We took in a pregnant border collie 2 weeks before she had her puppies. (they’re almost 9 weeks old now) In the 2 weeks before she had them, she was timid with new people, but never aggressive. We are a busy household with 9 family members ranging in age from 11-45. We had her around extended family (including children) and regular visitors during that time with no issues. When the puppies were born, my husband went in the room to check on her and them, and reached over her back to pet her and she bit him. As soon as she realized it was him, she was obviously upset and licked the bite and seemed to be sort of apologizing. She trusts him, and hasn’t had an issue with him since then. He’s really her favorite person. However, she does have real problems with my son and his girlfriend and my daughter’s boyfriend. She’s ok with my daughter as long as her boyfriend is not here, but if he’s here, she gets the same treatment as he does. The dog will bark, growl and snap at them. We’ve tried having them give her treats and she’ll take them and let them pet her, but as soon as they walk away, she goes back to the barking at them. Aside from those regular visitors, all other visitors also get the same treatment. She nipped at my neighbor with no warning. My neighbor came in the room where she was with the puppies when they were about 6 weeks old (against my advice) Since the dog didn’t growl or bark, I assumed all was well, and I gave my neighbor a treat to give to the dog. As soon as her hand went near her with the treat, the dog tensed up and instead of taking the treat like she usually does, she sniffed it. When my neighbor reacted by pulling her hand away, the dog nipped at her and broke the skin just a bit, leaving a pretty decent bruise. With those of us she trusts, she is pretty much the perfect dog, but to everyone else, she is scary! The rescue is telling us this behavior is due to protectiveness over the puppies, but if that was it, shouldn’t it be getting better, considering that the pups are almost 9 weeks old? They have stopped using almost completely. I think she let them hang on for about a minute all day today. We are at a loss as to what to do. She wants to be with us and gets upset when we have to put her away, but it’s too dangerous to have her loose in the house because we never know how she will react when someone (even family members) come in the room. What can we do? We don’t want to give up on her, and she certainly can’t be adopted until this is addressed. The puppies should be adopted out within the next week or so, but one is staying here. We are hoping the rescue is right and the behavior will go away when they’re gone, but that seems so unlikely to me right now. Thanks in advance for any advice!