Rosie is just over 7 months old. She has been an extremely bitey puppy and we are still working on this behavior. It seems to rear itself when she is excited (tries to mouth hands or forearms or nip feet) or frustrated (this is when she lunges to bite at arms usually). Not an enjoyable experience. In any case I have come know Rosie’s moods and “tells”. I can usually head off some of her antics with commands or crate her for timeout if need be. She is in plenty of training classes - currently two a week and gets plenty of exercise. What I am not sure how to deal with is when this behavior surfaces with other people that help in looking after her occasionally, especially my parents. Three days a week they pop in to my house to let her out of crate in afternoon and walk/play with her when I am at work. Rosie gets excited when they come so it’s hard to get her to focus and listen. She jumps at my Dad constantly even though he turns around and ignores her. My Dad also has tendency to get impatient and I’m sure that doesn’t help matters. I’ve told him he needs to remain as calm as possible. Rosie used to fight every time getting her collar put on. I can now put it in her without issue most times and do not have to bribe using treats anymore. Both dog walkers have never told me they have issues with this. But my dad on other hand says she goes nuts when he tries to put collar on her with biting at him and rolling around. Why would this be? When he tried to walk her the other day she started jumping at him and biting. He said she was completely out of control. This is something she used to do with me but hasn’t for awhile. My mom cannot walk with/beside them or Rosie tries to jump at her. We also have a dog walker that she will occasionally do this with as well. She actually loves my Dad and is so happy to see him whenever I’m around to see. My worry is they will get tired of her antics and stop helping me out. Wouldn’t really blame them tbh.
I know a lot of people recommend such a procedure. I don't find it very useful. It is awfully difficult not to say something when a big Lab is pounding one's back. And that may be sufficient reward. I would concentrate on getting your Dad to give a down/drop cue [dog's chest on ground]. When the dog calms down then interaction can happen. Re collar. I would imagine the position of his hands is different. And putting the collar has turned into a game. Let him use food. It is a new cue for the dog in that it is your father that is doing it. Is it possible for your father to attend some of the training classes? He can see how she works in a new environment and might pick up some clues on how to handle your dog.
It just sounds like your dog associates your parents with high excitement and gets a bit hyper when they come round. I agree that getting them to do some training with her (under your supervision at first) would really help - that way she will be thinking about working to earn treats from them, instead of just leaping all over them. It would work if you could have a few sessions of them getting her ready whilst you are watching and supervising so they know what cues to ask for, when. With the collar, might it be possible to leave it on her on the days when they are coming round? I know some people are worried about collars getting caught up on things but if it were only occasionally and if they took it off when they left her, it might help them..... Lastly, don't under-estimate the power of a LickyMat...! Prepare a LickyMat and leave it in the fridge for them. Once they let her out the crate, they just plop that on the floor and she will let them just put her collar on and any other equipment on and will not jump up at them at all. The only thing you will need to teach them, is how to ask her to 'leave' the LickyMat for something equally tasty from them - since they are unlikely to want to stand there for 5 minutes whilst she eats it.... I don't know if you can get these in Canada, but they are these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/INDUSTIPET-LM9002-LICKIMAT-Soother-Treat/dp/B072C643XV Alternatively, a sticky bone: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chase-Chom...cky+bone&qid=1560699345&s=pet-supplies&sr=1-1 Which again you smear with soft cheese spread or similar, and they just stick it on the fridge... Hope that helps
Thanks Jo Laurens and Michael Brooks for the suggestions. My parents do plan on attending Rosie’s outdoor training class soon. I actually have Lickimats so I told my father today and he will try your suggestion of using it for getting on the collar. He’s actually quite pleased and hoping it works. I knew training would be hard but I never thought my puppy would be so much physical work this way!! She is quite strong for her 7 months. My dad said he will not walk her again though after her freak out on him. He said she was actively trying to bite his leg and it took his strength to hold her away so she couldn’t reach him. I know she was showing frustration as he had walked her past our house and she wanted to come home. When will this behavior end or what more can I do to stop it? It really is most frustrating and sometimes can be scary as she seems so hell bent to bite.
It does sound like quite an extreme response to just being walked past her house. I think it could be due to her feelings of over-arousal around your parents generally - all that has to go somewhere... Your dad could carry a stuffed Kong to put on her nose and 'lead' her home whilst licking it, if she gets like this. But also, I would be wondering if she is getting sufficient physical exercise each day... Is she getting off-leash exercise and training on a daily basis?
