is family. I posted my comments in the hope of reassuring the original poster that young puppies can seem almost impossible (like human babies or crazy toddlers) but that it does get better with time and is worth persevering with.

Oh goodness, I wish I could find something to keep our boy busy when no-one is available to play with him. Kongs are a mixture of kibble and canned food and then frozen. They rarely take as long as half an hour. He usually has two a day, now he's getting bigger and hungrier he also gets a small bowl meal as well. He's got a couple of toys which are rubbery or made of silicone that I'll smear peanut butter on for him to lick and chew when he's being busy and I want a few minutes. Big soft toys (a perk of having quite big children is having a cupboard full of once loved teddies), he loves dragging them around, giving them a good shake or licking and chewing them. Sometimes he has a quick hump too I did the rolling treats in a blanket that was posted in another thread. Excellent game but only takes him 2 minutes, so not really something to keep him busy. Saying that, he seems to be spending more time laying around and sleeping so maybe he is growing up and calming down.

I remember being a bit disappointed that our puppy couldn't/wouldn't do fetch at that age, and wouldn't really tolerate stroking and cuddling either. He certainly didn't want to be in the crate during the day, although slept there happily at night. He was like a spoilt houseguest and I began to understand why there were so many 10+ week old border collie puppies on free-ads needing new homes 'through no fault of their own' or 'change in personal circumstances'. It took a couple of months before it felt like he wanted to be a part of our family and probably another couple before he got good at fetch, tolerated being petted and started to want to please us. Try to be as tolerant and as respectful as you can to your puppy, her behaviour isn't personal and as she gets older she'll be a nicer dog if she trusts you. As for scent games. I tried hiding some nice smelly treats under a couple of plastic pots, but he just ran off with the pots. A couple of months on and he could have a good sniff and then remove the pot hiding the treat. One game that I did quite like was a recall game where I'd call our boy (and he'd come because he knew I had treats) but then throw the treat away so he could run to find it, then call him again.

Thanks for the article. Yes I have full control over the ball, it doesn't come out on every outing and when it does it's a short play and then goes away again. So the short answer is no, I cannot get our boy to be obsessed with walking nicely on the lead to the point of ignoring everything else. Nevermind. The last couple of days have felt like huge progress days. We seem to have a week or two where there's no improvement and I start worrying about things, and then suddenly big leaps of improvement.

Is the marking in inappropriate places something I should be expecting, or is it only some dogs that do it? Our boy has just started lifting his leg and yesterday was about to do a third pee in the space of a couple of minutes on our walk when I put an end to sniffing in the bushes and made him walk in more open space. I don't mind if he wants to run around and pee on everything when we are in the woods off lead, but I really don't want to stop every thirty seconds so he can pee on peoples gate posts and plants. And it's likely he'll receive a very loud verbal reprimand if he does it indoors.

@Jambuel our living environment is very different to yours but when I read your post I imagine that our boys default reactions would be very similar in the same circumstances. I know that's not very helpful to you but I find it reassuring to know our boy isn't the only dog who can't mooch around gently greeting strangers like long lost friends. Remote French countryside sounds like a lovely place to live. One thing we've been doing is practicing the behaviour we want when we see strangers, but with someone we know. Like you did with the client, hopefully he'll learn that client = lounge with relaxing music and something to chew. Maybe with time he'll even volunteer to go to the lounge when he hears a client coming.

Is your vets close enough that you could visit every so often? We make a point of popping in to ours every couple of weeks just to say hi and they are very encouraging of that. Our boy thinks it's the most fantastic thing ever going to the vets for a weigh and a treat. I'm using it as a very exciting place to practice a settle. I'm not sure if he'll feel quite the same way after he's been left there to have the snip So much this! Realising that sofa chewing was really a request for nap time rather than a need for more stimulation and attention our lives greatly improved.

