Re: Biting when too excited? Every kind of toy and puzzle we have tried, he has ripped apart into pieces. Except the kongs. Within minutes! He has very strong jaws. He loves toys but breaks them within minutes! It is like the goal for him! I haven't done the long lead yet. It is really cold right now so not a good idea for him to be out for long. But once it warms up, I will try that. Yesterday it was one degree without factring in windchill. His paws get cold on the snow and he comes right back to the door wanting in after getting done pottying. Thanks for the ideas!
Re: Biting when too excited? They sure can be hard on toys!! I kind of look at toys as disposable, sacrificial items that prevent the furniture getting chewed... One idea that a number of people here do is to go to charity stalls and fetes to buy cheap soft toys (second hand), cut the eyes out (choking hazard) and the use them as dog toys.
Re: Biting when too excited? I have done that and also any clothing or blankets that were old or stained...let him rip them up. Then I think, maybe that isn't a good idea as he learns to rip stuff up and may rip up stuff we want.
Re: Biting when too excited? Hi there - just want to say, it may seem as though your dog NEVER chills, but you do mention that he is lying down with your daughter in front of the tv, so he DOES have quiet times.. I can understand that it is very difficult to exercise a dog properly in the cold, but to be honest your dog, at one year old, really really needs mental and physical stimulation. That means taking him out for at least an hour's walk a day, not just putting him out in the yard and expecting him to entertain himself. He needs you to go out with him, and play. The best thing you can do with him is to do some retrieving with a tennis ball or similar. If that really isn't possible due to the snow right now, then I would suggest at least two brisk half hour walks, and a couple of indoor games such as 'find the treat', where you hide a treat so that he can't see it and then let him search for it. Once he gets the basic idea, it will keep his mind busy, which is so important. Right now, he just has too much pent up energy. It's not aggression, but goodness, you need to give him an outlet. Don't worry, you'll get there, just up the exercise and the mental stimulation, and you will soon have a much more chilled doggie on your hands.
Re: Biting when too excited? It is any type of physical activity (exercise) which gets him revved up and acting that way. Chasing and biting us. When he is calm, he is better. So chasing balls, he gets out of control. I thought it was because he was not fixed and he would get into a humping mood but now he is neutered and still doing it. Yesterday, we had him find treats under pan lids which he couldn't destroy and that was harder for him. I am trying to teach him to bring me items but more times than not, he will run off with the items instead. someone said he was very smart, but I was thinking he might not be? Shouldn't he know more by now? Be doing more tricks, etc? Know when he is hurting us? Stop biting us? He is doing it less often. I keep trying to remember how I didn't think he would ever stop other things and he did. I have never been around a Lab puppy, only grown Labs. So maybe my perspective is from that. Comparing him from adult Labs that already know all of this.
Re: Biting when too excited? Good for you, playing the 'find the treats' game; and I like the idea of hiding the treats under indestructible pan lids! There are plenty of other indoor games you can play with him - you can start making him sit and wait while you go and hide the treats in another room, for instance. You can slowly make the game harder and harder, so he really has to search. Labs usually love games like this, using their nose and remembering where you hid things the time before. If running around revs him up, then as I said before, two brisk walks a day will do him the world of good. A young labrador is BURSTING with energy; they are bred to work and can get up to terrible mischief if all that energy is not channelled. The very first labrador I had, back when I was a teenager, was left at home during the day while we were at school and our parents were at work. He chewed EVERYTHING, even big holes in the walls. He also ran away at every opportunity. We still loved him, and over the years his destructive urges and wanderlust declined rather. But now of course I realize that it was our fault. We didn't give him enough to do, and even though he was home with another dog and our cleaner, he just chewed and ran away because he wasn't trained and didn't get enough mental and physical stimulation. I am glad to hear he is biting less. One thing you should know is that Labs mature slowly, physically and mentally, compared to many other breeds of dogs. They aren't really grown up until they are two or two-and-a-half years old. So your chap is still a puppy, and still has a lot to learn.