Sadly because of what she did, my Dad said he would not be walking her again. Interesting to note that on that particular day my husband had a medical issue and I had to take him to urgent care. This was in the morning so Rosie went into her crate without her usual morning walk. I called and asked if my dad could drop into check in her around 10 am. He did, but he didn’t do the usual “routine” he does with her. He usually takes her in backyard for play first. This time he took her straight for a walk. He walked her down one end of street and then walked her past our house to go to the other end. Rosie likes her routines so I think this is why she had a tantrum. Would that make sense? Rosie’s typical day of exercise consists of: 3 on leash walks up to 1/2 hour each or more 5 days a week. The other 2 days still 3 walks but not as long, as I work those days. Off leash retrieve play in backyard - 5/10 minutes. Too long and she loses interest and then starts running around decimating my plants. Nose work in house General obedience training I do not have anywhere to take her for off leash running where I live (the dog parks in my city are not safe/recommended I have recently signed her up for visits to dog daycare that I had planned on taking her maybe once a week for something different to do. She uses her mouth/teeth/biting way too much to express herself and her unhappiness at being handled. Even this morning after we got home from a long morning walk, she got frustrated with my struggle to get her harness off and tried biting me. I let her be for a few minutes and tried again but it took a number of times before I was able to get it off. I know I can use food to aid this process. I’m growing concerned at her continuing reliance on biting and her low frustration tolerance. Especially now that my husband has been put on blood thinners and cannot be bitten by a frustrated puppy.
Hi @DizzyDaisy You have to teach your dog to have an off switch. Reward calmness. When she is tired just sit with her. Reward calmness. So on the walks sit down on a bench and reward your dog for calmly watching the world go by. You don't have to do all the walking you are doing. Buy a long line and let her tire herself out. With respect to the harness you say you know one can use food treats. Does that mean you have not been using them so far? Buy a tug toy for you and your husband. Carry it with you. Bring it out to redirect her mouth away from you.
I'm really sorry to hear this. My own dogs would quite simply be climbing the walls and completely unmanageable if they did not get 45mins-1hour of off-leash exercise and training daily. I understand you don't have anywhere nearby to provide this, but IMO unless you can try to meet her needs, you're not really tackling the underlying issue and her behaviour will continue to be difficult to manage. These are not tiny dogs or low energy dogs, we are talking dogs which are bred to work all day... It's not really just about the physical exercise, it's about the mental exercise and tiredness that comes from new experiences outdoors in new places... You say that there is no where you can go off-leash, but are there places you can go with a 10m long-line so she can run about more within the length of the longer lead? I don't really recommend flexi leads and I think in your case with that much energy it would be a disaster, but would suggest walking on a shorter lead to a place where you can then attach the 10m long-line and give her more freedom - practising recalls for tasty treats as you go. Second, does anyone in the household run or are you interested in taking up running? Google 'Canicross' - and see if you are interested in taking up running with your dog. This is a way to provide more exercise outdoors without the dog being off leash. It's great that you are doing nosework, but I would also recommend you take that away from the house if you're not already - by placing the hides on trash cans or benches or other stuff for her to find on your walk. You might also want to look into parkour for dogs - as this is done on leash, and is a fun way of teaching a dog to interact with their owner in an outdoor environment and a good productive use of extra energy - you can easily incorporate it into your walks at the moment, by using features in the environment (walls, benches etc) to teach her to interact with: https://www.dogparkour.org Lastly, see if you can enrol her in more training classes in the evenings, at a good force-free training organisation near you. This will give her daily stimulation even if she doesn't get off-leash much there. I would not recommend a doggie daycare, because this is how people come acropper and end up with a dog which is obsessed with other dogs - they rely on dog day cares (or dog parks) to provide the physical exercise they are unable to provide their dog with otherwise. The dog learns that contact with other dogs is the most amazing thing ever....