Yes this has been our strategy too, although we still get caught by surprise sometimes or he's not always able to hold the down. I'm finding he definitely wants the 'work' and if I can't give him instruction quick enough he'll make his own work. He seems to be calming down and even when he does lunge and bark it's less enthusiastic, I'm suspecting that sometimes it is more of a self rewarding learnt behaviour ("Ooh a car and I'm not down yet, I'll get away with a quick back flip") because other times he can contain himself. I also find that consistent traffic is easier than occasional traffic, or a steady stream of people walking past is easier than a single person. Yes that is exactly how it is with the ball, I can't imagine that he'll be able to concentrate on anything else if he can see the ball in my hand. He will do tricks for a throw of the ball but couldn't manage a sequence. I have done lots of putting it in my pocket so he's used to it going away, we do a few minutes of something, then a couple of throws, then a few minutes of something else. We'll keep going with the treats.

We took the door off of the crate when our boy was about 4 or 5 months. It happened to be summer and quite hot and we found he slept better at night if he could get up and change location. He's always been an excellent sleeper at night and hasn't chewed, damaged or soiled but does tend to start in one place and finish in another. He's not even pinched food that has been accidentally left out. Using the crate as a training aid when he was being crazy as a puppy wasn't really possible because one of our family works shifts so sometimes daytime barking, whining or rattling a crate wasn't allowed. I did put him on the lead a few times which encouraged him to settle down if he was being crazy and got to the point where I could just get the lead and he'd calm himself. We are now using the crate in the car for traveling and he's happy to get in it and is settled inside. I'm glad that if circumstances ever dictate that he has to spend time in a crate it shouldn't be overly traumatic for him. I prefer not using it although I can see it would be useful, sometimes I have to be creative to think of solutions for issues that other people might use the crate for. We've had to make sure he can make good choices when we are not watching him and there is an element of trust. I believe in trust but it does carry an element of risk. If I ever got another puppy (which I won't!) I would invest in a large X pen though. Those first few months of removing cables from little jaws and redirecting furniture chewing was harder than it needed to be.

Our boy is nine months now Actually he might be ten Anyway, he is very high energy, a little bit reactive (traffic and people who come too close) and still rubbish on the lead (probably due to being reactive to everything, can do it perfectly at home). However he loves the ball and has such super focus on it that as soon as I get it out he ignores everything else. We have a park with a high fence next to a road and if I get the ball out we can do tricks and play fetch right near the fence/traffic and not notice it is there. Barky dogs can come right up to him and if he's looking at the ball it is like he can't see them. Other people and bikes cease to exist if he's looking at the ball. How can I use his ability to focus to get his attention off of things like traffic, people, bikes etc? I think he is too excited about the ball to be able to heel nicely while he can see it, but there are no treats that are more important to him than what else is going on in the environment. We are practicing lots with treats near distractions and he is getting better but we are still a long way from being able to go on an enjoyable street walk.

I've actually also been thinking about this! The more exercise or stimulation our boy gets the more restless he is at home afterwards. Yesterday I had him out for a couple of hours, not all running, quite a bit on lead but most of it in new places. I thought he'd come home happy and tired and give me a peaceful day but instead he was a pain for hours afterwards. Often when we come home he needs to be a bit crazy before settling down. I used to try and take him to lots of different places but I'm realising that if I want him relaxed he's best if we go somewhere he is very familiar with.

That sounds really scary for you both! Thankfully we've not had anything that bad. We've had dogs who have had a go at our boy and sometimes he'll have a go back, it tends to be very noisy with raised hackles and teeth on show but very little actual contact. I tend to keep moving away from the other dog and calling ours along and he comes as he can. If we see a dog coming towards us and our boy looks a bit uncomfortable then I take as wide a berth as we can so he doesn't have to greet them head on. Often he does greet and it's all nice, sometimes just a quick sniff and tail wag, sometimes some playful behaviour, other times he'll choose to ignore them and there's no interaction. I don't know why sometimes a dog takes a dislike to ours and comes at him aggressively. I try to be matter of fact about scary things. Saying that, we've not been in the situation that you have been. I like to hope if we were then I'd be matter of fact and encouraging (to get us away from the scene) and give the extra cuddles and attention once we were home. Did the owner apologise? Drag their dog away in shame?

Our boy used to suddenly start misbehaving on walks when he was younger and I put it down to tiredness. I remember him going for our legs/feet and snatching at the lead. He was quite a small puppy so I would pick him up and carry him home and he would seem happy to be in my arms. I didn't really know how to stop it once it started so I worked on trying to prevent it from starting.