Hi to whoever is reading!
I have a 6 month old tricolour BC called Bonnie
She is absolutely fantastic and we love her to bits
However, I have recently noticed that when small children come into the house, she jumps up on them rather aggressively and looks like she might want to nip. this is not the sort of behaviour she shows the rest of the family
I need to know what to do as I really dont want to stop kids coming over in fear of her biting or scaring them
At present, I have been showing my disapproval by slapping the side of her but (not hard) and sending her into the garden and closing the door
Is there anything else I should do?
Should I not do that?
Anyone got any advice?
Im up for any suggestions as this is my first dog and apart from that we are doing really well!
Cheers
Debs

Hello, I'm not sure I will be of any help but until a more experienced person comes online, I didn't want you to feel ignored
Do you allow your dog to greet them as soon as they enter the house?
I would not slap her as she may associate the slap with children

Removing her from the situation is a good idea but stop hitting your dog.

Any small children entering your home should be supervised to ensure that they do not behave in an excitable way around your dog. A collie needs lots of good, positive basic training to ensure that its natural instincts to herd are kept in check so if you are not already doing so, I would certainly consider attending training classes with her. Many people take small puppies to training classes for a few weeks then give up for one reason or another - a collie needs more ongoing training than that. Also, provide her with a bolthole, somewhere that she can go where the children are unable to follow. The more relaxed you are, the better she will be.

Personally speaking, I would keep her right away from children until you have more control over her and then and only then, reintroduce her to them in a controlled manner, ensuring that the child concerned knows to stay calm and not to frighten her. But........ if this problem instead escalates, then please do not seek advice via the internet, it is too serious a matter for that. Enlist the help of a good behavioural trainer instead who may come to your home to assess what is happening for themselves and tailor a training program accordingly to amend the problem. APDT has a members list, take a look to see if you have one or two of them in your area.

Hitting the dog is a no-no though and will solve nothing. It may create a dog who associates children with getting a slap instead.

Thank you for the advice. I will.

Thank you for that advice. I think it is very sensible. I was wondering if it was her way of showing that she is higher up the packing order than they are. She doesn't seem affected by visitors that look like fully grown adults. I will, as you say, get more control of her before letting children come in freely.

Thanks for that.
She sometimes greets at the door, other times, they walk in as shes in the garden or in the kitchen.

I agree with colliepoodle.

It sounds to me more like a typical collie herding, overexcitment type behaviour to me.

Tell her what you want her to do rather than what you don't! In my experience collies tend to work on rails, if you can get her in the habit of going to her bed when visitors come or fetching her favourite toy then you will be on to a winner. However for the meantime I agree with colliepoodle in that you should remove her from the situation, get her to do a few tricks to get thinking and focusing and then take her back in on a lead when you feel she is calm enough.

Is she motivated by food? Toys?

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I agree with both Caroline's posts - very sensible.

Apologies for the terseness of my first reply, BTW - I was in a hurry and didn't mean to come across quite as harshly

As Caroline says, it's little to do with pecking order (actually, very few behavioural problems are to do with pecking order - far less than some people would have you believe).