Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour Will give the spray a miss then as it may produce some anxiety when on lead. Will certainly try the ignoring but it will be very, very difficult and very painful! :'( Been to the vet today and they think it could be anxiety related, not too sure Whilst in the vets he did bark at the vet and bark at someone who came to stroke him, not in an aggressive manor, no teeth or low growl just a one off loud woof, not sure what this means!!?
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour To me the vet barking sounds like excitement/arousal but not necessarily anxiety and most definitely not aggression. Also, some dogs are just very chatty and express themselves a lot with their voice. I still also think that the crazy biting/leaping etc is definitely excitement. Nothing about it says 'anxiety' to me. But, either way, the calming approach and the standing still will help. Wear your toughest, oldest clothes on your next outing. Be absolutely determined to stand stock still if he is revved up. He will find it frustrating. His barking and biting have worked for him in the past. He will think - why isn't it working now? I know, I'll try twice as hard! So be prepared for him to really give it a red hot go! Just don't give in or say a word or look at him. Wait for him to back off - even if it's just for a moment, and then immediately deliver your quiet praise and treat reward. If he leaps again, repeat your statue act. And again if you need to. Repeat till he gets the idea that only calm behaviour gets attention. Don't put him straight on the lead after either - keep up the quiet praise and treats till you get really calm behaviour. And then maybe do a little bit of simple training with him (some sits, or little tricks like touch his nose to your hand, making sure he gets big treat payoffs for doing as you ask).
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour My dog has these mad bursts of excitement. Much sympathy, I hope you crack it. Good tips above. Charlie doesn't growl or bite though. He chases his tail round and round and round, and jumps up in a crazy state. He is injured and I can't let him do this - if he were unrestrained, he would instead "bum run" or "butt tuck" round the house but these days he is always in a small space so he can't and we have this different behaviour coming out - the crazy excitement stuff. I kneel down on the floor, put my arms around him and make him be still for a second. This stops him right away, like he just "comes round" or out of this state. His heart is pounding, and I think it is really difficult for him to control himself. There is no trigger, it's a reaction to just not enough exercise or other forms of mental stimulation.
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour [quote author=Oberon link=topic=5097.msg64196#msg64196 date=1395970227] To me the vet barking sounds like excitement/arousal ... [/quote] Not noticed our vet barking yet - but then we're fortunate not to have seen him in an excited or aroused state
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour Many young dogs have bursts of excitability from time to time. It is a question that comes up on the forum quite frequently. This is different from puppy play biting though usually still rooted in play and immaturity Often the owner will reports extreme boisterousness and hyper behaviour coupled by nipping, biting, tearing clothes, even drawing blood, and jumping up. Many times this is linked to attention seeking or over-excitement. Sometimes to anxiety. This is some advice I gave to another person with a similar problem recently. It doesn't cover every case where a dog behaves like this, but applies in many cases. If you find you are making no headway with focusing on the following, the best course of action would be to consult a behaviourist that can observe your dog 'in action' so to speak. As it is impossible to be more specific about a dog that we haven't personally met. You can do this outside too. When your dog is running around near to you, you can 'click' and treat him for standing still, and for having all paws on the ground. Feed the treats on the ground to discourage further jumping up. Avoid excitable, jerky movements of your body. Move your hands slowly - try and do things like putting on his lead etc, in slow motion. This helps to reduce the dog's arousal even further. If in doubt or having no success, do seek professional help
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour [quote author=UncleBob link=topic=5097.msg64238#msg64238 date=1395996812] [quote author=Oberon link=topic=5097.msg64196#msg64196 date=1395970227] To me the vet barking sounds like excitement/arousal ... [/quote] Not noticed our vet barking yet - but then we're fortunate not to have seen him in an excited or aroused state [/quote] I know this is a serious topic but I had a good chortle at this ;D
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour Thankyou for some great advice here, Will keep posting as my experiences may help others in similar situations. Took him for a walk today, brilliant on lead walking to field, great playing ball off lead. He then tried jumping up at me and biting hard, I turned around and stood still after a while he gave up and sat so I immediately treated him, next time he came running upto me but instead of jumping, sat down and got a treat, there was no more jumping/biting but then.... When putting lead back on he turned into devil dog, biting me and the lead, after several calming down techniques as suggested here I got the lead on and all seemed well. A calm walk then followed, however when nearly home he started again but twice as hard, there was no apparent trigger at all, it has left me with some very nasty bite wounds on my hands and arms. Another very painful and frustrating evening!
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour I know it probably doesn't feel like it particularly for your poor arms and hands but that sounds like progress to me Hang in there and good luck!
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour Thanks, Think the off lead jumping can be resolved, the on lead madness though is a whole different obstacle!
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour It does sound like progress to me too. You did really well, though I am really sorry to hear that you now have bite marks Maybe thicker clothing and even gloves are needed for a while? The behaviourist option is possibly also worth following up as they can observe everything and give you immediate advice. Keep us posted and don't lose heart!
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour Certainly won't lose heart! Have discovered this morning that if we put his harness or lead anywhere near him in the house he tends to cower away with tail tucked in. (Never noticed this before as lead usually goes on at back door and off we go) so wondering if there could be some sort of hidden issue here with a fear of the lead, going to try some work with associating the lead with good things - treat, praise etc... you never know!
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOdFPJSNs44 Found this video which is the closest thing I can find to his behaviour. A little bit confused though because will doing what the instructor says just encourage more tug games...? :-\
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour That's a great video. It's about appropriate tug games - tugging the toy, not the lead. But I think your dog is a level more excited than that white dog. The white dog wants to tug objects. You dog wants to tug you. Unless you are going to get help from a behaviourist I'd just keep going with the 'preemptive calming', 'removal of attention' approaches and with using treats as your reward, not tug games. I expect that your dog, too, would be highly motivated by tug games and that the opportunity for a tug game would be a powerful reward (and therefore training tool) for you to use at some point. Keep it up your sleeve.
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour [quote author=Winston link=topic=5097.msg64505#msg64505 date=1396087571] A little bit confused though because will doing what the instructor says just encourage more tug games...? :-\ [/quote] The trainer is teaching the dog drops the toy on command, and doesn't start tugging until invited, and is using the tug game as a reward for doing what she is told. I don't think this is encouraging tugging where it's not appropriate?
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour Been working on this method in the house and he is excellent at it, drops on command every time. The test will now be on the lead :-\
Re: Bizarre ultra excitable behaviour Sounds like Rachael says then - the excitement level is different. To be honest, the white dog didn't look at all bad to me - it was just playing tug with the lead.
