An Update on Ginny's Numerous Issues.

OntarioSheltie said:
Sorry, I guess I've gotten so long winded in this thread that no one wants to read it. :(
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No you havent - its never too long winded when you are dealing with issues. I read the thread and have been thinking about it before replying.

With the nipping. Well Deska still has a dreadful habit of nipping my heals at 3yrs, and no trainer has been able to get that out of him. He will also nip Tully when he is excited and occassionally other dogs. But he understands he should not nip anyone else, he has never nipped a child - despite the awful things my neices and nephews sometimes do to him (including pretending he was a wheelbarrow a couple of months ago - imagine how much that hurt his poor elbows). I wouldnt worry too much if she is showing bite inhabition at all other times. Alternatively, you could change her mouthing over to an object - like a tug toy and play tug instead. I put Deska's mouth onto a stick to save my ankles and he knows now to look for a stick to chew on when he gets excited.

That said, my dogs both still chewed a bit in adolescence and I was told its because their teeth are still settling into their adult jaw.

Can we ever stop our little girls from being bossy. Tully will always be a bossy little girl, but she is also very sweet and considerate to others and is good at sharing. Mind you, when she was young it was a nightmare, but they do mellow out.

Great news on the class. It is so fantastic she is getting more confidence around other dogs. I know this happened with Tully I was so happy I could cry.

The piddling is a problem. When is she doing it? Tully actually could not hold on over night and for long periods until she was about 18mths. So I had a little indoor loo in the garage for when she couldnt hold on. Nowadays I still leave a puppy pad there just in case, but she only used in once since xmas.

Sorry about my long post!
 
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My first dog Jo the Lab, used to play with my brother's hand and tan leather work gloves . He would face fight her and let her bite his hands and being a Lab she had a soft mouth and never bit down. One day my uncle came over to the house, he was wearing tan leather gloves(nice ones). Jo came running up to him(fast) and grabbed his hand. She didn't bite down and just held his hand but he almost had a heart attack. He didn't know about her glove fetish. I shudder to think if he had been a stranger it could have been bad.

I would definitely tranfer your playing over to a tug toy like Caro suggested. I allow my pups to mouth my hands when they are young to teach bite inhibition but by the time they are 4-5 months old no mouthing is allowed. You don't want Ginnie to accidentially decide to do that to the wrong person ie child as your trainer suggested the parent will freak out even if you knew she was playing and gentle. John Q Public is not dog savy.

So great about the classes helping with her confidense. Keep training and her bossiness will be less of a problem.

Also you are sure her peeing isn't medical? I have never had a dog go this long with potty issues without progress.
 
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Well shoot, we allow Megan to "play" with your hands with her mouth :o. She never bites but playfully gently mouths. Are we supposed to discourage this for the reasons thathave been stated?? :confused2:
 
I'm happy to hear that Ginny is doing well around other dogs--that's awesome.

As to the mouthing...I think that's a tough question. I was actually watching a clip from the show "Good Dog" with Stanley Coren. It's obviously outdated, but it had a sheltie on it so I watched :) Anyways, he told a family that they had to stop "being the toy" and to transfer that to a real toy. I think to some degree, that's true. In the case of the show, they had a sheltie that would bite and herd the kid. I don't accept that kind of behavior from my two (though they still try).

But, they both like to play with hands and feet. I'm not really sure of the true definition of "mouthing". My two will chase my hands, pounce at them with their mouths open (making that "arr arr arr" noise--anyone else's do that?), but they never really put my hand in their mouth. I even use my hands to play attack them (like their feet) and they love it. If they ever accidentally graze my hands with their teeth, game over. So I'm not sure if I encourage mouthing or not!
 
Justicemom said:
Also you are sure her peeing isn't medical? I have never had a dog go this long with potty issues without progress.
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I'm positive it isn't medical. Sadie has had UTI's before and I know the signs. She is not agitated or in pain and its not all the time, just some times. She can go a week without peeing in the house then will have one or two accidents seemingly randomly. Some times she asks to go out, other times she doesn't. I'm starting to think that maybe we've somehow confused her.

Sadie was really bad to house train and took a year. She was very stubborn and would pee in the house when I did something she didn't like.

*Caro said:
With the nipping. Well Deska still has a dreadful habit of nipping my heals at 3yrs, and no trainer has been able to get that out of him. He will also nip Tully when he is excited and occassionally other dogs. But he understands he should not nip anyone else, he has never nipped a child - despite the awful things my neices and nephews sometimes do to him (including pretending he was a wheelbarrow a couple of months ago - imagine how much that hurt his poor elbows). I wouldnt worry too much if she is showing bite inhabition at all other times. Alternatively, you could change her mouthing over to an object - like a tug toy and play tug instead. I put Deska's mouth onto a stick to save my ankles and he knows now to look for a stick to chew on when he gets excited.

The piddling is a problem. When is she doing it? Tully actually could not hold on over night and for long periods until she was about 18mths. So I had a little indoor loo in the garage for when she couldnt hold on. Nowadays I still leave a puppy pad there just in case, but she only used in once since xmas.
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Ginny used to bite heals but I've managed to stop that. She still goes after Sadie and while I've managed to discourage it some what, I don't think she'll ever totally stop.

