Border collie repetitive behaviour, also know as compulsive behaviour or stereotypical behaviour is defined as “repetitive, constant, and appear to serve no obvious purpose”. Examples include: shadow or light chasing/fixating, tail chasing, spinning, fly snapping, repetitive licking of legs and feet, digging or scratching at the floor and pica (eating inedible items such as stones). … Read more
When discussing anti anxiety meds for dogs with owners, some may be keen to give it a go, others are a little more wary and some owners absolutely do not want to use it. As a dog owner myself, I completely understand this concern about what we are putting in our dog’s bodies and how … Read more
One very good way of stopping your border collie barking is to use a no-attention discriminative stimulus. This can help dogs who bark and whine for attention and become very frustrated or anxious when their behaviour doesn’t result in the anticipated reward. Their anticipated reward could be being thrown a toy, being stroked, or even … Read more
Border collies are fantastic dogs, and can make great companions, but there are often very difficult behaviours to navigate from puppyhood through adolescence and on to early adulthood, often as late as 3 years old. They can become aroused by different things to other breeds, mostly focused around movement. Border collie jumping and biting behaviour … Read more
Border collies and Christmas: One of the busiest times of year for me is after Christmas, and a lot of this is due to aggression incidents that happened over the Christmas period. There are many things that can cause stress and anxiety for your collie over Christmas, so it’s important to be aware of these … Read more
Play biting is a really common, very painful issue for many border collie puppy owners. Ozzy is now 14 weeks old and his puppy biting is, at times, especially when he’s tired and needs to sleep, quite painful. One of the most common questions I am asked by puppy owners is “How do I stop … Read more
As a behaviourist, the possibility of pain is always on my list as a potential cause of, or contributing factor towards, behavioural problems. In the last week alone, I have seen two examples of border collies belonging to friends with severe pain or discomfort, showing hardly any signs that anything was physically wrong. And the … Read more
Border collie adolescence is the cause of over 90% of my behaviour consultations, which tells you how challenging this part of raising a collie can be! Their problem behaviours range from aggression to owners, strangers or other dogs, to shadow chasing, chasing vehicles, lack of recall, pulling on the lead or sound fears and phobias, … Read more
Why do collies chase cars and other vehicles? Having worked with many border collie car chasers over the last few years, it’s my belief that this behaviour is most often initiated by fear and frustration. Border collies that chase vehicles often are taken too near to busy roads when they are puppies and are terrified … Read more
“Border collie suddenly aggressive” is a very highly searched term on Google and unfortunately aggressive behaviour is a common problem within the breed. There are many reasons why a border collie would suddenly become aggressive, and techniques for helping the dog to overcome its aggressive behaviour will vary according to what is causing it. It’s … Read more