wendybed Posted September 3, 2014 Report Share Posted September 3, 2014 Hi everyone, I am glad to have found this forum. We have an 8 year old Golden female and after two years of pleading my case, I finally got my border collie! I had one in the past when I was much younger and not very experienced and thus had a quirky border collie named Wally ( who bore the scars of so many of my mistakes--separation anxiety being one of the,) who was my best bud for almost 16 years. So, we welcomed a tiny 6 week old puppy named Maisey this summer. I will attach a couple of pictures. Maisey is pretty high energy, which I don't mind. I am a stay at home mom and we have a big yard and lots of trails nearby. I am learning to give her some forced downtime because she doesn't like to stop! At first, I would just play with her until she dropped and I spent a summer with kids who ate cereal and a house that was a mess! LOL! Now the pup has to enter the pecking order. My two issues, which it know are pure puppy issues and everyone has them, but I would like to continue to make progress and I thing we are stalled on these two fronts (and our trainer is on vacation for 2 weeks!). She is very mouthy. I think she came to us a little too early at 6 weeks (several reasons, but too late to fix that problem now) and has poor bite inhibition. We have tried so many things and nothing is working. She is around my other dog, who does not like the biting and acts accordingly. She spent a good part of the summer with My sister in law's two dogs, too. They were more tolerant that our Golden, but still corrected her when then needed to. But, my kids are an easy target. She ripped my pants last night and another pair this morning! We yelp and ignore. She knows drop and leave it, which works when she wants to respond. Sometimes she won't even let you pet her without gnawing on your arms or hands, let alone changing and jumping up to grab clothing, if you get your face close, you may get a nip. What else can we try. I don't want to use the crate as punishment, but I suspect some of this is when she is over tired. Any thoughts on what else to try? Also, this pup, even as a 6 week old, never pooped in the house. She practically stands on her head to let us know she needs to go outside to poop! She even rings bells. But, she will pee without warning. Even if I have her out ever hour on the hour, she will still pee in between A few times a day. When I take her outside, she will pee immediately, so she knows why she's out there. We have a command, too. No problem. But we're not making progress on the time in between. I have her gated in our mudroom because I can't make her world any bigger until she makes more progress here. She is crated when I leave the house, BTW. And, I am directly supervising her about 95percent of the time when she is not crated. She doesn't walk away and sniff. She'll stand up and just go right next to me, for example. She is still young --only almost 14 weeks, but I was hoping for better progress by now ( since she has been with us for 8 weeks now) Any thoughts are appreciated! Thanks--wendy The first picture is the day she arrived home and the second is of Lilah, our golden and Maisey (slooowwly becoming buds) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted September 3, 2014 Report Share Posted September 3, 2014 A couple of quick thoughts: (I know you will get more expansive answers from others) Don't look at the crate as a punishment. Please use the search function for "crate training" and you will find lengthy discussions on why crating (done properly) can be very important in a dog's life - particularly for potty training. You are right that she may be over-tired at times when she nips. That is the PERFECT time to pop her in the crate for a little nap. (Didn't you put your kids down for a nap when they got cranky?) She gets refreshed and can be on better behavior. You get a break. And she doesn't get to practice her bad behavior. Potty training: Her bladder is probably not fully mature. This was just mentioned on another thread, and IIRC, the bladder is not mature (i.e. controllable) until they are 14-16 months old. IMHO, I think it may be a little longer than that. From friends that have small breeds, they have told me that the small breeds (Paps, Poms, etc.) may not have full bladder control until close to 6 months of age. Gotta go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMP Posted September 3, 2014 Report Share Posted September 3, 2014 Peeing could be bladder immaturity - could be marking - your other dog is a female. I'd wait it out and see how it progresses for another month or so. I'd try hard not to let her fail - that is get her out whether she says she needs to go or not even more frequently. Grain of salt, as usual. The nippy bitey thing is SO dependant upon the relationship you have with your dog and the one she has with you/the family that it would be impossible to advise - the yelp and ignore method will eventually yield results if done consistently. She's a beauty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Labs & Mia Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Awe! Both such beautiful girls. Old Vet used to say "Puppyhood is like having a cold, you forget how bad it really is until you have one again". :-) Mia just turned 5 months, so I got a refresher recently. The pee issue, might be worth collecting a quick sample of urine in small boiled jar, 1st thing one a.m., and dropping at Vet's just to see if she has a UTI going or not. Usually not much charge for that, and they don't need to see them just to test it. They are pretty common with the little female pups. Mia had one when she came home from shelter. I started to suspect as she was just peeing way to often, about every 20 minutes, and small multiple times when taken outdoors, but was perfect on getting her poop where it belonged. So just a thought there. A quick shot of a spray called Nature's Miracle after cleaning up the