a few wee issues

hi my name is larane i have had dogs all my life but have never had a pup that as shown aggression i may add this is anew thing...let me tell you about my new girl skye she is 18 weeks border collie cross we got her at 8 weeks and has grown drastically she now weighs 20lbs but is very lean at the back end and muscular at chest skye has been doing good walks to heel chances her arm_or paw in her case but for past two weeks when my 18 year old daughter leans down toher we hear growling and she shows her teeth its also happened to my husband and this evening she did same to myself she was severely reprimanded verbally and ignored and she took herself into her crate she came back out about 10 mins later and has been her usual charming self whats going on and am i dealing with it in the right way she has also started barking when door is knocked .phone rings or meeting strangers while out walking mainly at night

Hi Larane, can you give us a bit more detail please. You say she is a Border Collie cross but you didn't mention the other part of her heritage. Where is she when the growling happens, is she being possessive of you? is she protecting something else?

First, never reprimand her verbally. Whatever way she is acting is because she either doesn't know better or she thinks she or you in in danger. Try calming her down without using harsh methods. Combatting aggression with aggression is never successful.

It is just a thought, but you said this behaviour was recent, is she hurting in some way and woried about being touched? Are her teeth OK?

I like what kernow said. I would take her to the vet to eliminate any physical problems.

Do you have any other animals? A scratch from a cat on a dog's face may not show but it can be very sore for the dog and puppies that live with cats sometimes have to learn the hard way. I hope you get the problem solved very soon.

And as has been said, dogs are very sensitive. Yelling at them or scolding them doesn't work out very well.

skye has two cats and two rabbits as housemates the rabbits are house rabbits and based upstairs with my daughter when they are out exercising skye is not normally in the room but when they are in their cage she can go into say hi the rabbits are my daughters domain our other pets are cara and chloe and it does look like there is s slight scratch to her face we have caught one of the cats having a wee swipe these cats had been very close to our dog jade who passed away in the spring skye is also teething just now i have been thinking back to when this occured with skye growling and can directly relate it to my husband not putting her in her crate one day while i was out as he went to the local shop i normally put her in the crate when leaving home which she seems to enjoy as she snuggles up with her toys and has a nice sleep...as to heritagewe are not 100% sure what dad was but as she is maturing i think their appears to be jack russell in her we only know dad was collie cross but not sure what his other half was mum was full bordercollie

That is an odd combination, Jack Russell and Border Collie, quite a height difference too but I guess where there's a will there's a way! My very first dog as a child was a Jack Russell, I loved her dearly but I have to admit that she was a bit of a growler at times. My brother has a Jack Russell he is a farm dog and he is very protective of my brother, no one would get near my brother or his car if the dog wasn't told it was OK. Your dog will get used to the cats in time and learn not to push her luck. Have there been any more incidents of aggression?

I am not suggesting that it is a good thing but odd combinations happen, my dog Lucy is half border collie and half Shiz Tsu. I think she has got the best of both breeds.

You can't really blame the cats for lashing out, it is what cats do. She will learn quickly and they will become friends

thanks to everyone who replied to my thread further incident last night with skye and my daughter skye was sitting next to me my daughter came home and gave skye a pat she started growling and showing teeth again ...my daughter is getting quite upset over this as she has never struck the dog or anything in fact she is extemely gentle and good with all animals and has been since a very young child and when i say skye no thats when she takes herself to her crate when she behaves in this way we have been ignoring her for a time sorta like chill out time not really sure if i am doing right or wrong but i feel this must be nipped in the bud before she is much older she appears to know what she is doing is wrong which is the strange part of all this in all other aspects she if fine vet cant find any medical reason and she was an angel when being examined

I just noticed something that really concerns me. This dog is still a puppy. 18 week old puppies just aren't aggressive. Either you are misinterpeting her normal puppy play behavior as aggression or you have a real problem. Back in my days as a professional trainer, I had many calls from potential clients about their "aggressive" puppies only to find puppies who were showing normal puppy play that was being wrongly interpeted as aggression. Showing teeth while growling is not normally a part of puppy play. If you still think she is being aggressive and not just soliciting play, I would get her to a vet immediately to rule out any physical problem as the cause for aggression and if none is found, contact a CERTIFIED behaviorist immediately to get her evaluated. If you have an 18 week old puppy who is truly aggressive, it will be more than you can handle by yourself.