HELP

[Guest Anonymous]

Can someone please please tell me how to teach my six month old ACD mix to stop biting ?? I've had her for nearly three months and she has barely improved at all. I've been doing everything I can think of and she will not stop and it hurts like heck. I'll be walking through my house and she'll run up and just bite my clothes, hands, pants, anything she can. I'll be using the computer and she'll run and jump all over me and put her paws all over my hands and the keyboard and everything else, and bite me at the same time. She's about to drive me over the edge. I know she's a herding dog but I'm not a cow or a sheep.

She also will not stop jumping, she jumps all the time and the only thing I have not tried is stepping on her feet and squeezing her paws.

What is so frustrating is that I try very hard not to be negative with her all the time but as soon as I have her sit so I can pet her and reward her for being borderline polite she starts biting my hands again. I thought about getting a dog for a year before I finally did it, it was not an impulsive decision, I even visited her at the pound four times before I got her. I really want to keep her but I keep thinking maybe she needs a family on a farm in the middle of nowhere with miles to run but I don't want to give up on her too soon either. I am just extremely frustrated with her and have no idea how to work with her so she improves.

[Shannon_C]

Marble you must be firm but kind to her.....your dog knows she is top and your bottom, this should be the other way round, to stop her from biting and pulling at your clothes say ''NO'' and give her a toy to play with to encourage her to do the opposite, be sharp with her when you say it so she gets the message....you will have to use that command whenever she bites, whatever you do don't smack her....at the moment she doesnt know what she is doing wrong this is why you should teach her right from wrong, she will learn but you will need a lot of patience.
hope this as helped!
Let us know how you get on.

[Guest Anonymous]

You don't say how old your dog is, but it sounds like she's still in the puppy stage which can last an awfully long time. Herding dogs are not dogs for everyone. They need lots of exercise and jobs to do. A lot of exercise before work and after work. That all being said, IMHO, all dogs need formal obedience training. It's a wonderful learning experience and bonding time for both owner and the dog. My suggestion is to get your dog enrolled in a formal, reputable obedience class that teaches positive reinforcement training. They will teach you how to properly train your dog. All pups do annoying biting, and you have to give them a sharp correction following through each time, and also give them a toy to divert their attention. Go visit several obedience schools and watch what trainers seem to handle well all the dogs. I would not recommend petstore training classes, although I'm sure some people/dogs have done very well there. Go to a class where you feel comfortable with the trainer. Don't hesitate to go because you are afraid you dog will be the most unruly one there because you will see various problems there. Good luck. Let us hear back from you. Your dog needs to know that you are the ALPHA and he ranks lower. He also sounds bored.

[Carolk9s]

I'd like to add to the excellent advice given by Shannon and Guest Pat, I recommend saying a loud OW! whenever she bites at you. Say it like you mean it, bring your voice up from your toes! You dont want her to think you are just playing with her. You don't have to scream at her of course but a nice deep OW each and every time might help. When I say each and every, I mean EACH and EVERY! No play biting is allowed, do not treat her like its funny or ok at all. Even OW NO BITE! and give or show her a toy she can bite on.
Best of luck, I know how annoying mouthy dogs can be.

[anne3149]

You posted that the pup is 6 months old. She is still teething but YES you need to show her that biting is not on. I used to yell ouch and turn my back on the dog and walk away. This has to be done every time the dog mouths you.
Have you done formal obedience training with the dog. If not now is the time to start, this is a must. Look around and find a class close by you. you will be amazed at how quickly the dog catches on and they like it. This particular breed is a working, high energy dog so the sooner you go to obedience the better things will be. Good luck.

[Hobbit]

Hey Marble the other posters posted some very good techniques to try. Your pup views you as an equal because she is trying to play with you like she would another sibling or an "equal" other pup. Reinforce that you are alpha and not her equal.

Good luck, ACD's are a handful and are usually of a dominant personality.

[bk_blue]

Marble, good luck with Dresden, like everyone has said you have to be alpha NOW or else she will just get worse. It doesn't mean being nasty about it, just firm... there are some good sites to look at if you are interested, one in particular Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) is reported to work wonders with pesky, persistent alpha dogs (and shy dogs too, to swing right the other way):

http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm


Hope it helps.
:)

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks for your help, I made a list of all your suggestions and am going to try them but there are a couple things.

First, I've tried "No" when she bites, I've said it loud, I've said it low, etc etc.... it doesn't matter how I say it she just looks at me and laughs, usually jumps around and acts like it's really funny. I've tried off and making her sit for jumping and neither has worked. I saw somewhere that someone used an airhorn held behind their back, that's the only sort of thing that might get her attention. Is there a right way to use one for jumping ? Also I don't know how this affects how much she is biting but she already has all her adult teeth, not that I know if they are all the way in or not...

