Does anyone have any ideas how i can get my 1 year old border collie male to stop barking everytime the post man comes? he wont stop barking and then starts attacking the letter box, any ideas would be grately appreciated, thanks

hes defending his territory! (so he thinks)!


the "leave it" command would be a good one to teach him or "finish" (meaning, thanks, no-ones trying to rob us you can shush now )



think yourself lucky he dosent "help" by bringing the post to you (and shreding it on the way) my "delightful " spaniel does this.....daily.

My dog always barked when the postie came. I didn't mind that.

What about getting a letter basket inside for your letter box, or putting a box outside for the letters?

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I'd recommend a letter basket in your case.

My dog barks at the postman, but he goes and gets the letters and brings it to us, which is cute.

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Dogs do what works for them. The postman comes, the dog barks and the postman goes away. The dog succeeds in making the postman go away every day
I would go with the outside box

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We had the same problem with Maddie, last year for no reason apparent to us, she started grabbing the mail and bloody well eating it!!

We kind of coped till she caught the end of the posties glove one morning and put a hole in it!! Postie was oks, he likes the dogs, lol, but did warn us others may not be so forgiving so we got a box and OH fitted it on the wall next to the door - much safer and less hassle and no chance of Maddie biting the posties fingers!

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Same problem here but it was the postmans doing - he was a young stupid lad who would put the letters through then pull them back and would repeat doing this( we only found out when husband caught him doing it) we wondered why the dogs went crazy at the postie. Rocco got the fingers of a man delivering election literature for the BNP ( but we wont count that).Rocco is also the canine shredder, so I got one of the baskets on the back. The only thing is if we go away for the week end or longer husband has to remove the basket as my useless mother would not empty the basket...she wont even pick it up off the floor...she will open/close blinds water plants but has an aversion to letters.

Yes my sister had a collie that did just the same, culminating in the postman chucking her post into the hedge. Remedied by putting a postbox on the outside wall, well away from the garden gate.

My cats that i had when in my late teens used to rip up my post so i got a basket.

Going back to the dog though. If you are in when the postie comes, why not meet him at the door with a treat for your dog. When it sits and is quiet, give the dog the treat. My parents did this with our JRT as the postie was the only delivery guy that didn't stop at the door and have a chat. After about a week, Tansy realised that when the postie came it wasn't a bad thing, so she'd sit and wait by the lobby door and not utter a peep.

The postie was actually really good about it and said that it was a pleasure to be able to help as he was fed up of getting nipped. He saw how it was a positive reinforcement that got the good [quiet] behaviour....and he carried a bag of treats for the dogs that he knew. So the postie coming became a real high light.

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