Hi ive got a border collie pup thats 5 months old .But im tearing my hair out with him over the past few weeks , hes for ever biting my feet and seems to be getting more and more aggressive with this also hes also biting at my arms and hands constantly ive tried lots of things with him every door in the house as to be closed when ever you go in or out as he will just cause havoc if left available to get inside,hes digging my garden up .i had a border collie prior to getting max my pup and i had him 15 years with not one hiccup hence why i got another but max is a complete contrast and im at my wits end with him .when i try to disapline him he just gets aggressive with me.BUT he seems better for my partner.can anybody help

Have you got a crate at all so that your pup can have quiet time to wind down? I have found that my pup's behaviour deteriorates when he becomes over tired (just like a toddler!).

Also, how do you discipline him not to bite? I found that the complete cessation of any fun coupled with a calm, firm 'no bite' stopped Kilo from biting, yelping or anything else just excited him more. I ignore him just for a short time, then resume the game / previous activity as though nothing has happened.

Another useful method I have found is to distract with another activity such as a short training session - I say 'training' now and Kilo stops any unwanted behaviour and sits anticipating treats so I do a quick session to divert him.

If all else fails to work and the behaviour is just bad due to over stimulation / tiredness, 'time out' in the crate works wonders - never used as a punishment; I put a treat and toy in there - for a maximum of 10 minutes. 99% of the time, Kilo falls fast asleep within a minute or two; the rest of the time he emerges much calmer.

__________________

ive tried max in a cage and i feel it made no difference as he just came back out the same .even moving around the house from room to room is difficult .my fav word seems to be no bitie he has plenty of exercise has lots of toys to be biting and playing with but still prefers me

I'm afraid the behaviour you describe is fairly typical of a 5 month old BC. They can be a handful at that age.
I had one here this afternoon that was going for her owner's ankles every time she got up to work her older dog.
My youngster is still prone to digging damn great holes in the lawn and she's 2.1/2 yrs old.
I would suggest you find a decent local dog training class, preferably where they also run competition obedience classes, so that the instructors are accustomed to training young collies.

Do you have clear consequences that you always follow through with such as ignoring bad behaviour; on the flip side do you heavily positively reward the good so he is much more likely to want to gain your attention through 'good' activities? Also, is he getting enough mental exercise - I have learnt that training tires my puppy out much more than just physical activity.

Kilo was obsessed with cuffs, hems and feet and I did think I was destined for a life of old clothes and wearing shoes in the house but suddenly one day he lost interest entirely and has never regained it

I think over-using a command such as 'no bitie' if it is not working may have just habituated the puppy to hearing it and he may have learnt that the words have no consequence. Perhaps use a new command and link it to a consequence (mine is 'no bite' plus standing up, back to puppy, arms folded).

__________________

My first question to, was how much exercise and mentally stimulating activity does this pup have? You've probably got a highly active and intelligent pup, who's more keyed up than your previous BC.

This is almost exctly what I could be saying, with my BC pup last year. Time out techniques and traditional discipline ideas did not work at all with him; when we'd had no such findings with 3 previous BC dogs so didn't expect to have any problems at all. Calm, patient positive reinforcement and managing the excitement levels did work well.

The trouble with just saying "No!" is that your pup isn't learning desirable behaviour you do like. Rather than focussing him on something desirable, he's going to be keyed up wanting to do the thing he's not supposed to. To psyche my dog up for action, saying "Wait!" works a treat

To avoid my pup attacking me with that same sort of nipping, I had to attract his attention onto a really good decoy toy the Kong Airdog Tennis which looks like a skittle shaped tennis ball on a string (at first by using a sudden sound to interrupt his attention) and avoid paying off any nips or over rought behaviour. Basically yelping and ceasing interaction for short time, sufficed. Playing tug with a Good Boy Tetra on a line, works a treat to, and allows practice training of "Drop!" & "Wait!" for calmness and impulse control, as well as the fun "Fetch It!" and things like direction commands when he runs around me with it.

The boisterous playful shoe attacks lasted quite a while, but lessened gradually by consistent calm and patient handling of them. I made sure he did not get over excited.

To gain control without confrontation or force, basic obedience training using rewards helped immensly, he soon showed a keenness to work. That meant it was possible to redirect him into calm behaviours and positively reinforce those.


Once directed positively, whilst my pup is still an energetic and exciteable dog, he's learnt good enough manners to be well liked and receive many postive comments on his behaviour. Even from those who were trying to convince me to use, discipline based approaches when they saw over-boisterousness, despite us explaining that the postive reinforcement modern advice was working.

Hes a pup, showing completely normal puppy behavour! Sounds like he is attention seeking and winning.

You have to be consistant and persistant in your training at this stage as the pup will do what its allowed to do.

When you say you 'try disciplining him' what does that entail? And how does he 'become aggressive'? What is he doing thats you feel is aggressive?

How much exercise does he have a day and what do you do to tire him mentally? Having been brought up with both working and show border collies i have found at this age 30 mins of training/problem solving is far more tiring than the 25 mins walks.
A tired pup is a contented pup!

I know you are tearing your hair out and going round the bend but I can't help but laugh. I am so very sorry.

Like with all dogs no two dogs are the same so as harsh as it may sound don't match him up against your old dog it doesn't do anything involved any justice.

I got told by a collie trainer when I asked for advice before getting mine "You'll need a dam good sense of humour" and it's true. They will outsmart you at any given opportunity, play up when you think you've got it nailed and if you can't laugh about it then yes, you will end up in the nut house.

Max sounds like a live wire so rule number two (after rule number one bieng the sens eof humour part) is that they will learn bad habits just as quick if not quicker than what you are trying to train them. You have taken on a collie that has upped the exageration of the breed so you have to up your game to compensate trainign wise, quick to respond to the bad and the good in order to get it across to him.

Rule number three and the golden rule of collies is everything is a game tot hem. The biting, the charging about and the rest is what a collie does becasue wants to be the centre of attention be it good or bad attention they don;t give a crap, ita attnetion. If you remove that attention the game becomes no fun anymore so the game ends. Nipping is a game, it makes you move, it makes you interact by reacting and the dog sees this as engagement. Charging about is pretty much collie style all the way but how long would you dance in front of soemone if they paid no attention or didn't egg you on? Ignore the bad, remove the pup or yourself from the area thus ending the game and reward the good as others have said.

Have you started any basic training with him? Try and get in frou or five three minute sessions with him a day to wear him out. Using the grey matter drains the engine quicker than straight running and you don't end up with a super fit out of control dog either. Ad breaks are fab. Not becasue they try and seel you cack bu tthey are just the right length and at just the right interval time for puppy treaining sessions.

I agree the pup's playing a game and it's great fun most likely because of the way the OP is reacting to it. My pup was acting the hooligan, because he'd learnt how to push my teenage Niece around; to him it was great fun and he had to be taught better games that were more fun in place of it.

The hard thing is going to be, at just after 5 months I remember those adult teeth coming, and a large increase in energy and size, making puppy mouthing, jumping and any nipping much more serious that at 10-12 weeks.

You seem like a very pleasant person.

That was sarcasm in case you didn't pick that up.