Collect Questions

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone can offer advice.

Skye my border collie bitch, has a tendancy to nip. she has gradually got worse the longer we have had her.

She originally came from a small holding and then a elderly couple took her in and they decided they can not exercise her so we had her. Bless her 3 homes in 3 years!

We think at the small holding she was hit or abused in some way.

Where the elderly couple did not exercise her she has a slight obsession with the telly! she sits there for hours!

She tends to be worse when anyone walks past us etc. she nips their ankles, hands anything really.

When she sees another dogs or humans she does her normal collie crawl and just sits there an waits.

sometimes she is better than others. Worse with me, but good with my dad.

Is it fear aggression? she seems to be protecting me as everyone says she is my dog!

She is a lovely dog and i am not letting something like this come in the way of her settling into a home.

I am taking her to obdience classes, but she is already good at that (being a collie) but the socialisation is good. The bloke that runs the class is a behavourist, so i may book one to one lessons with him.

Sorry for the long post.

Many thanks for listening to me go on

Cheers Emma x




sorry am no help .but someone should be along to soon who may have some tips for you




Thanks anyway inca! not to worry i am sure peeps can help!

xx




The nipping is probably, I suspect, herding behaviour, esp. if she had working parents. She probably needs to be given a "job" - be it training to a high standard, agility, or seeking out toys....sorry, I'm just assuming she doesn't "do" anything, apologies if I'm wrong!

A great book to get would be Carol Price's "Understanding the Border Collie" - it goes into why the BC shows this kind of behaviour, and how you can cope with it and train to stop it, all reward based too

The book is really good, and even has drawings in it (and it's not overlong either!!)

HTh




Thanks for that!

I will keep an eye out for the book, sounds like just what i need!

at moment she does nothing apart from her basis training classes.

She has never been played with the elderly couple done nothing with her! so we are trying our best at trying to play fetch with her! i have resulted to be going down on all fours crawling to the ball and picking it up, she just looks at me as if i am mad.

she loves running with me and chasing me playfully, but can get a bit tiring as you can never wear out a border collie!

We have had her only a couple of months i wanted to gain her trust and get her through some basic training and then i was thinking of agility. Our local dog school runs classes so i will see how she goes and maybe join her up. i know she would love that.

thanks for your advice guys its much apprieciated!

She was a good girl this morning we past a couple of people, i just took her to the side and waited till they past, no problems.

i have heard to use the term 'NO BITE' but i dont want to shout at her if she is frightened. As i say she is fairly nervous around people, especially men!

Sorry going on again! hope you are all well!

Love emma x




This article may help you to deal with the nervousness:




hi there, i agree with the advice given by Wysiwyg. She is showing herding behaviour. Whilst exercise is good, you need to exercise her mind more, and as said, give her a 'job' essentially.
try teaching her 'find' games, hide treats in the house, teach her out to find a toy you've hidden, at first you will have to guide her to the toy so she gets the idea. Training is also good mental exercise.

Agility and flyball are both good things to help mentally stimulate her.