I've looked into formal obedience and the only thing I can find other than Petsmart is a kennel club. The classes were at a time when I could not go but I am planning to go check them out and hopefully get into their next session.

On the dominance thing, I don't know how many more ways I can tell her I'm dominant. I make her sit every time I pet her, every time I give her any food or treats I make her sit and wait, every time she goes in or out of the house or her crate I make her sit and stay first, I don't let her go through doorways first, I always give Lady (my older dog) her treat first, she definitely is not sleeping on my bed.....etc. Are there other ways to reinforce my dominance ? I feel like I do it constantly but if there are more ways I'd love to know.

[bk_blue]

Oh I do feel for you, I know how annoying a hyper dog can be and it will probably carry on until she is 2 or 3 (being an ACD X they are notoriously smart and energetic and easily bored and will always push the boundaries if they can! Having said that they are GREAT dogs whose intelligence works as well for them as it does against them :)). Blitz gets taken out for a 1-2 hour run most days which completely tires him out (that is the BEST!!!), has a good sized yard to amuse himself with, and does obedience. He is still hyper at 7 though! When he WANTS to be good he is excellent, this is when he is doing the right thing- when I am boss. He was not really a big biter, but when he did I told him NO BITING in my angry voice. Sometimes he was just too excited to notice and the only way I could get through to him was to get really scary and growl very loudly at him and basically do everything I could with my voice (I'm not a fan of hitting a dog) to convey that what he was doing was bad. Then I would put him in a sit or a down position and go over the top with praise when he did that, he would go all sooky and roll over on his belly and thump his tail after that.
With the jumping- have you tried the kneeing trick with her? Maybe she is too big for it but what you do *every time* she jumps up is put your knee up so her chest hits your knee. It's not cruel but uncomfortable and she'll come to associate jumping up with that vaguely unpleasant experience and hopefully stop it. :)

I wish I could help you more but that's all I can think of for now... I really think obedience will help heaps when you start. Good luck!

[Guest Anonymous]

hey, you all (or someone) said to update you. so i was just going to say that i don't know if someone put her on a sedative when i wasn't looking, or if it's mixing her puppy food half and half with lady's adult food or what but right now she is sleeping nicely on my lap (she almost doesn't fit) while i am typing and she seems to have been slightly less obnoxious the last two days....i took her on a walk today and acted like a nazi (who was accused of that ??:) made her sit and turn, slow, fast etc, she actually did pretty well, she watched me a lot so maybe there's hope...too soon to get too excited but i am anyway. she has not been this sweet since she was at the pound. i have been doing the knee thing when she jumps and she's a teeny bit better.

for if/when her evil side comes out again i'm still curious about other ways to enforce dominance other than the ones i posted in my second post on this thread. if you all have any advice for teaching her how to retrieve it'd be great, she'll do it once or twice and then gets bored...do you know of any fun games to play with ACD's ? ..................thanks for all your encouragment.

by the way, how much do dogs typically grow after six months ? just curious if there was some sort of average.....

[bk_blue]

Marble, a larger dog such as yours will probably be fully grown at 1-2 yrs (I think this is right).
I am glad the knee thing is working, keep it up and you will have a saint for a pet instead of a Hell's Angel :wink:
I believe that your new incarnation as the obedience Nazi may have helped her settle down and think, "oh hang on, I'm not boss anymore, hmmm well that's ok I guess." Maybe? And the concentration she had to use in order to obey you is probably part of the reason she was stuffed when she got back!
ACDs TYPICALLY like frisbee, tennis balls, those little Kong things on ropes you throw at the park, and will want to play fetch with you all day if they could. Unfortunately for me BK DOESN'T like such things, preferring to play with other dogs than stupid old toys :roll: I throw the ball and he looks at me as if to say: "You threw it, you go and bloody well fetch it!" :D

[Hobbit]

Heelers (usually - said this because there are exceptions to every rule) have a strong prey drive. They LOVE any game involving chasing something. Our Heelers favorite game is chasing the bottle. A regular plastic drink bottle tied on the end of a 100 foot light weight rope. HOURS of fun. Throw it out there (as far as possible) and drag it back with everyone chasing it. OR, drag is behind a 4 wheeler (slow, of course). They like tennis balls, but it's like bk said, "you threw it, YOU go get it and bring it back". They normally herd the ball to a stop and then look at me to come throw it again.

Hide and seek is fun --- of course they ALWAYS find me! Hiding a treat and telling them to "find it" is something ours like. Just plain old squeeky toy round up is always a laugh.