Mandy1961

We have had the same problem with our boy who is now 15 months. The first few months went really well, apart from never sleeping beyond 5.30 am, but we got used to that. We live on a corner so get a lot of people, dogs, cats and foxes going past at night. This unsettles him and we have quite a few dogs who are let out after 10 pm who bark and set off all the other dogs. This causes ours to get anxious and won’t settle. We went through this stage for about 2 months, every night he would wake up and low bark continuously. There are 4 of us here, so we took it in turns to go down and settle him. Although this worked, he started waking earlier and earlier each morning. Everyone told us just let him sleep with you, he will sleep longer, We tried this, but he isn’t used to sleeping on a bed so slept on the floor for a couple of nights. He would then bark and scratch at the door to go downstairs on his own. Which is where we are now, he gets free reign of the lounge and hallway, not the kitchen. Where he sleeps I don’t know, I’d like to think he goes in his crate with the door unlocked. I am pleased with this as I really didn’t want him in my bedroom. Love him to bits, but I do like a little me time on my own.

She certainly is beautiful. Wouldn’t be a border collie if she wasn’t a little naughty occasionally.

I could have written this 8 months ago. But I hope like ours it gets better. I am at home with my boy each day and like you, didn’t know what to do with him. We live in a house with 4 adults and this can be challenging with everyone being on the same page with regards to discipline, training and altogether just looking after him. My boy is now 14 months old and he is so much more calm with me in the day, in fact he mostly sleeps. But come weekends when my 2 adult sons and husband are home, he just cannot seem to relax. 

I personally found that at 10 months old, our energetic, crazy pup turned into a calm, quiet dog. Firstly I changed his food from a commercially made puppy to to a freshly made food. I cannot say this is the reason, but it seems to coincide with the changeover. He is now 13 months old and apart from waking up earlier and earlier each day, (3.45 am today,); he is very chilled in the day. He gets 3 good different walks each day, a couple of 10 minutes play with ball, tug or fetch. Plus I do regular sit, down, stand and wait. He is still a bit wild when my 2 adult sons come in from work in the evening, as he sees them as playtime.

We resorted to time outs in another room or conservatory just for a few minutes. We then played ball with ourselves, or if it was just me at home, I would throw the ball in the air and catch it. My boy didn’t like missing out playing ball so got the message soon that biting meant no ball. I also sprayed deodorant on my hands and ankles, this helped as he didn’t like the smell. He is 1 year old now, and is so much better.

So glad it is all going well with you and your puppy.

My boy is 11 months old. Our day goes like this.

He sleeps in his crate, wakes up at 4.30 am and barks. I shout down go to sleep, whereby we get another 1/2 hour before he really gets going and is wide awake. Husband gets up and takes him out at 5.30 for 45 minutes to our local dog park (they are the only ones there at that time).

6.30 till 8.30 he plays, runs around and family play with him. Adult sons and husband go to work.

8.30 till 11.30 he will sleep on and off, follow me around and play and if I go out, he will willingly go in his crate as he will sleep there.

11.30/ noon,  we go for a 1 hour walk.

2 pm to 4 pm, he will sleep on and off depending on whether I am at home, or in crate if I go out.

From 4.30 onwards, sons and husband come home, so more play, training, dinner and then final walk at 7.30 for 45 minutes.

Bed in crate at 10 pm.

He has, over the last month or so, been a lot more chilled and will happily stay on his own downstairs,  whilst before this, we would have to be in the same room as him. He does still require a lot of attention, especially in the evenings, but he has gotten used to there being at least 2 people with him.

I also recorded my puppy when I first left him. I walked him first, put him in crate, covered with blanket and put classical music on the radio. He would cry and bark at first, then would settle down and sleep, but occasionally he barked virtually the whole time. I was gone at most an hour. I did this most days and he soon got used to it, going in happily with a couple of biscuits. I then increased the time he was left. He now he goes into the crate just to sleep in the day. He is 11 months old now.

