# 7 month old Border Collie



## bikejunkies (Mar 13, 2012)

Hi there, I am just wondering if any body has any tips. 
We have a Border Collie (bitch) who is just coming up to 7 months old. She is absolutely lovely and up until the last few weeks we havent really had any major problems. BUT suddenly all our training with her, which she was previously responding to really well, has stopped working. Up until now we have walked her off the lead more than on and she always has come back to us, stopped & waited for us when requested etc etc, however, suddenly she has started to occasionally ignore us, sometimes we are having to really shout at her to get her attention. Sometimes she will be perfect then others she seems like she is in her own little world! 
Also she has developed an annoying bark, mostly when we are in the house and admittedly when maybe we are not paying her as much attention as she would like. It started with her dropping her ball for us and then barking at us to pick it up but now she seems to just bark at us whatever! I have tried telling her No but this seems to get her even more excited and makes her do it even more.
The other thing which we are a little unsure of is her mouthing/biting. Obviously when she was smaller and teething badly she used to bite and mouth us alot, which has got alot better, we know some of her teeth are still coming through, but she does still mouth and occasionally bite us - is this usual behaviour? Sometimes if she gets us hard we tell her No and she stops and gives us her sad puppy eyes, so she knows it is not good behaviour, but 5 minutes later she will do it again. Also when we stop her doing something or tell her off for doing something she shouldn't she will start biting our feet and growl and get really excited if we tell her off.
She is a lovely girl who loves people and other dogs. She has always shown a bit of a bossy side but we have managed to control it pretty well up until now - after all she is a Collie and they can be quite excitable and high maintenance. Is this just her trying to find her feet and see how far she can push us? Any tips would be great - particularly with the barking!


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## catsandcanines (Dec 9, 2010)

I'm no expert but when my GSD was a pup she would mouth/bite us and I read that if you let out a high pitched yelp (as littermates would do if play got too rough) then they stop biting. This worked with my dog (she is now 9).

Not too sure about the barking, but I used to ignore bad behaviour and reward the good behaviour. 

My dog did jump up alot and hang off my trousers. At first I would shout no but this didn't work. I found if I crossed my arms and turned around, ignoring her this worked. When she was calm she got praise or a treat.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Shes a stroppy teenager, they get to this age and then hormones begin to kick in. The dependant little pup that wanted to please you and hung on your every word has just started to dissapear over the horizon. Instead you now have an adolescent thats more independant, will push at boundaries and see what they can get away with, and even though they may have come back before, they wont now, there is far more exciting stuff then you at the moment Im afraid Infuriating, annoying, but it does pass thats the good news. The not so good is that you have to get through it first and how you deal with it now can shape the dog to be.

Do not let her off at the moment. The more she knows that she can do it and get away with it (she can run faster then you can) the bigger the problem you are going to have and the harder it will be to get back on track after the silly stage. Between 6 and 14 mths dogs can also go through a fear of the unknown period too, times vary depending on breed and individual dog, it often co-incides with teething and the jaws settling and forming. You may find too during this period, that a pup who was outgoing suddenly becomes unsure of sights sounds and situations again and approaches them with uncertainty and even fear sometimes. So kind but fair firm handling is essential a lots going on in the way of critical stages of developement all round still, and physical come to that with possible approaching seasons, the hormone changes etc and teething too.

I would seriously up and maintain the recall training but at the moment keep her on a long line or a flexi giant extendable the ones with the wide webbing all the way through. Sometimes if they have got deaf to you calling, training to a whistle is often a good idea, it seems to penetrate their thought patterns more too sometimes. Start at home with a whilstle and treats, walk around and blow, for every short blow give a treat she should follow you around. After a couple of sessions of this, try it to call her in from the garden, first by standing near the backdoor, then see if it works from inside, If thats OK take it outside to use on the long line of flexi.

