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Hello! I posted about my beautiful Merle Border Collie female, Rogue, weeks ago. I feel that it’s only right to update her progress on this forum and gather some more information/advice via comments because they helped immensely! Compared to where she was when the last post was written, Rogue has truly blossomed into a wonderful dog. She is so loving. She has stopped submissively urinating for the most part, and only does it in small quantities when she is extremely frightened (i.e. stranger comes into home and she is caught off guard). She roams off leash in our yard and does extremely well with listening and staying close. She definitely knows who her people are! She loves to burn energy. Sometimes when a man asks if they can pet her, I will make them stand where they are and not approach her. She will go up to sniff him with excitement and apprehensiveness, with her tail slightly between her legs, but will open up upon realizing that he means well and just wants to pet her! We had a friend over just the other night who happened to be male, and she ran right up to him and sat between his knees so he could pet her. We always tell our male counterparts to not go up to her, even though it can be hard because she is such a beautiful dog! She approaches many more people now instead of scurrying away. We are so proud of her progress! She likes to spend time in her kennel. We leave the door open to give her access whenever she likes. She will sometimes take a bone into her kennel and chew it in there. Sometimes she spend a bit more time than we would like her to spend in her kennel. I am home for the majority of the day, everyday. Therefore, I leave the kennel door open so she can come out if she would like. She typically comes out and roams the house freely when I am home, but tends to recede back into her safe space when my fiancé gets home from work. He has been doing his best with not approaching her, and mostly just living out his daily routines in front of her. She is comfortable with me, but sometimes I will hear some rattling and find her in her kennel, head poking out of the entrance rested on top of some toys. I leave her be. I want her to feel that she has a ‘safe space’ that’s all her own and she never has to feel scared in. But I will always keep the door open so she knows she can come out. She’s been coming out more and more each day when he is home. Hopefully in a few weeks, she will be able to approach him without as much fear! It has been a long process but she has adjusted little by little, and it is truly awesome to sometimes sit back and think about how far she has come and how far she can still go! I love my Rogue!

I have a BC (rescue) and a Wire Haired Pointing Griffon (also a Beagle, but she is not an issue whatsoever). My BC has a very strong (but very sweet) personality. That said, there are times when he lowers his body position and looks "intense" and then nips the hind end/leg of the Griffon. Of course, this rarely ends well. We have had many a fight in our house (mostly with only pinched skin, occasionally battle scars, but always sounding horrible!) and I want it to stop. I've started researching intensely and found some very useful information, and I determined that I need to start at square ONE with the BC in obedience training. I have no idea of his history before I got him except that he did know tricks (shake, down, sit, etc). He's very bull headed, but trainable. Some tricks take literally minutes to learn. But keeping him out of the kitchen is impossible. So, that said, I've begun positive reinforcement training for BOTH dogs. Treating them equally to show each one that it's a level playing field. This seems to wear them out mentally, which helps a lot! But I still have a long road ahead. So, the top two issues are: 1. Unwanted nipping by the BC at the Griffon (it's NEVER at anyone/thing else) 2. Charging the front door when people come/doorbell rings (this is a small space where fights are likely) I have contacted a trainer that specialized in herding dogs (she has BCs and Aussies). She is going to do an in home consult to begin with. Suggestions are appreciated...thank you! Amy