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Also is there any chance that playing with her in any amount is a bad idea? I'm playing with her because I figured she needs the stimulation and excercise, especially as I can't take her on walks yet because of her vaccinations. But is that just raising the expectation of play all the time? So if we paid her affectionate attention still, but without play with toys etc, might that be better? She sometimes entertains herself with her toys which is good.

Thanks for all your help and advice from all of you it's really helped, she seems to be getting better, the crate as a time out seems more effective, even for very short periods, we have also been going to puppy classes and the trainer mentioned using an "enough" command (with a slicing hand gesture) to stop play when we are done so it doesn't escalate into unwanted types of play when we walk away, she said it was especially useful with collies as they never want to stop play. I also think crating her more in the day has forced her to relax sometimes which is good, she definitely had too much of the "run" of the place before, quite literally!

Thanks for the info, if I put her in the crate should I still be in view or dissappear whilst she's in there? What do I do if she whines whilst in there? I'm struggling with inappropriate play in general, she gets too excited, seemingly whether I play with her or not, it always goes too far in the end, she either get over excited playing with me or bored if I don't and over excited again, jumping up, general biting, ignoring commands, she just wants to play but it's not how we want to play with her, currently we have been just leaving her in the kitchen/dining room when she gets like that, and she zooms around for a while, sometimes chews something she shouldn't, we go through the puppy gate! I may try the crate instead!

Does that stand the same if its us she is also chewing? She quite likes nipping our ankles, we are removing ourselves or her from the situation when it happens but I'm still thinking she generally has too much free reign all the time, allowing her to get under our feet and she can't resist the urge to chase and nip our ankles, socks, toes etc.

Yes she was left in the pen in one room of four large interconnected rooms at my workplace on her own, if I was in the furthest away room she definitely couldn't see me or hear me, and I did do this for up to around an hour at a time. I think it was actually probably a helpful experience for us both. I took time out of work to do training and exercise with her, much like my parents will when they pop round at home, which gives me confidence to possibly use this system at home, especially after your comments

Hi again Just thinking ahead a bit, our new border collie pup will have just one day a week where both myself and my partner will be out 8-4, from 14 weeks onwards, but my parents will pop round atleast twice through the day for excercise etc, our puppy is not particularly keen on her crate, she does sleep in it at night with minimal protest but confined in it in the daytime and she whines constantly, I don't like leaving her in it anyway for very long, so is it reasonable to expect to be able to allow her the run of our kitchen and dining room at such a young age uwithout destroying the place? She does like chewing and has shown interest in skirting boards, chair legs etc but we've always been on hand to redirect her. She's fairly well toilet trained already. On the positive side when we have not been around for short periods so far she just seems to sleep. I did think about an X-pen, I've used one at work with her for a couple of days when we 1st got her and she was OK in there, but as we've not used such a thing at home will that confuse her? Sorry looooong post

I was only joking with the ooops, it's the right thing to do in the circumstances because of all the reasons you just said. We definitely signed up for this, we have been waiting years to finally get a BC, and only when we felt we could give one the time and effort she deserves, so far everything has been as expected with having a puppy and we are completely in love with her already.

Sound advice and already being put into practice, oops is an understatement though, it really hurts, those little teeth are razor sharp

I think I'm now more confused than I was before about what to feed her. Also more concerned about the constant biting now she is finding her feet with us, it's relentless, any ideas? On the plus side her poos are still improving yay

She always keen for her food. It's so hard because you just want what's best for them but there is many options. I'm definitely getting her off the pedigree though. I think if the diarrhea does continue I will do as suggested and get her poo tested before proceeding, I think she has been through enough without more potentially unnecessary treatments.

Good to know your pup was 2.3kg at 8 weeks, that's even lighter than ours. Are his stools still on the soft side now? I'm struggling to work out how much food she needs, I'm currently feeding 3 times a day the pedigree puppy, around the 40g Mark per meal but I don't know if that's enough or too much, I was feeding 50g initially but she wasn't eating it all so I started at 30g, all gone, now 40g and all gone! With some chicken treats through the day, I'm hoping that's not upsetting her too it's a minefield Then what do i switch her too

Hi thanks for the info, water is a good point, I'd not thought of that. I thought worming was done as a precaution on a regular basis anyway?

Hi thanks for your reply but wow there's alot to worry about! Unfortunately no IGS testing, I should of done more research beforehand. It was just a private breeder locally, the parents both looked very well and previous litters had been all fine. I have been to the vet and she said all seems well, the vet was happy enough the pup had gained half a kilo in 13 days. Up to 2.8kg on there scales. She is thriving and full of beans so hopefully no IGS testing required. We agreed not to transition from the current pedigree puppy food she is currently on until she has settled in and the vet did say the stress of moving could cause the diarrhea, for the 1st time today the beginning of her stool was normally formed, but ended as per usual, but still the best yet. I will certainly transition her off pedigree food as soon as is possible once she has settled in and hopefully her tummy settles down. We did actually give her some treats on the journey home that she's not used to, she wasn't very keen on them and only ate a little. I would be surprised if the treats would cause such fast diarrhea though, only a couple of hours between, but then again I was surprised that stress could do that so quickly, again a matter of a couple of hours, but she wasn't the 1st pup to leave the nest so I suppose the stress started a few days before. The vet said to return in a few more days if things haven't continued to improve, then more worming is the first thing the vet wanted to do if things don't improve. So I'm hoping it is just the stress, but I'm still surprised and skeptical it is that. She's a sensitive soul though, she almost jumped out of my arms when a tractor went past on the walk to the vet.

Quick (long) question? After a long wait we have just bought a border collie puppy, as compared to the rest of the litter she looked normal size (middle sized of the 7 pups, all females) But now I'm concerned she is tiny and underweight, is 2.7kg very light at 8 weeks 2days? 12 days ago 2.4kg (although I don't know how accurate the vets scales are vs mine) Looking through previous posts on here it seems like it, she's full of beans and seems herself but has had diarrhea off and on (more on than off) since we got her home Sunday, the breeder assured us she was OK the day before and it's probably the stress of moving her, I'm booked in to see the vet tomorrow anyway. She's had a couple of vaccinations a week or so ago too, nobivac dhp and l4. Everything is great with her other than her weight and her diarrhea. Any thoughts?

Hi fellow border collie friends. Just about to take ownership of a new puppy, had border collie in the family as a child but always wanted one of my own. Just wondering how rough or smooth coat the puppy is likely to be as an adult? She is 6 weeks old in the pics. Thanks Tim