No nothing abnormal here. Our boy now Harry 11 months is like someone flicked a switch in the evening. He has only recently been sleeping well in the day, but unfortunately he only sleeps from 10 pm to 4.30/5 am. The reasoning behind the 5 minutes exercise per month is that their joints are not fully grown until they are adults, so you have to be careful not to do too much jumping and no stairs.

I avoid petting other dogs and just let Harry and the other dogs play together.

My boy at 9 months was 33 lbs and all legs and skinny. He gets 500 grams of food a day, plus a few treats and biscuits. I go by you should only be able to feel the first 2 ribs from the bottom. He also had a growth spurt at 10 months as he certainly was heavier. His brother and sister from the same litter are far heavier than my puppy. They are on similar amounts of food at 11 months old.

3 cups is 375 grams, so you could feed more, I mix wet food with dry food, which is cheaper.

I would definitely give him time to sniff around first before settling down.

I work from home and my 11 month old seems to know to leave me alone when I am at my computer, but I think I would have trouble outside as he thinks this is a place for play.

Have a look online at Outback Dog Training Group, they have an excellent range of videos, there is one on teaching a dog to be calm. Maybe of use to you.

My 10 month old jumped up at me and bit me in the face. I had cuts and a black eye. What was I doing, changing the beds, he came out of nowhere. I immediately told him off, put him in time out and virtually ignored him the rest of the day. He hasn’t done it since and I now change beds when he is out walking with my husband. I did work on hand feeding, by giving him a handful of his food each meal for a while, as I think he has a problem with resource guarding as he doesn’t like us picking up things off the floor inside or out, he will jump up and air bite. This has helped with the issues I have with mine.

I also came across Outback Dog Training Group online, they just about cover anything. Take a look there, I’m sure there will be something that will help.

I have only had the one border collie puppy and yes he was hard work at first. Just like a baby, you have to watch them all the time. We got ours in the hot summer last year so we were out in the garden a lot, where he destroyed most of our plants. He had lots of chewing toys, which he liked but was obsessed with my slippers, so I don’t wear them anymore. He was happy to go in his crate at night, where he slept through to 4 each morning and was potty trained pretty quick.  Border Collies do need exercising, but not too much until they are fully grown. 5 minutes for each month, and no jumping and twisting, or stairs until their joints are fully formed.

I also felt at first that we had taken on a massive commitment, but our pup is now 11 months old, loves his walks and playing ball, but he also knows when to chill and relax. He is happy to go in his crate when I go out.

my children are adult sons who play with him when they come home from work and your children will be able to play and teach games with your girl, just try and keep play to short spells so she won’t get too wound up.

I have never used the crate for punishment, once when he misbehaved, I told him to go in his crate, he showed me his teeth. He didn’t bite me and was sorry and all over me the next moment. So now the crate is only for sleeping in and when we go out. When ours was about 6 months he did try it on when we said bedtime, he would go on the sofa or under the table. He is now 11 months old and now goes in happily both at night and in the day. I also have the same problem regarding taking anything from his mouth, or picking up anything off the floor, he will snap at me. I was recommended to try hand feeding him as it was resource guarding. I didn’t think this would do anything, but it has helped. I sit down to his level, hand feed him a handful of his food each meal.

6 hours ago, jami74 said:

Thank-you for the reassurances, I'll be extra careful about if/where we let him off and aim for longer walks on a long line so he can wander and sniff but not run off or ignore us.

He's just started a new thing. He likes to take his Kong outside to eat for a little while and then he'll bring it with him and come back inside. I don't mind that at all, but now he asks to come back inside and when I open the door he runs off down the garden. So I close the door and a few minutes later he asks again and I open the door and again he runs off down the garden. I'm sure he thinks this is hilarious. It's not quite warm enough to leave the door open yet and if I don't open the door he starts barking.