We are working on her calmness. She is rewarded and praised whenever she is quiet and calm. It will take some time to get there I'm sure. I will try sitting on benches on walks as you suggest. I also ask her to lie down when we are walking for breaks. She does this well. The walking is actually something I enjoy doing, so I do not mind doing so much of it. We also do not casually stroll, it is a quick clip. I do have a 20 ft long leash - perhaps I will try her out with that to get her running more. She does run in our backyard off leash. We have a good sized yard with room to run. The issue with that is she loses interest in play and then goes for my plants so sometimes backyard play does not last long. I will try long leash and see if I can get better results that way. Yes I do use treats when necessary to remove her collar/harness etc. I guess I was thinking she should be past this behaviour by now. I have tried this method in past of redirecting with a toy but have not had much success. She usually ignores the toy. I will try again.
Thanks for the reply @DizzyDaisy . I would take the daily quick marches off the agenda until she is fully grown--her bones are still growing. Repetitive eexercise over flat ground is not a good idea for her joints. The rough rule is daily exercise should be 5 minutes for each month of life for the first year--in your case 35 minutes. Letting her run on a long line, allowing her stop when she wants to and for as long as wants, is a better idea. Scent training in new spots, as Jo suggests, will help to tire her out mentally. Sniffing is a very calming exercise. I'm not sure why she is destroying your plants. What toys does she have access to in the garden? Remember to rotate her toys, so that she gets a "surprise" each day.
She has balls and toys for retrieving. On nice days, her kiddie pool to play in. Don't all pups love to destroy plants!? I have read this seems to be a common theme with puppies and they eventually grow out of it.
Hi @DizzyDaisy i am not trying to be curmudgeonly. I have had 6 Labs and not one of them has destroyed any plants. Admittedly, I am a small sample. But plant destruction is normally considered to be a manifestation of insufficient environmental enrichment/boredom in the garden.
Nope, mine don't have unsupervised access to the garden... Dogs don't really grow out of things that are self-reinforcing and enjoyable - they only practise them and grow into them, and do them more...
Well Rosie doesn’t have unsupervised access. Ever. Someone is always with her. She does these things when we are trying to play with her. She just stops playing and makes a mad dash for whatever she wants to try to destroy. I took your advice about taking her out on a long lead and all that got me was a bunch of bite marks/pain. Just this afternoon I walked her to a school playground on her regular leash and when I clipped her to the long lead she went ballistic and started biting it and jumping and biting me. She wrapped her jaw around my wrist and squeezed hard enough it hurt but didn’t break the skin. Btw she had some training and exercise at home before we did this so she wasn’t amped up. Needless to say we came straight home. I am beyond upset. I don’t know what to do anymore. She has completely worn me out. I am considering giving her up.
It doesn't sound like you can give Daisy what she needs. She is so over-excited and over-whelmed to have just 10m of long-line to use, that she redirects that excitement onto you and tries to play with you in the only way dogs innately know how - by mouthing and being very excited. The solution isn't to remove even this tiny morsel of excitement from her life, it's to give her more of it so she is not actually that excited by it - it's normal life. If she is going to jump up and mouth you, then have an object ready to play tug with her with. Throw it within the length of the long-line and let her run and get it and repeat that over and over. Have a big soft toy she can wrestle with you with, if she wants to. Seriously, you cannot take a dog which is (genetically) bred to work all day from 8am-4pm on a shoot - constantly running and retrieving and working - which is not just physical exercise, but psychological stimulation - (as well as the dog interacting with other dogs during the day, leaping into the beating truck and being transported about, hanging out at lunch time or other meal times) and stick the same dog (genetically) in an urban house where the dog never ever ever gets let off leash.... and just not expect behaviour problems. You just can't. All that energy and intelligence she has been bred to have, is going to go somewhere. Trainers and behaviourists are not magicians - we can't rectify all situations, when owners have stacked the odds so heavily against success. I'm in touch with a lot of great breeders in the US, and they just wouldn't place puppies in homes where the pups would not be able to regularly get off-leash. There are many breeds of dog much better suited to a life-time on leash than a working gundog breed... To help Daisy, it is going to take a bit more than just putting her on a 10m long-line and taking her to a playground and then feeling like you want to give her up because your single small attempt at this wasn't hugely successful. It is going to take a radical overhaul of your life and routine and a detailed attempt to incorporate physical and mental exercise into it. Your first, second, third and fourth attempts may not be successful, even, and you have to be up for the journey and not just the destination. Have you looked into Dog Parkour via the link I gave above? From your comment about sitting on benches with her, it would appear not... (as sitting on benches is not really part of it!). Are you taking her to multiple obedience classes in the evening? Are you taking scent work or nosework training out on the road to give her something to do on walks? Have you booked a 1-2-1 trainer who is force-free to come around and help? Have you changed your daily routine to incorporate activities for her beyond a walk on-leash? If you're going to keep this dog, then you need to make some huge effort and changes. If you're not up for that, then for sure - the best thing for Daisy would be to rehome her - preferably somewhere that she will be able to exercise off leash and perhaps live with another dog or two.