You need to call her back periodically throughout the walk, treat using favourite treats, cheese, chicken, hotdog, sausage liver based products. Treat her, but always send off again with go play. Also vary your rewards when you call her back. Sometimes a ragger game, sometimes call/whistle but run in the other direction in a chase me game, its one collies usually cant resist as they want to chase and round you up. Other times throw a ball a couple of times getting her to bring it back to throw again, other times call and hide rewarding when she finds you, vary the rewards, but always send away again with go play after. This way it keeps them guessing and interested in what they are going to get, it also confuses them because they dont know when its home time.

Golden rules are, dont let them off let them get engrossed in their own things and only call back at home time. They get wise to it and if they dont think its time to go home will avoid and run off. Never chase after them, it turns it into a rewarding game of catch me if you can, and as you will soon find out you cant.

Once you have got the training to a point she doesnt miss re-call again, then drop the long line, and use it as a drag line, if she does start to go deaf again and try to take off you still have it to grab and put her back on track. Still do all the above though exactly the same.

If shes Ok on the drag line after awhile, then try letting her off preferably in enclosed safe areas, at quieter times with less distractions at first, if she again passes the test after a few sessions, then more interesting areas at busier times with more distraction and see how she goes, if it starts to go a bit pear shaped any time take it back a step to even back on long line.

That should gradually sort out the recall problem. For the rest make sure that you do training sessions putting her through her paces with all the basic obidience exercises, even 2 or 3 10/15 minute sessions mixed with a bit of play a day are good, it will help with focus and keep her stimulated. Make sure too she works for things making her sit and wait for her meals, lead on etc. If she wants something from you she does something you ask first in return.

Any behaviour you dont want, attention seeking, jumping up mouthing, dont reward, even eye contact and No is a form of attention so reward. Fold your arms turn your back and as your turning say OFF or even NO, stay turned away and wait until she calms down stops and stays stopped for a little longer. You can even just walk off and totally ignore her, but you must only call her to you ask her to sit and give attention when she is calm and stayed that way.

If any time she i persistent, then pop her in another room and leave to calm down. Let her out when calm, but still ignore for a little longer, if she stays OK then call her get her to sit and then she gets attention. With both of these two things you may have to keep repeating them for awhile, but eventually they do usually realise. What you are teaching is that bad behaviour doesnt get anthing, doing as you ask and calm behaviour does. When starting out you can even use treats as well as the attention as a reward just to doubly enforce it and make it rewarding for her.

Hope this helps.


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## Bobbie (May 3, 2008)

I think you have found with your B.C how clever they are. When you say you tell her off for doing something can you not turn this into something you want her to do? With the mouthing thing when she mouths you say no and then sit or lie down and wait for her to obey then reward. ( this is the dog of course.) As for the recall play the game of hide and seek my collies loved this that way they usually look for you. Good luck and enjoy your dog.


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## bikejunkies (Mar 13, 2012)

Thank you for your replies - I will give them ago and let you know how we get on!
Thanks again.


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2012)

HI. How exciting! A fantastic set of training opportunites with a very bright dog. 

Draining too, I know, collies are my breed and my training speciality.... 

As has already been said, this age is the age where your bitch is potentially becommin an adolescant. She may be duw oin season, which is hellishly confusing for a dog... and whatever her biological clock is saying, run off, find new mates, do new things. This is when "VELCRO puppy" becomes "BOGOFF dog". Not much fun and brings with it a feeling of hepless out of controllness that wasnt usually there before. You have my sympathy.

Ok. Step up your number of recall repetitions per day and reduce the ammount of food des at home, and increase in response to recall successes. We suggest to our clients that they practice recall 20 times a day EVE|RY|DAY when there are NO distractions. Moving away from a recall command and trainign onto a whistle is a great idea if your r3ecall command has had failures. Teh whistle, trainwed well is highly effective as it means onlyu one thing..... Reward!

Mouthithing. All puppies mouth, It is normal dog to dog communication that usually means "I want to play"..... It chould be viewed as a fantawtic opportunity ! Becasue that is what it is! YOur dog is TELLING you what the reward is, now you just have to get the behaviour onto a tug toy. Playong tug is a brilliant way to improve your relationship with your dog. The type of toy you use is vital though. It needs to be soft cloth (not wood, hard rubber or plastic) to get a great result. Often, though not always, collies will respond even better to tug games thatn to food rewards. However, he biting of the hands needs to cease. There are many ways of achieving this, but often the best is to shout out loud, act as though you are seriously hurt and leave the room "wounded" ... only to return 10 seconds later... The dog is likely to still be in play mood and repeat the biting.. then you can repeat the room eaving.. brilliant training opportunity! Repeat until the dog latches on that the biting makes you leave and then try to instigate a game of tug ponm the soft toy.