Re: Biting when too excited? Just had an episode. He went out to potty, ran around the yard crazy like for a few minutes, came to the door, I let him in. Got my coffee and headed to the living room. He started growling, biting at me, and jumping on me. I was trying hard not to spill hot coffee on him, while pushing him off and keeping away from his mouth. Of course, the only diversion was saying hot dog? Got him a hot dog, and he went right to his crate for a nap. Whew. He usually doesn't growl when he does it!
Re: Biting when too excited? So, what do you think he learned from that?? Behave badly enough, and growl enough, and you get a hot dog! Honestly, I don't want to sound harsh, but you are teaching this dog that bad behaviour gets rewarded!! From now on, ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to acknowledge him when he is growling, biting or jumping up. This may be hard, but you HAVE to do it. Reward him when he is being good and quiet. For instance, pat him, tell him what a good boy he is, and give him a treat when he is sitting quietly. Otherwise things are just going to continue to escalate.
Re: Biting when too excited? i agree with karen,...jasper is my first dog, i had no idea how much training i had to do.....cut the hot dog up into small pieces and play a little game with him, ......i sit on the settee get jasper to sit, put a tiny amount of food on my knee,tell him to leave it and wait until i give him the cue to take it, he loves this little game, i can have him leave it for up to 15 mins he sounds to me like he just wanted to play
Re: Biting when too excited? it is a desperation move. It is the only thing we have found to distract him when he is biting like that. I know it is not good. So it happened again after lunch. And I accidentally dropped my sweater he had grabbed on to and was pulling...I was wearing it at the time and he pulled if off of me. Well, he forgot about coming after me and biting me and kept the sweater. Humping it. Maybe he isn't after US but our clothing? We don't give him blankets, pillows, etc as he will tear them to pieces. If he would just love on them/hump, it would be ok. But now I have a clue as to why he is biting at us...it may be our clothes he wants to hump? We had long playing sessions so far today. Training him to bring us a toy to get a treat. He did better today with it! But you can tell, he is really not sure he wants to give it up for a treat. I kept hiding the toy in harder to get to areas so he had to work for it. Once I placed it tightly into the kong and he had to work it out. He is napping now.
Re: Biting when too excited? I think you have got into a bit of a vicious cycle here. You have a dog that is bursting at the seams and out of control. And you are afraid to give him the exercise he needs because he then starts jumping and nipping at you. So he is becoming more and more pent up Here is the good part. Your dog is interested in you. When you are outdoors, he is trying to get your attention. This is good, even though it may not seem like it right now. It is much harder to manage a dog that ignores you. You need to teach him to ask for attention in a civilized manner. And I think you need some help. Please consider investing in some one to one lessons with an APDT trainer, who will come to your house, and on walks, and show you how to get back in the ‘driving seat’ with this dog. In the meantime, it is vital that you stop running about and making exciting movements around him. Everything around him needs to be done calmly and slowly. Don’t engage him in any kind of physical play at all. Stand still when he runs towards you and do not back away or worse still, run away from him. At home, start watching him intently for signs that he is relaxing. Keep a pot of treats to hand, and place one between his front paws whenever he lays down quietly. Put a lump of cheese in front of his nose when he is dosing off. He needs to know that relaxing is good and gets him attention. I’ll grab some links to help you, in a moment, but you really do need some practical hands on help from an experienced trainer
Re: Biting when too excited? I've put up some links that may help. Do ask if you need anything explaining or expanding on.
Re: Biting when too excited? Also, I would pay well if I could find a good trainer! The puppy classes were ridiculously crowded and we got no time with the one trainer there. It really was a waste of time. That puppy class was teaching things we already knew like sit, off, down. The only trainer that I could find who would work with us individually wasn't great. Her ideas on behavior control I felt were almost abusive? "biting" him back by poking at him. I didn't like that as I felt like he would fear our hands or become a fearful dog. Right the opposite of the confident dog I wanted! I have placed an ad asking for a trainer and received zero responses. We live in a small town and would even travel to the next town 35 miles away, but I haven't found anyone there either.
Re: Biting when too excited? [quote author=Stacia link=topic=4272.msg51457#msg51457 date=1391264095] PS the name is Turid Rugaas. [/quote] This might be helpful: http://en.turid-rugaas.no/calming-signals---the-art-of-survival.html
