I feel SO bad!

[Megansmom]

Puppy Toby is 6 1/2 months old and has a behavior habit that I am trying to correct, but I think I am going about it the wrong way .

When I start to blow dry my hair, or put hairspray on, he JUMPS and JUMPS and lunges at me, he has bitten me on the a** twice. I try to ignore the behavior, put him in a sit BEFORE, but he gets SO excited he can't help himself. The last two times he bit at me, I immediately grabbed by the ruff, sat him down and sternly said NO, NO, NO! My discipline seems to startle him but not much else. If I am being effective wouldn't the behavior change?

I feel just awful when I grab his ruff and basically yell at him, but it hurts when he lunges at me.

[Ann]

Three of my four all do this with the hairdryer, Susan, it seems to be a Sheltie thing! I admit I've resorted to the lazy way out and just put a gate up across the door so they can't get to me.

Basically, you are doing it correctly except for one bit of fine tuning. When you grab his ruff, stoop down to his level so you can look him in the eye. Then, don't yell at him, but lower your voice to a growl and say NO sternly. When you do this, you're speaking to him on his level and in his language. Give it a try and let us know if it works. Good luck!

If all else fails, get a baby gate!

[danisgoat]

Dandie does this when I use my blender, except she doesn't bite me she just jumps on me and barks like a crazy dog.

I just ignore her....not the best method but since the blender is over in a few seconds it is not too bad. Nothing like drying my hair

[MissSuzie]

Originally Posted by Megansmom

Puppy Toby is 6 1/2 months old and has a behavior habit that I am trying to correct, but I think I am going about it the wrong way .

When I start to blow dry my hair, or put hairspray on, he JUMPS and JUMPS and lunges at me, he has bitten me on the a** twice. I try to ignore the behavior, put him in a sit BEFORE, but he gets SO excited he can't help himself. The last two times he bit at me, I immediately grabbed by the ruff, sat him down and sternly said NO, NO, NO! My discipline seems to startle him but not much else. If I am being effective wouldn't the behavior change?

I feel just awful when I grab his ruff and basically yell at him, but it hurts when he lunges at me.

He must think the hair dryer is attacking you. That's funny. None of mine to this. I would gate him out too.

[dmeyer123]

Lexi bites at my feet when I'm trying to put my shoes on. She is nuts! I worked so hard at trying to get her to stop by putting her in a sit stay, but now I've given up and just put her outside so I can get my shoes on.

The funny thing is...she only does this when I'm going to leave for work! On Sat. when we are getting ready for agility class or in the evening when we're going out for our walks, she doesn't bother at all and I can put my shoes on in peace!! They are too smart!

[Megansmom]

Originally Posted by danisgoat

Dandie does this when I use my blender, except she doesn't bite me she just jumps on me and barks like a crazy dog.

I just ignore her....not the best method but since the blender is over in a few seconds it is not too bad. Nothing like drying my hair

If he didn't bite at me I would ignore. It doesn't bother me much that he jumps with excitement, but the biting.

[SheltieChe]

Please please please do not grab him by the ruff and say your stern No words. You are right, your punishment is not working since the behavior continues and you just damaging your relationship with your pup.
Do you crate your pup? If yes, then crate your dog in distant room when you need to use hair blower. If not, think about it. Teaching doggie to like his crate is very very helpful thing - you might decide to take classes with your pup, or need to keep him at vet, or take to daycare, or someone watch over him when you are away. There are multiple reasons why crate is great and pups can be easily taught that "good things happen when I am in crate."
Next, what is his trigger? Seeing the blower, you going in that room, sound of it?
Does your pup has a really good sit? Like you could drop on the floor bag of his kibble in front of him and he still will be sitting? If he will break his sit when food is dropped or kitty is running or you playing with his favorite toy then you putting him in a sit for hair blowing not going to help.
Beside managing, i.e. putting your pup in crate, separate room, or gate you can introduce trigger in very small increments with outrageous treats.
For example, my dogs go nuts for the blender, and I do make a lot of doggie treats so we use it often So we started with their favorite beds/ and I have strong behavior on the bed, which means dogs get lotsa cookies for choosing to go on the bed. While they stay on the bed- I get out the blender which usually starts the noise. If they behave- I treat heavily. Then I take a top of the blender and sit/ walk around the room with it, while feeding my dogs in the beds with their favorite treats/ think steak or cheese for this one/. Then I adjust top blender to the bottom- again if dogs are behaving, great reinforcement. Then quick on/ off, more jackpotting with treats. It is a process and you might fix it in one day with several sessions but likely you will need several sessions of puppy adjusting to the hair blower. The goal is to know WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR PUPPY TO DO when the hair blower is on and teach your puppy that. Screaming "no" makes you feel guilty and still does not give your puppy correct information what do you want him to do.
P.S. I do hair blow my dogs. Taught it exactly same way- here is blower, look- get treat, sniff get treat, turn on/ off for second- no reaction- get outrageous bonus, keep doing small sessions of introducing blower and you will find it is not a problem anymore. Of course, living with shelties you will find that any number of things will trigger same response so you will have to figure out when to train and get it under control or when it is just easier to manage and crate/ separate your dog from trigger.