Barking. TOP TIP. When a dog barks, or paws you, or stares at you.... it thinks, that you know, what it is saying. Again, brilliant . You can use this to your advantage. When a dog begins this type of attention seeking, first make sure that your dog isnt attention seeking becasue it genuinely needs more interactions that it is getting.... but assuming you are happy that your dog is adequately excercised and mentally stimulated, then its fair to teach the dpog that this type of attention seeking wont get it what it wants. Its impossible to ignore a barking or clawing dog..... so remember the "dog thinks you know what it is saying" routine and then do this. Chose somethign the dog doesnt really like.... not simethign that will hurt or frighten the dog, something like examining its paw, or looking down its ear,.. or cliping its toe nails... . or looking at its teeth. When the dog barks, say out loud "oh you want me to clip your toe nails? " and then proceed to cut or pretend to cut (if too short) its toe nails. or whatever else it doesnt like. At next bark repeat. Pretty soon the dog will think, you idiot owner, thats not what I was saying!!! and hopefully itll shut up, in an attempt to get you to stop cutting its tow nails! . gthen though you need to tell the dog how to behave next. if you are too busy to play right then, then ask the dog to go and lie on its bed or similar (something you need to pretrain).

I always feel guilty self promoting, but we at CaDeLac have recently released a DVD which covers every aspect of your post, as well as many others. There is a preview of it at Nottingham and Derby dog training puppy training behavioural classes.. it is now selling well and is receiving most excellent reviews from all around the world. Dog taining comes from the hearyt and we are delighted that we are managing to help so many in this way  I am sure it would hep you understand your dog better and improve your taining and relationship.

I hope that some of what I have written is of help and that you go on to enjoy many happy years with your amazing border collie. Collies are brilliant. I wish you all the very best of luck and fun. Denise


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## bikejunkies (Mar 13, 2012)

Just wanted to let you all know that it has only been a few days and we have already seen improvements and to let anyone else who reads my original blog that the tips on here really help.
The barking - well she has always hated her back end being brushed so I used the tip from Denise - every time she barks I get up and say "Oh you want me to brush you" and pick up the brush and start brushing her bum. It seems to be doing the trick. You can see her going to bark but she stops herself - sometimes her mouth will move but no sound comes out :thumbup:
With walking I have started keeping her on the lead more and then letting her off to play ball for a bit and then back on the lead for more walking. when on the lead she is hardly pulling now which is great and when off the lead all her attention is on me and the ball :thumbup:
With the mouthing/biting we are using the leaving the room tip or just standing with our back to her with arms folded. It does seem to be working slowly but I think this is something we will have to keep working on.
So thanks again for everyones advise - I am so glad I found this forum!


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## Guest (Mar 19, 2012)

bikejunkies said:


> Just wanted to let you all know that it has only been a few days and we have already seen improvements and to let anyone else who reads my original blog that the tips on here really help.
> The barking - well she has always hated her back end being brushed so I used the tip from Denise - every time she barks I get up and say "Oh you want me to brush you" and pick up the brush and start brushing her bum. It seems to be doing the trick. You can see her going to bark but she stops herself - sometimes her mouth will move but no sound comes out :thumbup:
> With walking I have started keeping her on the lead more and then letting her off to play ball for a bit and then back on the lead for more walking. when on the lead she is hardly pulling now which is great and when off the lead all her attention is on me and the ball :thumbup:
> With the mouthing/biting we are using the leaving the room tip or just standing with our back to her with arms folded. It does seem to be working slowly but I think this is something we will have to keep working on.
> So thanks again for everyones advise - I am so glad I found this forum!


Well glad to have helped. Well done on making such good progress!


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