border collie herding family members

[hannahreeves25]

"Hi, my family and I have owned a neutered male border collie for around 4 years. He came from a rescue centre where I was working at the time and is now around 6 years old. Although he can be a very affectionate dog, he has many behavioural issues in the house. Some of these we can tolerate but recently he has been getting increasingly aggressive when people (everyone apart from my Mum) move between rooms, go to leave the house or come down the stairs. His behaviour is particularly bad towards my dad. He will bark, barge our legs and if we keep moving he will nip and attack. His behaviour seems to be instigated by movement which I think is due to his herding breed. He is also very untrustworthy with strangers and although this can be controlled by keeping him on a lead on walks (he is walked for a minimum of two hours a day and has mind games as well to keep him occupied), it is near on impossible to have guests to the house for fear of their safety. When he gets used to people he is okay but it is difficult to introduce them initially. If they have a dog with them he is easier.
The main issue is the aggression towards my dad as he is like a prisoner in his own home and is understandably frightened of him. We have seen a behaviourist who recommended using a crate so that he can be confined when dad is in the house or when people come to visit. Although he seemed to like the crate and we did a lot of positive reinforcment training with it, when the door was shut and dad was there he would go berserk, barking and lunging until he was salivating and shaking.
We have got rid of the crate now and he is going on medication from the vet soon, but I would like to have an idea of what behaviour modification techniques we can try when he is calm enough to be trained because of the drugs. He seems to have departure anxiety rather than separation anxiety as when he is left he just goes to sleep and is not destructive. I would like to have him trained to stay on his bed while we depart or when dad is moving around. However, my mum is concerned that if he is put on his bed while we leave the house we cannot then give him a release cue to get off it once we have gone! I would really appreciate a clearly regimented habituation/desensitisation/counter-conditioning programme to use in conjunction with the drugs please!
One final query, would it be an idea to train him with a command like working sheep dogs are taught when not to herd? We are getting some chickens soon and in the past when we have had them he likes rounding them up into their house. Is it an idea to encourage this instinct as an outlet for him? If so how do we teach him not to apply this instinct with family members too?! Or should we discourage anything that represents herding?
Can anyone help????!!!