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Our 5 and half month is soo hyper he comes put of his crates after naps and is non stop even with adequate mental and physical stimulation he just ends up over tired and has to be enforced for a nap. He never stops moving and has too much energy I read in Barbara Sykes book 90% percent of border collies receive too much protein in their diet and need 24% or less. Our boys food is 27% however when I look round for kibble with lower protein its soo hard to find it. Anyone have success stories or any recommendations?

This is Kenzie. (that's a hunk of deer hide, I think, in her mouth. Have no clue where she got it) She's a drop off dog as we call them out here. Basically, people from the small cities around here get tired of a dog, can't afford to feed it, get kicked out of where they were living and the new place doesn't accept dogs etc so they drop them off out in the country. We live across the road from the Nat Forest. I guess they figure people out in the country want all the dogs they can get? Her belly was loaded with seed ticks so I put some Heartz, advantage/frontline type drops on the back of her neck and she's much better now. That and I happened to have sprayed the yard with permethrin just before she showed up. By the markings we assume at least part BC. She's one hyper puppy unlike anything I've ever seen before. She barks her butt off at my little tractor and tries to bite the tires. Is this herding instinct? She's very attentive and seems smart which is why we took her in but the hyperness is beyond belief. Try to pet her and she'll jump on you, twist and turn, paw at you and twist and turn until she ends up falling on her back at which point she runs away turns around and comes right back to jump on you. She may also pee herself but not near as bad as if you try to reprimand her. I've always had medium sized dogs and have gotten most of them at 4 years old or so and I've never trained for anything but decent behavior. No jumping on people, sit, stay, walk on a leash without pulling etc. The breeds I've dealt with are full blooded Chow Chow and a Pit Bull mix. I can see right off that this little thing is going to be totally different. Swatted her on the hip once and that's not going to work. Instantly scared of me for the rest of the day every time I moved my hand/arm. I've read about and understand the positive reinforcement thing but heck, I wasn't even raised that way myself so it doesn't come natural for me. I've got a son that has mild Asperger's/Autism so I've learned quite a bit in that regard. No being tough on him. He's too tender. With the Chow dog, since it was full blooded and a puppy and my first dog, I bought a book and went by that for training. It said for jumping, gently step on their back toes or grab their front paws and walk towards them which throws them off balance which they don't like so they stop. It worked fine but not on this BCish dog. Too fast for stepping on the toes and touching means play, play, play evidently. I read here to just turn away so I'll do that. Indigo, the chow, was he best behaved dog most people have ever seen, especially for that breed. Some of that had to do with the fact that I was single and self employed so she was with me 24/7 but I also have always had a way with dogs to an extent. When I'm not on a keyboard, I'm a man of few words which I think helps. We had a few dairy goats a few years back and the plan now is to get some meat goats to breed and of course for meat. Even though I planned on keeping this dog almost the moment I saw her due to her attentiveness(which usually means intelligence), I was thrilled to find that it may have some herding instincts. I myself have no clue as to how to herd animals and the dairy goats were so tame and socialized that we could call them. I don't plan on getting that friendly with goats I plan to eat. We're not even fenced in enough for goats yet so it will be a little while. We should at least have a breeding pair or trio this year. So with the background info, intro done etc, a couple of questions and I realize that every dog's personality is different and that this may not be a true BC or have herding instinct but be that as it may... Is there anything I can do in the way of training towards herding at this early stage? I know having a dog mix with the stock as early as possible is recommended but I can't do that right now unless I can talk a neighbor into letting me walk the dog on their property amongst their goats. I don't know them but there's a couple of people with goats around here. I do have a buddy with a few cattle if that would help, even for observation. Does barking at the tractor and trying to bite the tires possibly have anything to do with herding instincts? (I think I have her pretty much broken of car chasing - just by saying ahh ah, no etc) Any advice for a super duper hyper puppy? I think some of it has to do with eager to please and learn and wanting to be accepted and/or not wanting to be dumped off again. I'm thinking about keeping her on a leash and with me pretty much all the time for a little while and having her with me 24/7 to keep her from getting confused trying to please and/or learn from me, my wife and two teens. My son isn't into dogs and my daughter is in the teen attitude stage so the commands aren't commands by any means. No consistency at all. I had some other questions but I think I answered them myself by typing all this out. Ahh, age. Definitely first set of teeth and the gum space between the teeth is about 1/3 of the teeth size. Any guesses as to age? My guess is a few months at most. Any other indications I can look for? Upper gums are dark grey. BC thing? Random? Mix breed thing? Thanks, John