What a difficult position you are in. 7 months is still very young, my dog was an absolute nightmare at this age (admittedly he had all the stress of being rehomed at 6 months to deal with). He bit me, barked at me, destroyed plants and anything else he could get his paws on. He is 2 years old and (mostly) lovely now. I am very lucky to be able to give him at least an hour of off lead exercise per day, often much more. I personally can't imagine living with a dog and not being able to exercise them off lead but lots of people do manage so I suppose it must be possible. What I have noticed with Loki, even today, is that he reacts badly to change. I tried to use a new lead this morning and he went crazy, biting the lead, humping me, biting my clothes, growling... All the horrible behaviour of a year ago the only difference being that I was able to get him to calm himself relatively easily. If your dog is anything like mine you may need to introduce the long line slowly, indoors probably, clip it on, treat for calm, practice walking to heel with loads of treats with the line on before you venture out to somewhere as exciting as a park.
I second the dog parkour, we've started doing this with Kyko & he loves it, he is much more focussed on us when walking & we are constantly on the lookout for things to use on our walks. We are working towards getting our certificate we still need to work on 'in' as we just haven't found anything suitable in our area for him to practice yet. His balance & self confidence has come on leaps & bounds since we do this
Our dogs have a dog door, so they always have had the run of the yard when they were old enough to be out of a pen or crate unsupervised. Cooper will occasionally tear up a plant, mostly to carry it around in her mouth. I don't recall Tilly doing that, but it was a long time ago, and I may have forgotten. I don't agree about dogs not outgrowing behaviors. Almost all pups bite excessively and almost all out grow it. In addition both Tilly and Cooper chewed up things they weren't supposed to when they were pups, but neither they or Ginger chewed up much of anything but dog toys and chews once they were grown. I have always thought it was somewhat amazing that they knew that they could chew up their toys but not our stuff. Our dogs typically do not get as much walking exercise as most folks recommend for a Lab, but Cooper does several hard runs in our yard every day, in addition to the other play and walking we do. While we had two Labs, they played together some, though the age difference was so great that it was mostly tug. Right now we are dog sitting a friends Sammy most days, and the dogs are about the same age, so they can play harder if they want. I am amazed at how much calmer and less reactive our Labs are compared to their Sammy friends. If we go to a dog park Cooper will mostly ignore other dogs, if I have a tennis ball and chucker. If I put the ball away she will pay some attention to other dogs, especially gun dogs.
I had much the same difficulty with our lab mix Johnny and it was at its worst between 7 and 13 months. He's nearly grown out of it at 2.5 yrs - cold comfort I know. Before you throw in the towel some ideas to take or toss. Are there dogs in training class that might make good playmates? If so, could you have the dogs play in your backyard? I suspect Rosie will be more interested in the other dog than your plants. I agree with your concern about dog parks *but* in my experience some times are better than others. Between 10AM and 2PM our park is great, likewise at dawn. I was able to find friends for my dogs, although it took some time. Our older dog came to us at 4 months and was poorly socialized. This led to enough problems in the dog park that I had to get creative. I looked around the neighborhood for places for off leash running around including churches with fenced parking lots, sports clubs, fields, schools, etc., and finally found a social club with a fenced field. I gave them a donation in return for daily access for an hour or so. See what you can find. If there is a good park outside/near your city (how is Rosie's recall?) you could figure out if exercise is the issue by going faithfully for a week or so. Better yet arrange a play date there. I agree with Jo about doggie daycare in general, especially when the "daycare" consists of dogs doing whatever they want in somebody's home. I was fortunate enough to find a daycare run by a trainer that was very structured and well supervised so not all daycare is alike. It's possible you can find a good one. I remember those days when Johnny was not at his best and they sucked. I loved him but hated being constantly nipped and feeling like I couldn't meet his needs. I hope things work out for you. Sending good thoughts.