Same with ours. In the evening, when he is not giving my husband the ‘lets go for a walk’ look, he will run through house into garden, then run back in and look out the lounge window. We live on a corner, so he hears anything and everything nearby  Also barks like mad if we don’t jump up and let him out.

Mine doesn’t drop either. I now won’t throw the ball now until he does. He will drop it a few feet away, but hardly ever at my feet. Same with the trade game, he will drop the ball but not near. He seems to like running with a ball in his mouth and then run round another ball. Still work in progress.

Our boy is nearly 11 months old. We had a scare with him at 6 months old in that in a park near us, something scared him and he ran away fast and made his way home, leaving my husband shouting for him to come back. Since then we are very weary about letting him off leash and now only in a secure park or short spells on farm land. His recall is good now, but occasionally it takes a few attempts to get him back to us. 

I have a lick mat for my 10 month old pup. May not last as long as a kong, but he enjoys it. I put natural yoghurt on it frozen.

Poor Fly and poor you. Any update on his condition or has he improved any?

Mandy

We have the same problem. Our 10 month old was waking every morning at 4.30 am. The clocks went forward. Great first morning 6 am. But he has, over the last 4 nights got earlier and has settled at 5 am. now. He goes to bed between 9.30 and 10. He does occasionally wake up and bark around 11 pm, when a neighbours dog is out and barking and I go down and tell him to go back to sleep, which he does. He sleeps in his crate and happily goes in there daytime and at night. He does not need to go out and pee as I open the doors, but he just sits and waits for my husband to get up and take him for a walk.

Everyone says, let him sleep with you and he won’t wake up, but he hears everything going on outside, so may bark. I also have 2 adult sons and think he will try and wake them.

We have come to the conclusion that he just misses us.

It is just before 8 am now and he is fast asleep, having been out for a walk and had his breakfast.

oh the joys of puppy parenting.

Our puppy is 10 months old and is doing better each month. On an hours walk, he still pulls for the first 10 minutes. He does understand walk slowly. The middle walk he is just ahead of me and the last part he constantly looks to me for a treat. He also gets a treat when we get home if he has walked well. He still constantly sniffs everywhere and wees loads, marking as he goes. I don’t have a problem with him doing this as it is normal, but I do have to give him a nudge to move along.

The only problem we have is that he now goes mad when we come across a cat. He barks, jumps and generally is a pain. He also gets a bit too excited when we meet other dogs. I try and make him say a quick hello and then keep walking. My brother walked him yesterday and he said how he had improved with his walking, so I am very pleased, as you don’t see it yourself walking them everyday.

We limited the areas that our puppy could go into and wasn’t allowed upstairs to our bedroom. I say wasn’t allowed but he didn’t attempt climbing the stairs. I remember we certainly had a few accidents at least up to 14 weeks. You do get the signals that they are looking fir somewhere to go as they sniff the floor and go around in circles. They do like to go on something soft, so unfortunately your bed is ideal. I understand your frustration. I did read that if you put a small amount of food inside, in different areas, they won’t go there.

It must be so, so difficult potty training in a flat, I live in a house with a garden and it still took until my puppy was at least 4 months before I felt confident with him. We had a set back around 14 weeks with him going wee and poo in his crate. I never got on with pads, he never went on one once, just chewedand ripped them up. All I can say is when your puppy does go on the pads, praise and give a high value treat, such as chicken or cheese. Are you able to take her out yet for walks? Hopefully when you can, you will see an improvement. My puppy is 10 months old now, and mostly goes on walks.

Mine is ok with the hoover, but hates the ironing board. He will go and sleep in his crate.

You are right he is super cute. Wish I could help you with the following around.  All I can say is that my boy is now 10 months old and from around 8 months old finally let me go upstairs without him barking. He still follows me around, but not so much now. I don’t think he had a problem, but just wanted to see what I was doing and wanted to stay near me. Do you have a crate for training?, this will help you with your work.