urine really seems to help too. I noticed even though she still had the infection for a while if she had an accident it wasn't anywhere near where I'd sprayed that stuff. Your girl is awfully young though, bet you'll see big improvement a month from now unless it is a UTI working against her. The ruff biting, not fun, but perfect opportunity to teach the concept of "easy". Lots of ways to go about it, depends on the dog. One Mia understood best: Set on floor, pick up pup, cover your teeth with your lips so you can't hurt her, put her ear or paw in your mouth, bite to apply gentle pressure to give the example of easy, then softly say "easy". If she does it back, say yes good girl "easy" every time. If she's going too ruff with your adult girl, same thing, grab her up on the spot, put her on your lap, repeat, set her down to try it again. I stick my hand in the middle of play sessions when she's playing with my older girls to check how hard she's actually biting. Sometimes it looks worse than it is, but if it's over the top she gets told again. I think really it bores her to death so she plays easier to keep from being side lined and getting the routine she already knows. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandysfarm Posted September 7, 2014 Report Share Posted September 7, 2014 Hi everyone, I am glad to have found this forum. We have an 8 year old Golden female and after two years of pleading my case, I finally got my border collie! I had one in the past when I was much younger and not very experienced and thus had a quirky border collie named Wally ( who bore the scars of so many of my mistakes--separation anxiety being one of the,) who was my best bud for almost 16 years. So, we welcomed a tiny 6 week old puppy named Maisey this summer. I will attach a couple of pictures. Maisey is pretty high energy, which I don't mind. I am a stay at home mom and we have a big yard and lots of trails nearby. I am learning to give her some forced downtime because she doesn't like to stop! At first, I would just play with her until she dropped and I spent a summer with kids who ate cereal and a house that was a mess! LOL! Now the pup has to enter the pecking order. My two issues, which it know are pure puppy issues and everyone has them, but I would like to continue to make progress and I thing we are stalled on these two fronts (and our trainer is on vacation for 2 weeks!). She is very mouthy. I think she came to us a little too early at 6 weeks (several reasons, but too late to fix that problem now) and has poor bite inhibition. We have tried so many things and nothing is working. She is around my other dog, who does not like the biting and acts accordingly. She spent a good part of the summer with My sister in law's two dogs, too. They were more tolerant that our Golden, but still corrected her when then needed to. But, my kids are an easy target. She ripped my pants last night and another pair this morning! We yelp and ignore. She knows drop and leave it, which works when she wants to respond. Sometimes she won't even let you pet her without gnawing on your arms or hands, let alone changing and jumping up to grab clothing, if you get your face close, you may get a nip. What else can we try. I don't want to use the crate as punishment, but I suspect some of this is when she is over tired. Any thoughts on what else to try? Also, this pup, even as a 6 week old, never pooped in the house. She practically stands on her head to let us know she needs to go outside to poop! She even rings bells. But, she will pee without warning. Even if I have her out ever hour on the hour, she will still pee in between A few times a day. When I take her outside, she will pee immediately, so she knows why she's out there. We have a command, too. No problem. But we're not making progress on the time in between. I have her gated in our mudroom because I can't make her world any bigger until she makes more progress here. She is crated when I leave the house, BTW. And, I am directly supervising her about 95percent of the time when she is not crated. She doesn't walk away and sniff. She'll stand up and just go right next to me, for example. She is still young --only almost 14 weeks, but I was hoping for better progress by now ( since she has been with us for 8 weeks now) Any thoughts are appreciated! Thanks--wendy The first picture is the day she arrived home and the second is of Lilah, our golden and Maisey (slooowwly becoming buds) image.jpg image.jpg ha, very cute! I have the same picture as yours with the happy-puppy b c and my retriever averting snottily . The text balloon would say "jebuz, get this THING away from me". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandysfarm Posted September 7, 2014 Report Share Posted September 7, 2014 Hi everyone, I am glad to have found this forum. We have an 8 year old Golden female and after two years of pleading my case, I finally got my border collie! I had one in the past when I was much younger and not very experienced and thus had a quirky border collie named Wally ( who bore the scars of so many of my mistakes--separation anxiety being one of the,) who was my best bud for almost 16 years. So, we welcomed a tiny 6 week old puppy named Maisey this summer. I will attach a couple of pictures. Maisey is pretty high energy, which I don't mind. I am a stay at home mom and we have a big yard and lots of trails nearby. I am learning to give her some forced downtime because she doesn't like to stop! At first, I would just play with her until she dropped and I spent a summer with kids who ate cereal and a house that was a mess! LOL! Now the pup has to enter the pecking order. My two issues, which it know are pure puppy issues and everyone has them, but I would like to continue to make progress and I thing we are stalled on these two fronts (and our trainer is on vacation for 2 weeks!). She is very mouthy. I think she came to us a little too early at 6 weeks (several reasons, but too late to fix