3 weeks ago i took on a 9 month old, R+W Border Collie dog. His a lovely guy but the woman who gave him up had basically shut him in the garden & walked him once or twice a week, and got annoyed when he was climbing the walls. So he came to live with our family & my 1 year old red merle collie & 3 year old jack russell.

He has a fab temperment with people, but obviously has a complete lack of socialisation as when his out if a strange dog approaches and enters his "personal space" he will snap it, just once then he backs off himself. This doesn't worry me as i've just had his course of injections finished and his off to be neutered tomorrow, once his fit again we'll be off to training. However the problem i do have with him is that he constantly tries to round my Jack Russell up. I thought they'd get over it but so far no joy. She's a typical miserable bitch so every time he runs around her she just stands there, then he'll run in and nip her back legs and she'll retaliate and tell him off, he'll back off then within a minute the whole cycle starts again. I've tried leaving them to sort it out between them but it just carried on, i thought he'd have got used to her so far.

My plan with him is to get him to my training club and get the basic commands, recall and socialisation then when his old enough start agility & flyball training, so his energy will be channelled, but in the meantime is there anything i can do to get him to realise he doesn't need to round the jack up? I should say that if the jack stands close enough to a human he'll round them up too but generally he doesn't do it with humans! Theres no problem with my other collie, they get on just great and i've never once seen him try to round him up.

http://www.spanglefish.com/BeardedColliesforShepherding/index.asp?todo=done&

Really would love to have a go at this with my Elkhound - they are all rounders and farm dogs!
Maybe when I win the lottery!

its not expensive you can do a test for around £20

Three weeks is such a short time to have a dog.  Typical BC behaviour.  I am used to the breed and never trained it out in 3 weeks.  Can I ask why you are having such a young dog castrated, when he is still a juvenile?

At 3 weeks they are still finding their new places.  It does sound as if your JR is coping quite well but remember that with any new dog, particularly over enthusiastic youngsters, that you'll need to provide your existing dogs their own space.  Baby gates are great for this and no one feels completely excluded as they can smooch though the bars!

You have good plans in place for future training, in the meantime just give him some more time to settle. 

Ditto everyone else, the dog just needs some guidance and training, this is typical BC behaviour, poor boy must have had a rotten life before. I can remember one of my brothers young BC's was a nightmare for rounding anyone up lagging behind on our walks, he used to circle and air snap at our heals, dogs and humans alike to keep us all together, it's what they do and why we use them so effectively as working dogs.

They can sometimes come across as aggressive towards other dogs as they can be snappy and nip, they are not a shy breed other dogs do not take kindly to the way they can interact, so it will be up to you to keep him under control, if that means a long line when other dogs are around for now, that is what you need to do, you don't want another dog to take offence and attack, that will do him no good, so until he is better socialised and under your control command wise take no chances, being attacked will cause harm to his socialising skills. It is important to get on with that training or get him involved in agility or something like Starryeyes link.

Don't allow him to snap at your JR's heals, pull him up on it, of course she will not like it, it is not going to stop unless you remove him if he does not listen to your command to stop. You will have to show him what is acceptable and what is not, calmly, as if you don't dogs and humans alike are going to end up with sore ankles.

I also agree he is far too young to neuter, wait  until he is fully mature.

Thanks everyone for your replys.
I have plans to take him herding, someone had already recommended this for my other collie who likes to chase cars (ho hum!).
He will back off from the Jack if i tell him but then starts again, she tells him off and his quite respectful of that.
His training will start ASAP, I will say i did go ahead with the neutering. I understand everyones concerns about his age etc, but my main concern was that my other male collie who has just hit 1 year old is just "feeling his feet", what i didn't want was a domination competition going on between those two as i have a young son and my dogs are kept indoors so i could not have the slightest bit of confrontation between them. I know this may not have happened but there was a risk of it. The reason i had the younger one done is that he came without a pedigree and therefore i cant show him where as i do enjoy doing an odd show with the older one. Also i thought it would be better to get him neutered and then get on with his training rather than having a break in the middle. I know some people on here will disagree with my actions but this is what suited our family best.
As for the baby gate suggestion - we have one and he pings over it from stand still! He will make a fab agility dog eventually, cant wait to get him involved with that. Only thing is he is a thief and it means by jumping over baby gate he can steal from kitchen!

Trouble is if he's nervous of other dogs castrating him now will take away his testosterone and what little confidence he has. I don't think now is a good time to do him to be honest as he is only just settling in and to do this now iwll unsettle him. Also if you are worried about problems with your other dog, normally you would neuter the least dominant of the two to make the status difference greater. You currently don't know which one that is so you could actually create a problem. I'm not saying don't have it done, but i would be concerned that you need to know what the consequences may be in order to make an informed decision.
Try and get the herding drive onto a toy, my collie tries the leg snapping with my dogs sometimes but we just ask her to "get your ball" and it breaks her focus and she rushes off to get her toy.

Just a warning about taking them to work sheep. This is not something you can play about with like you could agility. Putting a dog on sheep takes a lot of time and commitment, once you have woken the herding instinct in them it can take a while to actually gain some control of it. With pet dogs where they don't get as much exposure as a dog able to be trained everyday they could try and use there instinct in other ways.
If you regularly walk near livestock this can also make your walks less pleasant as a dog not used to herding will often be happy to ignore them, but once that interest is there then you need to have eyes in the back of your heard as they will take every chance to have a 'play'. Even putting them on a lead doesn't stop them from having a go.
You also need to have good basic control of your dog before going near the stock. How quickly do they lie down? Will they do it at a distance? Do they generally listen to you or can it often take a few attempts?

I'm not saying don't do it but to really think about it. I work one of my dogs and am now hooked but it does take time and a lot of work. I'm lucky with my dog in that she is reasonably relaxed around sheep at a distance (up close if a different story) and will happily 'switch off' but then she isn't a border collie and her breeds attitude/style of working is different to a collies. 

Hi Het
This is great info.  It's certainly sorted my head out.  I know I won't train to herding enough to make it viable [absolute control esp at a distance] and certainly don't want to ruin our off-lead walks that are nearly all with livestock present.  I live on the edge of the moors with sheep, cattle, horses/ponies, deer etc roaming free.  i also like to ramble where livestock is usually abundant. Although I keep my dogs on a lead/long line when livestock is apparent there's always the occasion when there's a stray animal when they're off lead and I'd hate them to give chase thinking they were doing their 'job'.
Really appreciate the warning/advice. Deb