[Justicemom]

Diva used to do this to me when I would get up to go to the kitchen . She would start going crazy and then jump up and bite me in the rear. Bellowing Ouch did nothing, stopping did nothing, ignoring her did nothing(but get me bit more)

A few well timed squirts with the water bottle(on stream not mist) did the trick. I would praise her for being on the floor when she was sputtering and act total innocent of the fact that she just got sprayed with water. "Oh geez!" what happened, good girl for being on the floor" 2 times problem solved.

[DieDany]

The goal is to know WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR PUPPY TO DO when the hair blower is on and teach your puppy that. Screaming "no" makes you feel guilty and still does not give your puppy correct information what do you want him to do.

Absolutely. The pup must know, what to do after your "no". It would be good, if it would always be the same thing, for instance going to his place (crate/bed). Your goal is to make the pup think that the hair blower is nothing special. Screaming make him feel that something special is going on, so I would act calmly but convincingly.

Don't feel bad This is an issue that definitely is possible to deal with.

[Megansmom]

Originally Posted by SheltieChe

Please please please do not grab him by the ruff and say your stern No words. You are right, your punishment is not working since the behavior continues and you just damaging your relationship with your pup.
Do you crate your pup? If yes, then crate your dog in distant room when you need to use hair blower. If not, think about it. Teaching doggie to like his crate is very very helpful thing - you might decide to take classes with your pup, or need to keep him at vet, or take to daycare, or someone watch over him when you are away. There are multiple reasons why crate is great and pups can be easily taught that "good things happen when I am in crate."
Next, what is his trigger? Seeing the blower, you going in that room, sound of it?
Does your pup has a really good sit? Like you could drop on the floor bag of his kibble in front of him and he still will be sitting? If he will break his sit when food is dropped or kitty is running or you playing with his favorite toy then you putting him in a sit for hair blowing not going to help.
Beside managing, i.e. putting your pup in crate, separate room, or gate you can introduce trigger in very small increments with outrageous treats.
For example, my dogs go nuts for the blender, and I do make a lot of doggie treats so we use it often So we started with their favorite beds/ and I have strong behavior on the bed, which means dogs get lotsa cookies for choosing to go on the bed. While they stay on the bed- I get out the blender which usually starts the noise. If they behave- I treat heavily. Then I take a top of the blender and sit/ walk around the room with it, while feeding my dogs in the beds with their favorite treats/ think steak or cheese for this one/. Then I adjust top blender to the bottom- again if dogs are behaving, great reinforcement. Then quick on/ off, more jackpotting with treats. It is a process and you might fix it in one day with several sessions but likely you will need several sessions of puppy adjusting to the hair blower. The goal is to know WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR PUPPY TO DO when the hair blower is on and teach your puppy that. Screaming "no" makes you feel guilty and still does not give your puppy correct information what do you want him to do.
P.S. I do hair blow my dogs. Taught it exactly same way- here is blower, look- get treat, sniff get treat, turn on/ off for second- no reaction- get outrageous bonus, keep doing small sessions of introducing blower and you will find it is not a problem anymore. Of course, living with shelties you will find that any number of things will trigger same response so you will have to figure out when to train and get it under control or when it is just easier to manage and crate/ separate your dog from trigger.

I feel the need to repeat that I didn't scream at him, it wasn't even a yell, (I felt like it in my heart) it was a firm No, NO, NO biting, but he wasn't screamed at. Honestly, I don't think it phased him much, but I will try turning it on just to teach him NOT to jump and bite.

If all else fails, he goes into his play pen BEFORE the dryer . Thank you for taking the time to give me good direction on what I should and shouldn't try!