Ginny is definitely able to hold it, she easily holds it during the day and at night. She had an accident last night after peeing two hours earlier.

corbinam said:
But, they both like to play with hands and feet. I'm not really sure of the true definition of "mouthing". My two will chase my hands, pounce at them with their mouths open (making that "arr arr arr" noise--anyone else's do that?), but they never really put my hand in their mouth. I even use my hands to play attack them (like their feet) and they love it. If they ever accidentally graze my hands with their teeth, game over. So I'm not sure if I encourage mouthing or not!
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This is EXACTLY what Ginny does, it's her favorite game. I don't really see the harm in it myself, she's very gentle. I just don't want others to think she's biting them.

I play the same game with Sadie but I don't worry about her. Now that I think about it, the difference is that Ginny is always trying to initiate the game by growling and pouncing, where as I always initiate the game with Sadie. Maybe I should try discouraging her from initiating the game instead and only play it on my terms, the way I would a game of tug.

Wow, thanks for helping me make that distinction! I'll be that will work without taking away a fun game for both of us.
 
OntarioSheltie said:
I'm positive it isn't medical. Sadie has had UTI's before and I know the signs. She is not agitated or in pain and its not all the time, just some times. She can go a week without peeing in the house then will have one or two accidents seemingly randomly. Some times she asks to go out, other times she doesn't. I'm starting to think that maybe we've somehow confused her.
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I don't want to beat a dead horse, but thought I'd add that during one (of the many) of Lexi's UTIs, she showed almost no symptoms. The ONLY weird thing she did was pee on the bed ONCE. It just seemed so bizarre and I knew that she should "know better" by then. She didn't show any pain or discomfort. In fact, other than the one accident, she was totally normal. Of course you know your pup better than I do, I just wanted to throw that out there! :)
 
corbinam said:
I don't want to beat a dead horse, but thought I'd add that during one (of the many) of Lexi's UTIs, she showed almost no symptoms. The ONLY weird thing she did was pee on the bed ONCE. It just seemed so bizarre and I knew that she should "know better" by then. She didn't show any pain or discomfort. In fact, other than the one accident, she was totally normal. Of course you know your pup better than I do, I just wanted to throw that out there! :)
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Same with Bailey. During Bailey's last UTI she had no symptoms at all. She didn't even have an accident in the house and one day didn't go to the bathroom for 9 hours!

Sorry I didn't respond sooner. Sometimes I read the forums on my cell phone during my commute to and from work. I only reply to threads from my cell if it's going to be a short response.

Personally, I don't like mouthing on hands even if it's just playing. I don't want Bailey to accidentally nip at a child or have a kid take her mouthing the wrong way. Thankfully, Bailey was never a mouthy dog. She nipped at me twice as a puppy. I screamed ow! and that was the end of her nipping. I never encouraged it either.
 
Really Enjoying the Obedience Classes

Training on Tuesday nights with my sheltie girls has become the highlight of my week. I was having so much fun with Ginny that I enrolled Sadie in an Advanced class, which is right after Ginny's.

Ginny is doing EXCELLENT in her class and her behavior at home has been really good too.

Ginny is trying SO HARD to please me in class and it sort of amplifies her cuteness. When she's healing she trots along beside me like a little horse, kicking up her heals so high. The next time my husband comes to watch I'll get him to record it. Its just so cute.

Ginny is catching onto everything really quickly and performs like a little star. Ginny's breeder is so proud of her. She has been VERY obedient at home.

This week she's learning the stand command, which she finds really confusing, as I've never taught my dogs to stand before. We're also working on a 10 minute stay. Se stayed for 7 minutes easily last night, so I have no doubt she'll do it.

She's doing very well around the other dogs and no longer acts shy of her brother. Last week while the trainer was talking Ginny was flirting with her brother, she put her head down to the floor with her ears flat and rolled over onto her back with her tail wagging and pawed him with her feet to entice him to play. She then rolled from side to side, kicking at him with her back feet. Just when I didn't think she could get cuter. She's still intimidated by large dogs but is more comfortable with approaching for a sniff in general.

The neighbor with the dog that bit her seems to have taken the bite seriously and I haven't seen him off leash since. If she lets him off its by himself.

At the trainer's suggestion, we've been crating Ginny more often and I've persuaded my husband to help me give Sadie more attention and Ginny less. This seems to be slowly working and Ginny is bullying Sadie less and Sadie is enjoying the extra attention.

Ginny is still having accidents in the house and on our front porch. The trainer says that she believes that Ginny may be anxious and that we should ignore accidents. At this point I'll try anything. So far I'm seeing no improvement.

We're trying to work on the hand biting but I'm not sure if we're going about it the right way. As soon as her mouth makes contact with my hand I end the game. So far it doesn't seem like she's catching on so I'll have to see that both my dh and I are being consistent.

Sadie is doing excellent in the Advanced Class, especially since she's never had any formal obedience training. She's such a smart girl and I'm really hoping that I'll be able to compete with her in obedience, since agility never worked out because of my health issues.
 
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