Can you help me?

[Northof60]

I was directed here by some other Shepherd owners. Hope I can ask this here as I am not too sure who else might be able to help.

Here goes.
Have a 7 month old female, spayed Shepherd. She is from working stock. Kiah has a very strong herding instinct and prey drive. I expect to hear "Great!" from you all now. Unfortunately, there are no sheep or cows within a 4 hour drive from here. She constantly nips at the heels of other dogs and children (and me sometimes). Also nips the necks if she can reach. Some dogs (a few shepherds) are accepting of this to a point. If she goes too far they growl or at least put her in her place. It doesn't stop her though. Other dogs are plain scared. One is a dog that I take out most days for a neighbour. It is tied up 24/7 otherwise. I don't want this or other dogs to be scared of her.

So my question is: How do I stop her nipping the legs? I get a feeling that in some herding this nipping is not wanted. So perhaps some of you can help me stop this. I pray you can.

Thank you in advance.

[rgrim84]

My trainer tells me to squirt my puppy on the nose with water (without letting him see the squirt bottle) when he is doing something he shouldn't be doing. It seems to stop him initially, but if it involves other dogs, he sometimes continues.

I'm not sure if this applies to order puppies or not. Just a thought.

[Northof60]

Sadly she doesn't take much notice of squirting water at her (or water with vinegar etc). She actually opened her mouth to catch it!!! I tried it when she still had puppy teeth and was taking chunks out of me.

I wondered if people in herding so something to stop the dogs actually biting when they don't want them too. Isn't it considered bad with sheep?

[OllieGSD]

It is not surprising that the dog is trying to do what comes instinctively to her. It needs a ton of exercise and a job to satisfy its drive. Agility, tracking, schutzhund or comp obedience would go a long way towards satisfying the issues you are having - plus its fun..... Training will also deepen the bond you have w/ the dog and make life much easier.

[Northof60]

Originally Posted By: OllieGSDIt is not surprising that the dog is trying to do what comes instinctively to her. It needs a ton of exercise and a job to satisfy its drive. Agility, tracking, schutzhund or comp obedience would go a long way towards satisfying the issues you are having - plus its fun..... Training will also deepen the bond you have w/ the dog and make life much easier.

I am in a remote part of northern Canada and we have no Agility, tracking, schutzhund or comp obedience here at all. If we did, I would be doing it. We have no dog trainer in our town either. So I am training her myself and we are setting up a backyard agility course (with low jumps due to her age). She gets at least two jogs/play of a minimum of an hour time per day and I do training with her a few times per day and play ball with her in the yard (or some other game).

I have no idea to train her to NOT nip though. Where do I begin?

[weber1b]

You mentioned tied up 24/7. How much interaction is the dog getting. He may be so full of pent up energy that he is too driven when he is off his tie out. The training and interaction will fill that up but there needs to be sufficient stimulation.

[DorianGrayFFM]

Weber,

It's not her dog that is tied up. It is the neighbors dog she walks.

[Northof60]

I NEVER tie up my own dog. I would like to tie up the neighbours and see how they like it.

My dog gets lots of exercise and training each day. The only problem I have with her (or she has with me - as I don't know to stop it) is this nipping due to her herding instincts. She is a great dog and we are very bonded.


I should add that I have owned a shepherd before (she passed last year) and we didn't have this nipping thing with her. So I never had to learn what to do before.

[Castlemaid]

If you can find a stable, well-behaved, well-socialized older dog for Kiah to play with, he can help teach her what is acceptable, and what is not.

Keeta's idea of "playing" when I adopted her from the pound was to jump on another's dog back, grab them by the neck, and take them down! If the other dog complained, or told her off, she saw that as the start of a fight! Needless to say, she wasn't allowed to play with other dogs much. But she did get to play with an older working line shepherd who had an amazing temperament, and Keeta completely loved him and defered to him. This dog taught her so much.

He also corrected her when she was playing with a younger dog from the same household. The younger dog defered to Keeta, and allowed her rough play, but the older dog would interrupt and correct Keeta if she got too rough.

It was so funny, because as long as the older dog was "supervising", Keeta would play so sweetly and gently with the younger dog, but as soon as the older dog turned away or got distracted, Keeta would seize the opportunity to jump on the younger dog and do her signature neck grab! It was amazing to watch, and I learned a lot also by watching them.

By now Keeta has enough obedience on her that I can control a lot of her behaviour by voice alone, but it took like years to get there.

[OllieGSD]

How not to nip???? Have you gone to germanshepherds.com yet to ask on the forum? There is usually great advice there......




Just kidding - Sorry I am not a trainer and did not have the herding / nipping issue so i don't know how to help

Good luck...