[carly]

I am having some behaviour problems with my 5 and a half month old pup, she is young and I accept they may just be puppy behaviour but she is quickly getting very large and strong and I would like to sort this out as soon as possible. I could go on for ages but will try to make this short, will give some background info first... she has been through basic and is in intermediate puppy training and is very good with it. Infact when she's being naughty she will still usually sit, lay down etc. She is also crate trained.

Sometimes when I'm sitting on the sofa just watching tv etc she will come up to me and try to bite or just start barking and biting, she does not do this when I am sitting at the dining table or doing things around the house. If I tell her no she barks untill I do something about it, and trys to bite, she bites very hard! She has also recently started jumping at me whilst barking and trying to bite me if I stand up to walk out of the room etc. I have also tried ignoring her completely to no avail. I think maybe it is for attention? But am not sure.

I have tried putting her in a time out by either putting her in another room or moving myself. However I am having a problem with this as she tends to go completely insane when she is seperated and begins to be even more naughty (jumping on everything, eating/chewing things she'd usually leave alone because she knows it's not allowed.) I don't want her to cause damage to herself or anything else by this behaviour. I have also tried putting her in her crate which I have read on numerous occasions is not good however at the moment it seems like the best option as she calms down instantly, and comes out a few minutes later calm and happy - and still has no problem going in there at night and when I ask her to if going out.

She hardly does this with my fiance (male by the way!) if she does he tells her to stop and she does almost instantly, I am not sure if it is because I am not as good a leader as him or not firm enough, although I definately feel I am very firm with her. We both take time training, walking, feeding her, so I am not really sure why this is. If she begins doing this to me when he is around he can tell her to stop and she will do so. I can't help the feeling she sees him as her boss and her as my boss!

Another related thing is if we try to eat dinner on the sofas she will try to get to the food, and if we tell her no or push her (gently) off she will begin the barking thing!

She has also recently become more 'wary' of people comming into our house, particularly those who she hasn't met before or for a while, I know this is a breed trait and to an extent expected but there must be something we can do so that she knows when people are ok to be in the house? At the moment it's just barking a little but worried it could get alot worse if nothing done about it!

One last thing (for the moment!) is that when she is on a walk she has the occasional tendancy to decide she wants to jump up and mess around with us even bite, this is quite often when around a road and seems like excitement more than anything else, however it has happened when not around any roads...

Any suggestions?

 

[wrenny]

Mine bites a lot. He's toned down bigtime and I think it's part of maturing and second set of obedience classes.

If you aren't doing any classes, you should do it with your dog. Whenever we sit down to watch TV he jumps on us and if we ignore him, he barks. If we keep ignoring him, he leaves. But sometimes he'll just bite instead and then we just put him in another room from us where he has to settle down.

IMO, you're dog just wants attention and it's young. It's a puppy. When you want alone time and not to be bothered, crate her or just keep her in one room where she can't do any damage. It's part of her training and doesn't do any wrong.

 

[tibvixie101]

How long ago did she do her training classes? Did she exhibit these behaviors while she was enrolled in class? Maybe you could try doing an inexpensive "refresher" course with her. A basic class would be fine, just so she can get back into the mindset of being well behaved.

The biting, and barking for attention is just that, she'll do whatever it takes to get your attention even if its you yelling at her, or physically touching her (pushing off the couch, etc) Use a firm low tone in your voice (try mimicking you husbands's voice) and think to yourself that your really tough, and she had BETTER obey what you say. Its a mind game sometimes with puppies to show them who's the boss, and who tehy can get away with stuff with. If your eating dinner on the couch, and she is out, try leashing her to something so she only has the option to lay there and be calm. (we used the legs to the chair across the room). When she barks, give her the command you would use to quiet her, and if she continues to bark and misbehave, get up, SAY NOTHING, and just move her to her crate. Giving eye contact, or saying "no bad girl" etc. is giving her attention, they'll gladly take negative attention over No attention anyday. The key is to ignore all bad behavior and praise big time when she does what you ask of her.

As for the walking thing, when she starts to jump up or bite at you, stop and immediatley start asking her some simple OB commands. Ask her to sit, then lie down, turn around walk a few steps and ask her to lie down, then sit. (you can use other commands she knows as well, just be sure to mix it up so she cant predict what your going to ask her). You mentioned she will listen to a command even if shes misbehaving, which is good, so try to redirect her with commands until you feel like she is calm and ready to continue your walk. Also keep an eye out for things that may be triggering her to get excited and jump/bite at you. If its something she is seeing on her walk that is signaling her to get excited you might have to do some descensitizing work.

 

[ThreeDogs]

You've gotten some great advice.

Mine love to do this when their bored and want to play, depending on what I'm doing we either play or they get told to knock it off.

When you eat dinner on the couch, put her in her crate.

When you are walk use a very short leash, when she jumps up grab the leash near the collar and tell her "no", wait until she is calm again to start walking. I would suggest bringing treats on your walk to reward the behaviors you are looking for. Give it a command like "nice walk" so when she is jumping up you can say "no, nice walk"

It's important that you have commands for the type of behavior's that you are looking for, so that when you do correct you can tell her what it is that you want.

Repetition, training and consistency are you friends

Remember she is just a puppy right now and it's your job to teach her manners. I would strongly suggest joining a puppy training class, you will learn lots and it is tons of FUN!!!