that problem now) and has poor bite inhibition. We have tried so many things and nothing is working. She is around my other dog, who does not like the biting and acts accordingly. She spent a good part of the summer with My sister in law's two dogs, too. They were more tolerant that our Golden, but still corrected her when then needed to. But, my kids are an easy target. She ripped my pants last night and another pair this morning! We yelp and ignore. She knows drop and leave it, which works when she wants to respond. Sometimes she won't even let you pet her without gnawing on your arms or hands, let alone changing and jumping up to grab clothing, if you get your face close, you may get a nip. What else can we try. I don't want to use the crate as punishment, but I suspect some of this is when she is over tired. Any thoughts on what else to try? Also, this pup, even as a 6 week old, never pooped in the house. She practically stands on her head to let us know she needs to go outside to poop! She even rings bells. But, she will pee without warning. Even if I have her out ever hour on the hour, she will still pee in between A few times a day. When I take her outside, she will pee immediately, so she knows why she's out there. We have a command, too. No problem. But we're not making progress on the time in between. I have her gated in our mudroom because I can't make her world any bigger until she makes more progress here. She is crated when I leave the house, BTW. And, I am directly supervising her about 95percent of the time when she is not crated. She doesn't walk away and sniff. She'll stand up and just go right next to me, for example. She is still young --only almost 14 weeks, but I was hoping for better progress by now ( since she has been with us for 8 weeks now) Any thoughts are appreciated! Thanks--wendy The first picture is the day she arrived home and the second is of Lilah, our golden and Maisey (slooowwly becoming buds) image.jpg image.jpg ha, very cute! I have the same picture as yours with the happy-puppy b c and my retriever yanking back her ears and averting snottily . The text balloon would say "jebuz, get this THING away from me". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendybed Posted September 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2014 Thanks, Everyone. In just a few days, everything has gotten drastically better! Like a light Switch! As for the peeing, on Thursday, suddenly things seemed to click and she has not had an accident since Then. She rings bells to go out and poop (as I said, she has never pooped in the house and would go nuts to let us know!). But, suddenly on Thursday, she started ringing the bells to go out and pee too! Was stunned. has not had one accident since!! And I did nothing different. She just figured this out all on her own. And, the biting was making me so mad. I was doing everything the trainer told me and did a ton of reading and it wasn't working. In two days, she ripped three pairs of my pants! So, I started getting a little more clear about my displeasure. Not only would I go still and turn away, I would walk just outside her gate so she could see me and I would turn my head and ignore her. In about 30 seconds, I would walk back in and give her one command and if she kept doing it, I would walk away again and repeat. I had to do it about 6-7 times, but she seems better about the biting now and listening to me faster, so I don't leave the room! But, this little bugger is so smart and funny! She was pretty hesitant about the water and learned to swim this week, diving right in to play with the Golden! I was very proud and happy to have two water lovers. Also--We keeps a crate downstairs and upstairs. They have two different latches and she has learned to open both of them! So, the night before last, she got out sometime at night or early morning, my husband got up at around 6:30 and she was not in her crate--door wide open! He jumped up to find her and I called her and swung my feet off my side of the bed and there she was --on my side of the bed sitting up and looking at me! My accidents, no chewing. Just sitting there. And, in her funnier moments--she tries to hide her bully sticks because the Golden loves them and tries to steal them. So, the other day, she put one in a corner and was brushing her nose on the floor trying to brush "dirt" over it (in my mushroom on a tile floor!). I am happy to say there was no dirt, so she finally grabbed a soft toy over and worked to position it just right so it was over the stick all the way so you couldn't't see it. Yesterday, she did the same thing, but grabbed the towel we use for her paws to cover it up to hide it. I thought it was hilarious and very clever! Am just in love with this little girl! Thanks for the advice. I guess so me puppy problems you just have to wait out! Thanks--wendy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted September 7, 2014 Report Share Posted September 7, 2014 She sounds like a sweetheart. I am glad things are going more smoothly. Don't pay too much attention to benchmarks that you read on the Internet e.g. someone may post that all their dogs were potty-trained by 3 months of age, or they were leash-walking calmly by 5 months old. Each dog and each owner is an individual, and we all progress at our own pace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendybed Posted September 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2014 Thanks. Was not getting hung up on benchmarks. But she came to is early--6 weeks. I have been working so Much with her and some things were just not getting better after 8 weeks and I was getting frustrated with lack of progress in those areas. But, I guess some things can't get better until They are developmentally ready for it. She is a sweet dog, though! We are both very attached to each other already! Thanks again, Wendy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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