Mandy1961

So this morning my husband took our boy over to a park which is no more than 2 minutes walk away from our house. It is on a wildlife farm and is not totally secure as it has 2 openings. We have been taking Harry over there for the last 3 months and the last 2 months we have gradually increased the amount of time he is off leash. His recall is very good and we practice all the time. This morning, whilst it was semi light, they entered the park, another dog was there, Harry and the dog said hello and then Harry shot off, ran straight out of the park and ran home. There was no time for my husband to shout for him to come back, as he was gone. Fortunately a friend was walking her collie past our house and knocked on our door to tell me that Harry was on the door step. I quickly rang my husband who was frantic by this stage. I know, we will have to leash him in this park now, but my husband is desperately upset. it is also diffucult to reprimand Harry as he did come home and obviously knows where he lives, but had to cross a road. i suppose he is still young and learning all the time. Mandy and Harry.

With our 8 month old Harry we have the same scenario, so I either have the option of having him up with me or getting up with him. Harry is very lively in the morning, but we are just pleased he now sleeps to 6 am as since October when we clocks went back, he was waking at 5am. Funny how my 2 adult sons never seem to hear him barking at 6am.

Our puppy did not like being petted and now at 8 months will only sit besides us for short periods of time. He has never sat on our laps. For the first few months we often wondered if our puppy was happy, he certainly was glad to see us when we got up in the morning when we let him out of his crate. Recall has been outstanding during the last month, but we know we need to keep up the training with this. Fetch is something we are still working on, he will definitely drop a ball for a treat. He gets it fine, but loves keeping it in his mouth for a game of tug. As for bonding, I think proper bonding occurred around 3 months of age.

Sounds like she is settling down well and is similar to our experience. Once you are able to take her out for walks you can get working on her fear of cars. We had this, Harry who is now 8 months old, would lunge at cars, bikes, or anything that moved, he alsi chased leaves and still does. Take lots if treats with you when you walk, get your puppy to sit, praise and give a treat. This does take time and repetition is the way to go. We found that from day one, Harry would sleep till around 4 am for the first couple of weeks, then we found that he had soiled his soft bedding, this went on for 4 nights running, he looked so sorry when we got up. He was having a wee and poo before bed. We took away his soft bedding and just put a blanket in his crate. This worked straight away and he now only likes a blanket in there. He happily goes in his crate at night and looks at us as if to say please go to bed so I can have some peace. Harry has always needed.a lot of simulation and play and has virtually chewed every piece of furniture. I got him some nylabones which has helped but he still has the occasional chew on the table leg. He was and still is very clingy. He follows me around in the day, gets stressed when I go upstairs and will bark and whine. He did not go up the stairs till he was 5 months old, so we got a high stair gate to stop him. Puppy classes will help with social skills with other dogs.

Our puppy Harry is also 8 months old too. He also barks at everything outside, but not at people inside. The only thing I can suggest is can you let your visitors hand feed him so they get to know each other and he will see that they are friendly. Definitely do not agree to hitting a dog, a telling off and and calling “time out” is usually enough for mine to behave. Maybe the barking will get better when you can have him in the house as he is probably thinking he has to protect you and your family.

We have never used the crate for training. We are lucky that Harry, 8 months old today, has slept in his crate from day one. He only goes in the crate in the day, when we go out, but have not had to leave him for any longer than 2 hours, which I know we are extremely lucky to be in this position. Harry is now at the stage that he understands more words than we could have ever thought possible and he is genuinely sorry if we have to tell him off, he stills gets over excited with my two adult sons when they come home from work, but he expects them to play with him as soon as they get home.

The one way we got our puppy to stop biting hands and ankles was to spray de-odorant on ankles and hands, our Harry did not like the smell so did not nip. Anyone visiting had a spray before entering. He is now 7 months old, still gives the occassional nip, but knows the words no and naughty and time-out when all else fails. With regards to the leash, we could only keep Harry in our garden till he had all his vaccinations so we only put him on a lead starting with a couple of minutes and as soon as he tried biting we took it off, did this a few times a day. When we went to puppy classes we had to get a metal short lead, that improved the biting of the lead straight away. Good luck.

Hope you all get better soon. For your puppy I can recommend tinned pumpkin for diarrhoea, just a spoonfull each day really helped straight away. I kept my dog on rice and chicken for at least a week as unfortunately a tummy bug can return. Good luck

Maybe after he was ill, he feels happy and secure with you. He certainly looks comfortable and perhaps he is beginning to enjoy music. I play music to our Harry, who is nearly 8 months old. He is also skinny, but is getting bigger and heavier.

The topic heading “what to use on new coat”. Then shows a previous post? Hopefully you can post the correct question.

Our puppy is nearly 8 months old. There isn’t many items of furniture that he has not chewed. Even today he started chewing on a chair seat that has been in the same place it has always been. when he was younger he always had a mad 10 minutes where he went crazy, this was usually after his last meal in the evening. I know this is typical and he has calmed down a lot, but we do still get a crazy time, occasionally. He does understand now when I tell him to rest.

