General Chat

She IS topdog Kay.........Scarlett has never even challenged her for it.....as far as Fleur is concerned she's Scarlett's mummy and has been since the day I bought her here lol xx

The problem muffy is she thinks shes next in rank in the whole family so you need to go back to square one.
feed her at the same time everyday after the rest of the family is fed.
this is how she will know her place.
Do not ever feed her from your table or before any of your children or she wont get the message.
once she gets her order in the pack sorted out again she will settle down

So she has never sneaked out with her lippy on and winked at the postman then.....

Hiya Alice.

Noooooooo she's definately top dog here....for the moment lol.

Fleur (the collie) worships the children and whilst they're up she hangs around them...though........Scarlett (the poodle) follows me everywhere ........even to the loo lol.

When the girls go to bed she tries to sit on my feet and nudge Scarlett out of the way and Scarlett lets her.

I don't though and send her away if she gets heavy handed with her.....

Scarlett only ever gets stroppy with my mum and dads poodle when I'm looking after her........but never with the collie.... she does exactly as she.....(if I'm not about) tells her to......but ultimately they do both know who the pack leader is here. x

Hello Tania ~~~~~~ does that go for cats as well as mine is fed as she was as a kitten little and often she perfers it that way, she knows when we are due home and if we are early she gets confused.

No she's a well brought up young lady Hayley not some made up t*** lolololol

Tanianz she's fed after us all and she really doesn't ever challenge any human for pack leader she knows her place.......that's why this is SO odd.

When I catch her stealing she KNOWS she's done wrong......in a way only collies can communicate lol.

She's magnificently obedient and has up til now been an absolute joy in all ways.......but the food thing is now starting to overtake many of her positive traits xx

is there a possibility that she may be bored Muffy?

Try toys that you stuff treats into, it worked with my lurcher other than that it may be a case of being strict with her, Tess was a right rascal jumping up on furniture so I used a rattle bottle (once instructed by a dog trainer on how to use it properly) she doesn't jump up now unless invited.

Drastic times sometimes calls for drastic measures.

My old girl once stole 24 ginger bread men ( with silver ball buttons ) off a cloth covered table of children's party food......the doily was still on the plate !!.....sneaky,sneaky girl.........lol

But in her defence she did have pups at the time and vomited the whole lot up for them.............don't ya just love a kids party.........lol

I still say she is knocked up if you ask me...

I'll be honest Hayley.

I'd absolutely LOVE it if she was ........but she's just passed her season so she definately isn't lol xx

And it's not hormonal I don't think as this has been going on since old man died regardless of her cycle xx

I know the toys you mean Mumma Rambo...........I'll buy them one each just in case......but she's got plenty occupying her ........when the children aren't here she *looks after* the guinea pigs, chickens and cats lol. Plus she is walked on a regular basis..........and has another dog to play with.........

I'm still thinking it is a *top dog* thing and she sees greed as a sign of dominance xx

I neither encourage or discourage really Carol........as it's not extreme enough to worry about.

I know that collies can give the *collie kiss* often if they get frustrated but she's never done that.......she's a clown really ........not an ounce of malice in her unless she thinks someone or something is threatening the children......and even then if I tell her to *back off* she'll just look at me and lie down and submit lol xx

Have you asked Eldrick Muffy?

TBH Hayley.......although it's been happening for a while.....it's only tonight that I decided it was a problem........3 times she's nicked the pot of used teabags and eaten them !!!!!!!!!!!!! ewwwwwwwww

I will try and find Eldrick *elsewhere* too and get his perspective on it.

Though I reckon he'll just roll his eyes and tell me that dogs are natural scavengers lol xx

Yep I'm happy to take any advice on board Carol.....it's not the end of the world in the scheme of things........and I still love her dearly.....but it IS a tad irritating.

My Dads collie was a brother of Fleurs.......though from a different litter 3 yrs before and he was a terrible scrounger all his life !!!! Mind Dad used to turn a blind eye ............

If she'd always done it I don't suppose it would bother me.......it's just that it's getting slowly worse that I've decided to try to deal with it. In every other way she's a darling.......

The scrounging DID seem to start immediately after he died Diane so I'm sure in some way the two things are linked.

It was actually only 17 months ago we lost the old man ........and outwardly she didn't seem overly mithered.......not like it was when the elderly collie died when they all seemed to go into a decline.

But maybe it affected her in a different way xx

muffy,im getting the same problem with my dog and its driving me crazy,charlie is a 15month old lab,hes a lovely dog but he drives me crazy in the evening,he has started to steal t-towels and underwear and to jump up and steal things from the counter(but he will never steal food)hes doing it to get my attension,but hes gets four walks a day at least 4hrs in all,which most vts would say is far to much excesice for a 15month old lab,he ill steal antthing to make me take notice and its so exhusting,can dogs have HYPERACTIVITY SYNDROME ?AND GOD CAN HE EAT,HE WEIGHTS 7STONE the vet said hes fine,he wants to live with him,hes like the cuddly lab from hell