Hi, Luka almost 16 months old now has restarted the what I call nibbling/cleaning behavior. He had a slipping on the stairs problem awhile ago and finally seemed to get over it. Then he slipped on some other stairs and again refused to go up it down for several days. During this time he has started nibbling on my sleeves or towel when drying him. It's as though his confidence has been knocked and is needing reassurance. He has been spooked and comes to me to nibble! I cuddle him and stroke him when he does this and try asking him to stop and give him one of his toys to try to get him to stop. He also has started again sometimes to start barking right at me in my face. This can be soon after returning from a walk or in the evening after he has had a calm period he then gets up and comes over to bark at me. We do training with a clicker and he is super so does get a fair amount of treats. Any suggestions ?
Re: Nibbling again, how to stop Hi Laura, I'm not really very sure about this. Our trainer was keen on us not reassuring our dog when there was something scary happening - e.g. fireworks. Not because he was a bit hard on his dogs, but because "ooh'ing and ah'ing" and offering comfort might send out the signal that this is something to be scared of rather than just an everyday thing. Its just a thought, but could you be over-reassuring him by the cuddling and stroking?? I may be way off the mark, but just a thought. He is a bit of a Reiki fan (practices it too) and he taught us to calm our dogs not by stroking but by placing a hand either side of the dog's shoulders and just being calm with the hands firmly but gently on our dog. Not sure about the barking. Unless you do the whole click for quiet programme. Hope someone else can help too.
Re: Nibbling again, how to stop With the nibbing - I'd stop what you're doing and walk away if he nibbles. Give it 10 seconds and go back to what you were doing with him. Coming to you for comfort is fine, but nibbling humans is not ideal (just in case he starts to get firmer with it and start pinching). With the barking - I'd use a time out. When he barks, calmly say 'time out' and lead him by the collar into an unoccupied room and shut the door. When he's quiet he can come out. Make sure you also give him attention when he's quiet and make sure he has enough to do to keep his mind busy so he doesn't get bored and feel the need to shout at you for attention. As far as 'reinforcing fear' goes - it's an acceptable technique to try to create a positive association with a scary thing, to change the dog's mind about the scary thing. It's just classical conditioning, which is pairing A (good) with B (scary) so B starts to not look so bad after all. Examples would be: firework goes off and dog gets a bit of roast chicken; strange person appears and dog gets a bit of roast chicken. The dog doesn't have to do anything to earn the treat - treats appear when the scary thing appears, regardless of what the dog is doing. But it's important not to inadvertently train undesired behaviour (eg so the dog thinks it's getting rewarded for barking at the stranger or shaking like a jelly at the fireworks) so to avoid that you start working at small intensities where the dog is aware of the scary thing but not unduly stressed by it (eg start at a distance from strangers, or start with a quiet recording of fireworks or a facsimile like bursting balloons at a distance).
Re: Nibbling again, how to stop Thank you for your replies. I will give your suggestions a try. Yesterday he starting 'doing' stairs at home again. I just let it happen like it was normal, no comments from me or treats. I did put him outside last night when he started barking. He ran round and was fine when I let him back in. I like the calm hand reassurance and will use it. Many thanks again.