I also sympathise and also felt the same. Our puppy is nearly 8 months old and can honestly say I did wonder what we had taken on. There is myself, husband and 2 adult sons living in our house and often it was left to me to look after him as the others would leave as he was too much to handle and just seemed to get more and more excited. He did start to settle around 5 months old. When I knew he was tired I ignored him so he soon got the message that the only other thing to do was sleep. Chewing on nylabones as well as stuffed kongs have helped. When I walk him I meet people who have owned border collies, they always say the first 6 months are the hardest. Good luck.

As a child we had a dog, who my brother called Buzz. She was a girl. Still miss her 40 years later.

Chicken or cheese we give our puppy when he has been particularly good, mostly now when we are working on off lead walks and recall.

Harry is 7 months old. We can only spend a short amount of time getting a coffee and sandwich. Like you, just when he relaxes another dog will come in and he will go mad to get to the other dog. Also, so many people will stop and tell us their stories with dogs. Others like to give advice. Unfortunately now, even after a long walk and we need to take a rest, Harry is still raring to go!!

Thanks for your responses. He was fed half his normal sized meal about 4 hours before travelling. Once we arrived at our relatives he had a small bowl of plain chicken.

I do feel for you. I agree that having a border collie puppy is hard work. We were able to take our puppy out at 12 weeks old, one week after his final injection. At the time we were so ready to take him out walking. We were lucky we got him in the summer, so spent hours in the garden, playing, training and walking round the garden on a lead to get him ready and used to his lead when out walking. Hopefully, like us, you will find it a lot easier when you can go out walking. We started with just a 10 minute walk, which took about 30 minutes, due to sniffing and people stopping to stroke him. He had 3 short walks a day and this seemed to tire him out and settle him a lot more in the day. Harry is now 7 months old, still extremely lively, but walks are longer. We now know his routine. He still follows me around in the day, but is getting better. I only leave him in his crate, for at most 2 hours and I make sure he is ready for a sleep. Good luck. Mandy and Harry.

Thank you Nanda and Nelson, good to hear a positive outcome. We gave Harry a bit of a break from the car but had to visit family over Christmas. The journey was 45 minutes, he was sick half way, then he seemed to relax and went to sleep. He was much better in the way home, it was dark, late and we told him we were going “home”, which he understood so maybe this helped. Mandy and Harry.

My sons, 22 and 26 keep asking when can Harry, 7 months sleep where he wants. Unfortunately this would be a problem as he would want to go into each bedroom and would probably settle for our bedroom. He is so noise sensitive and barks at any outside noises, which he doesn’t when he is in his crate.

Our pup is 7 months old and we have decided to wait to make a decision on whether to get him neutered. Although our vet has said the best time is around 6 months, we would rather he finish growing first. Whilst he is very slim and active so many people have warned us that they are prone to putting on excess weight after neuturing. He is very active and still a bit boisterous sometimes, we do not want any of his mannerisms to change at the moment. I will definitely look into vasectomy if the need arises.

We went for the medium sized crate, which in hindsight was a little too big for him. At around 12 to 14 weeks he did wee and poo in it over night, for 3 nights running. We took away his comfy bedding and just put a blanket in the crate. Also did not feed him after 6 pm. This did the trick and he has been clean all night since. He is now 7 months old and can still lay out in the crate, but prefers to snuggle in a ball at the end.

Dumbbird7, well he is certainly doing well, weight wise. Our pup is 7 months old and weighs 14 kilos. He is still on puppy food, 3 times a day, tried him on raw beef twice and twice he has been sick, same with lamb, so will keep to the same routine for now. He goes mad for liver, which I have boiled for a couple of minutes, seems to be fine with this. Glad your puppy seems to have found “his place” to eat. I said previously ours will only drink water in our conversatory (or puddles). With regards to teeth, I think the last of his adult teeth are just coming through, there was a gap in the bottom set, which is now filled.

I can only speak from experience with my puppy 7 months old. He has only once woke us at 4 am when he had a dodgy tummy and apart from that night, usually sleeps in his crate from 9.30 pm to 6 am. He was also potty trained pretty quick. Good luck with Mick, I am sure he will love running round with your sheep and running rings around you.

We have a 7 month old puppy. He is either very energetic or asleep. At 3 months old he got an early walk half an hour, play, then slept a couple of hours, same again ealy afternoon and again in the evening. The walking in the day is going to be your biggest problem, but could you get a dog walker in or perhaps consider doggy day care?. Border Collies do require a lot of care and stimulation, but you sound like you are already smitten. Good luck.

Our puppy, Harry is 7 months old and around 32 lb. He also looks skinny and long legs. I feed him 3 times a day, each meal is 100g of tinned food and 50g of dry food. He gets treats plus a few biscuits throughout the day. Exercise is pretty much the same as you, half hour early morning, 1 hour late morning and another half hour in the evening. Harry only stops when he is asleep, he has a long sleep in the afternoon. We were fortunate that up until 2 months ago he was not bothered about going upstairs and would only go up 4 steps, but once he decided to go all the way one afternoon, he kept on so we got a stair gate to stop this. We are a family with 2 adult sons who spend a lot of time in their rooms, so we do let Harry go upstairs, he is very good and knows the word “slow”. We met another male collie who was 2 years old, he was a bit taller than Harry, but a lot stockier, so I presume from now on any weight gained will go on his body, and hopefully his legs.