Bitting

[tcaratello]

I have a 3 yr old Border named Jake, he has always "nipped" but in the past week has bitten my daughter 13 and broke skin, and last night bit

my son 16 in the leg, what do I do to stop it?

[TheStacks]

I am certainly no expert, but can you give us more details of the bite incidents? That may help some of the more experienced people on here help you.

 

When did he nip before? When did he start this behavior? What happened leading up to the bite with each kid?

 

How long have you had Jake? Is he neutered? How much/what kind of exercise (physical and mental) does he get each day?

 

Answers to these questions should help you get more advice.

 

Lauren

[tcaratello]

My daughter was running in the house from out back when he bit her, and my son was just walking down the hall, Jake has been getting more upset when we leave, he bites the kids book bags in the morning when they are ready to leave, I think he may have bit my son because he was getting ready to go out?

[FundyBorder]

The daughter running I can understand, Border Collie's stop action. Now on the other hand it's not acceptable. The son and the bookbags I'm not sure, is the dog becoming stressed at that point? I find that my Jak only exhibits barking traits at the point when he's stressed and I'm sure if I permitted to continue he would probobly nip also. I'm not a trainer so don't know the best way to deal with the situation and I'm very new to the breed myself. I would suggest you posting this in the general discusion area as you'll see alot more posts going through that area. On the other hand I would have the dog sit/down and wait while the children are getting ready to leave. My rule is that they need to stay at the top of the steps when the door opens and closes. I would also be sure to closely supervise the dog while interacting with the children and be sure to nip this issue in the butt so to speak before it gets out of hand! : )

[Pat W.]

The nipping at your daughter as she was running is typical border collie herding behavior. You need to stop this ASAP. It also sounds like Jake is suffering from a bit of separation anxiety. You say "he has always nipped" How long have you had him? I went through this with my first bc nipping/grabbing kids as they ran and played. I corrected by a very strong verbal NO BITE! and then put the offender in a time out inside if the incident happened outside, crated or isolated in another room if the incident happened inside. The time out only lasted about 5min but made an impression.

[Shetlander]

Originally posted by tcaratello:

Jake has been getting more upset when we leave, he bites the kids book bags in the morning when they are ready to leave, I think he may have bit my son because he was getting ready to go out?

I had a sheltie who didn't like me leaving out the front door with friends which he knew meant he'd be staying behind. He used to jump on me, growling and once managed to spin me into sitting on the sofa (not a bad feat for a 28 lb dog). He also started grabbing at my purse. I addressed this by telling him to sit and wait while I left. If he still came at me, I threw my keys at him. Not a very positive approach, but since my aim is so horrendous not a very dangerous one either. Between being told what he was supposed to do and the negative consequence of noisy keys flying over his head, he stopped the behavior. Nowadays, I would have added going back to him to reward his good behavior with a small treat.