Border Collie/attutude and possibly pregnant

Question
We have two border collies older one male he is about 10 years old. We have gotten a female about 2 years ago.  He is a great dog. Never any problems, and we have had him from a pup.  She on the otherhand has issues.  Very skittish at times.  Very much a herding dog.  she show aggression when you bring your face close to hers. Growls lightly and wrinkles her lip.  She even does this sometimes as jealously from others if they are close.  She does this at feeding time too.  She hovers over her bowl and acts like she is protecting it.  I have two children 6 and 8, I keep telling them to don't let her do that to them, show her your the boss tell her no and smack her on the nose.  She has only ever bitten me once in the face the first week we had her, and my son in the hand once when she was probably 6mo old when this happened but the protecting/jealously/growling raising her lip still occurs.  She also goes to the fetal position allot. I was hoping she would grow out of it.  Last week she went in heat and she got locked up with our male border collie and I am assuming she is pregnant but I don't know. Do you think the behavior will stop as she matures.  Could the pregnancy change her hormones and make this problem disappear?  If she is pregnant what should I expect.  This would be our first litter ever and I don't know what to do or expect.  I love my Border Collies especially Frisbee time they are great animals.  

Answer
Hello Robert,

Well, in my humble opinion, this could go either way.  She may or may not be pregnant, she may or may not be a good mother to her pups and she may or may not stop her aggression towards people.

In any case, I would keep your kids away from her if they are not willing to take steps to learn how to correct her of this.  As a matter of fact, I would keep her away from anyone and strictly use her for herding and that's it.

You may want to consider getting her fixed in the future.  That may have some positive affects on her aggressive behavior.  Also, correcting her under the chin rather than on top of the nose will help eliminate some aggression.

Make sure everyone knows not to put their face near hers.  That goes for any dog really, but especially in her case.

Be aware that she may growl and snap at her own babies if she is indeed pregnant.  If she does, you'll have to keep them away from her as well and bottle feed until they are old enough to drink from a bowl.

If she goes into the fetal position a lot then there's definately some fear factors that have caused her to act out aggressively.  Again, I think correcting her under the chin will help.  Over correction could also have caused this problem.  She may not have a clear understanding of what is expected of her and is afraid of vocal and physical correction.

If you need more help.  Write me back.  I don't want to get too winded as this is only speculation on my part.

Thanks for writing.

Ann Jordan
Border Collie Coach