help with collie

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MrsNorris

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Hi all
Looking for a bit of advise regarding my YO's rescue collie. Owner has had her for about 6 months now and she's a sweet dog but has some strange behaviours! At first she would just bark madly at everyone which I ignored, then she started to circle around you as if she is trying to herd you? and if she can't do that because she's the other side of the gate, she will spin frantically in circles, sometimes bashing herself as she does so. Almost seems like she's in a trance when she's doing this. Now she has progressed to nipping me when I leave the yard to go and get my horse! Its not too hard, but enough to rip 2 pairs of trousers! Its happened about 5 times and the nips are starting to get harder. Don't want this to progress for both our sakes but don't know how to stop it. Have tried shouting at her but to no avail. When she's calm, she's a lovely dog who loves a cuddle but this other behaviour is starting to make me very wary of her. Any tips for how I should handle it? Thanks for reading. :)
 
She sounds bored - collies need a job/lots of mental stimulation, not just walking and cuddling and feeding and can develop OCD type behaviours if they don't get it. Think about obedience, tracking, flyball, agility, herding etc, set her puzzles and tasks to complete.
 
Echo above!
Collies need brain stimulation!
I can vouch now those nips will get worse!
I learnt the hard way.
Agility is brilliant for them, If you have some jumps at the yard use them! If not make shift something! They are brilliant trick dogs too!
 
As other's have said, she needs to do something that she regards as a 'job'.

We have a rescue Collie, they are mad!

Ours had 5 homes before it was six months old, when we got her. She's not been any trouble at all to us, the most perfect, obedient, willing to please dog that i have ever known. However, she has daily, long hacks out with my daughter & has a very important 'job', of 'rounding up & protecting' our VERY, VERY elderly cat (think stuffed cat!)

We also use jumps in the school with her & her absolutely favourite thing is walking a cross country course where she has to go over every jump.

Have you talked to YO? She really needs to sort it out before you get bitten.
 
Echoing all the others that dog needs a job to keep its mind busy :)

Be careful though those nips will turn into bites over time if she doesn't learn its not acceptable and isn't inhibiting her nip..

Try to avoid getting into situations where she can get behind you and encourage you along with her mouth...ie dont let her get the chance to come up behind you in that zone...most collies will chose to nip at the heal from behind so keep an eye on where she is,try not dont turn your back on her whens she's skulking in herd mode.

When she does it try to herd try changing her focus from herding to something else..ie bring a tennis ball to chuck for her and keep her mind going in the chase rather than the herd mode.
Or have treats in your pocket and ask her to do whatever tricks/commands she knows to work for them.
Most collies (well the ones I know anyway) can be obsessive about the things they like to do/eat and will do anything for that reward....so find out if she's a foodieor a ball addict and use that to snap her away from herd mode.

If she cant be convinced to change from herd to another exciting game then put her in a stable while you are in the yard when she changes from friendly dog to nippy herder its not worth getting bitten over and at the end of the day she is not your dog and letting her take out that behavior on visitor will only make her worse in the long run.


Tell her owner that she has been shredding your clothes and trying to bite at you (and yes they are nips now but this nipping is damaging clothes and crossing into the biting line! so it needs to be taken seriously sooner rather than later)It is their dog, they need to be the ones making the effort to sort her out not their liveries you can only do so much in the time you are there.
 
Yep, she needs a job.

I would have a word with the owner, and wear your wellies in the meantime to stop her nipping your heels and hurting you. If she does start nipping, I would calmly remove her from the situation (so into a stable) so she isn't getting any reward for it, if you have your wellies on you won't get hurt so you'll be able to be calm and not escalate the situation. If you can get her doing tricks or chasing a ball before she starts the nipping great, that will give her an outlet - I would worry that if you wait until she starts nipping, that becomes a reward for the nipping.

But most of all, she needs a job so she won't get into that state in the first place, her owner needs to give her one quick. Agility, flyball - just something.
 
Echoing what the others have said, Border Collies need mental stimulation. Teach tricks, go to obedience, flyball, agility, etc classes.
 
Although it can just be a sign of overexcitement, spinning can also be a bit of a compulsive, often stress related behaviour - it can be a hard habit to break unfortunately. Could be worth a vet trip to rule out a neurological cause
http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/guide/compulsive-behavior-dogs
http://suite101.com/article/underst...ive-spinning-or-tail-chasing-behavior-a306103
If it's very serious, it could warrant a behaviourist assessment - someone on another forum I use has tried dealing with her dog's spinning for a while now, and health issues (hip problems) have caused her to see a specialist who has prescribed the dog anti-anxiety medication to take the edge off the dog's stress to try to break her out of the spinning habit. Not all cases will be that hard to break, but just bear that in mind if your YO is struggling to tackle it.

This article covers overexcited behaviour, with a link to a good article on impulse control
http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/overstim.html

The Youtube channel pamelamarxsen has lots of videos on self-control, calmness around dogs or distractions, etc. and is geared towards agility/Collies so could be worth checking out
http://www.youtube.com/pamelamarxsen
 
Thanks everyone for your super quick replies! Her owner is lovely and she does get quite a lot of stimulation I think, but perhaps not enough to keep her chilled. I have mentioned the nipping to her owner and she has told me to give the dog a good telling off, but I have tried that and it doesn't seem to make much difference. Dog does seem quite food orientated, so maybe something could be done with that, the nipping happens so fast though, and she's gone before I really have a chance to react. Unfortunatly for me, she nips my thigh, not my ankles, so maybe a pair of full chaps might be in order!! I will mention to her owner some of your suggestions and see if we can come up with a plan, the dog is really not a bad dog and has come on in leaps and bounds compared to the terrified little thing she was! She tries to herd everything, horses, cars, people etc her herding instincts are very strong! Not used to that as I am a terrier person. Thanks again for your help. :)
 
If you are already telling her off and getting after her, and she is still nipping when your back is turned (classic trait!!) then it isn't working.

As with the ball chucking, you need to get after her, or even diverting her with food, while she is *thinking* about doing it, after that, it is too late.
 
Hi Amymay
Not sure if she does it to anyone else, thats another thing that worries me, that I may have inadvertantly encouraged this behaviour in some way. She's a nice dog who's had a rough start in life and her current owner is brilliant with her, so I was just hoping to find a way of discouraging this quickly and easily without causing any stress to her owner or feeling like I'm making a fuss. :)
 
She does not actually sound like she has major issues she just sounds like a working collie that as suggested is bored of her brain (very clever) dogs with bounds of energy with nothing to do will often exhibit what looks like alarming behaviours.
We have a rescue in that nips like that (like lightening) he gets/did get (not now) very frenzied when you walked into the gate (not aggression) just simple frenzied over excitement, he bit at calf height my leg was a mess until I realised what was happening, I though it was one of the greyhounds catching me with it's dew claw.
Does she just mull around the yard all day? the nipping is not great, she is gonna cause some damage if she bites in the right place or the same place very time, you will end up with some nasty bruises.
 
Also, heightened excitement/anticipation near doorways/gates/entrances and exits to rooms is not unusual in any breed of dog, particularly a high-energy working one. Also where a lot of dog fights break out as a result. I make my dog sit and wait quietly before he passes through any doorway. Even that is a 'job' or a 'task'.
 
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