 

[MaggieRoseLee]

Quote:Sometimes when I'm sitting on the sofa just watching tv etc she will come up to me and try to bite or just start barking and biting, she does not do this when I am sitting at the dining table or doing things around the house.

She's a young and bored puppy, sees you sitting there also bored and with nothing to do (they don't get the tv thing) so she's inviting you to play and have fun in the only way our dogs know!

Quote:I have also tried putting her in her crate which I have read on numerous occasions is not good however at the moment it seems like the best option as she calms down instantly, and comes out a few minutes later calm and happy -

As long as you aren't angry when you use the crate, and then using it as a punishment, crating our dogs for a time out is just fine. But we have to do it BEFORE we are angry, just a calm walk to the crate to put them in to chill for a bit.

Quote: I know this is a breed trait and to an extent expected but there must be something we can do so that she knows when people are ok to be in the house?

This can be a breed trait and a horrible one for us! Can be completely be prevented by being proactive and taking our pups everywhere with us thru out the week. Car rides, walks in new places, meeting tons of new people. Having new people in the house. Our puppies need to know 'normal' by having new stuff happen so much and learning to cue from us. If I am ok, then my puppy should be ok. Period. But this is something they learn from CONSTANT repetition with tons of people during the first year or so.

Quote:One last thing (for the moment!) is that when she is on a walk she has the occasional tendancy to decide she wants to jump up and mess around with us even bite, this is quite often when around a road and seems like excitement more than anything else,

All the behavioral issues you have brought up are what I see in my pups when they are bored and I haven't had time to exercise them enough. And by 5 months old my dogs can hike miles off leash, have a good swim and walk/run the miles back home. If she doesn't crash in the seat in exhaustion on the car ride home, I did NOT do my job and really tire her out.

Keeping my pups MENTALLY and physically involved and exercising is my 'job' during the first year or so. I literally mark stuff on my calendar to make time for it. Playdates with other friends with good dogs. Knowing I am taking them to run errands and walking them around downtown between stores. Arranging to take them to work, to visit friends, on vacation.

DOG CLASS DOG CLASS DOG CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!

Hiking with my 3 dogs, sable pup was 14 weeks old:

This is a hiking date with 3 of my friends, their child, and 2 other dogs (3 dogs are mine) when my puppy was about 4 months old. Two miles out, swimming and two miles back.

5 months old and in Obedience class! I usually wait until 6 months but this was when class started. Bretta is between the Dob and the Golden.

8 months old, on vacation in Tennessee to visit a friend with dogs/cats and horses!

 

[Eve-Lynn]

I am sooo glad i read this one. We have a 4 1/2 month old male named Link. He does the exact same thing. He will put his front feet on the couch and the more we were trying to remove him the more he tried to get on. We finally would just remove ourselves from the couch and tell him off. Usually when we get off and move away he will then get off and as he is getting off we say "Off" and then praise him for doing it. When he is bored he tends to mainly do it only to me since I am the one who spends the most time with him but he will bark and growl and act like he wants to chase him. At Puppy school they said I shouldn't chase him because then he sees me as a sibling instead of the boss.

 

[lcht2]

i also have the same issues (he is also 5 1/2 months

)...its seems like he wants to play. he doesnt bark but will jump on me and trust me 50lbs of dog doesnt feel good comeing down on top of u. when he gets like this i crate him. then once he is relaxed i let him out and start some "obediance" refreshing with him just to get him occupied.

the behavior hasnt stopped but what i do does get his energy changed from spaz to obediant....just my 2 cents

 

[carly]

thanks all for great advice, I only have one problem remaining - I am happy to put her in her crate for a time out but calmly getting her in there when she is in that state of mind isn't as easy as that! If I have to chase her to the other side of the room and grab her collar to put her in there isn't that defeating the point a little... not sure how everyone else manages it?

She has completed the level 1 puppy class and is now on the kind of intermediate one, which is in a field and usually about 12-15 puppies 3 months to a year there which is great. She does calm down alot after proper exercise, we take her out regularly to meet other dogs she absolutely loves dogs and people when we are out, it was only with people comming in the house that she has started to become a bit weary of. We have had quite alot of people over regularly to see her and she is always happy to see everyone, I suppose we will just have to do it more and more now! Especially with the couple of people she has barked at - I think one was nervous of her which probably didn't help, but I will make him come round and see her more often. Any suggestions of what someone should do if she is acting like that?

 

[Eve-Lynn]

I agree with the crate. When Link comes out he is always calmer. We found that when we tried to get him in sometimes he would run away. What we do is have him sit and then get ahold of his collar and calmly walk him over to the crate. We also learnt what is called the "walk down" when he tries to run away we calmly follow him without saying anything and then you will see him look at you or lick his lips and he will have given up then just tap him and then put him in the crate. The walk down sometimes takes awhile but seems like it is less time each time you need to do it.

 

[carly]

thankyou! seems to work!

 

[lcht2]

u know..when tyson was a wee little pup my GF would leave a little later than i did in the morning to go to work so it was her job to crate him. she used to take his bowl of food and walk towards his crate saying "get in the kennel" in a happy voice. we also added games to the crate rewarding for going in.

now its funny because when i grab his bowl of food he will automaticlly go in. if i say "get in the kennel" he will go in there even in the middle of an all out spaz event. we used to have to chase him but we nipped that in the butt before he was bigger, faster, and stronger.