Help with jumping and biting/mouthing

[k9kreationz]

Hi all! It's been a long time since I've been here, but I have an older puppy that was raised by the breeder so has a lot of dog/dog behaviors that I have no clue on how to break. So here I am . Gus is neutered and is now 16 months old.

When I walk, he jumps up and bites at my clothes or jumps against us. I don't mind the jumping in general, but what I don't like is him launching himself at us and nailing my husband and I in our privates (ouch - that's for my hubby). He also nips when he jumps.

So far, I have ignored him, pushed against him, turned my back, etc. But nothing works. I have trained him to stop jumping on me/up when I climb a stepstool, but so much harder to train to stop when walking. Thoughts? I'll continue working on training for the things I can, but I walk and he jumps. It's the weirdest thing I've experienced. I do wonder if it's a herding thing.

The other part is the biting. I get that's a dog/dog thing when they play but I'm not a dog and have tried a variety of things with no end whatsoever. He does not bite to the point of hurting, but he does bite while playing - I'd call it mouthing, but he can get very mouthy and I'm over it.

Give me your best suggestion. At this point, I'm willing to try almost anything.

 

[Margi]

I feel your pain--literally! LOL Benson does the exact same things! I've gotten nipped on the nip--owie! When he gets excited and starts jumping I back up, and bend over and try to redirect him to my feet until I can calm him down. (he does a little dance on my feet and unties my laces sometimes ) Then we walk forward. I won't move forward till he's calm. This takes lots of repetition sadly and he STILL get worked up and jump/nips sometimes!! He's 5--been doing this since I got him at 1 year. Of my 6 shelties he's the only one that's done this.
He also is mouthy, will take my whole forearm in his mouth and pull. I freeze, say OW really loud and then command easy! When the game stops everytime he grabs me, he's figgered out thats a bad thing if he wants to play. But again--he can get overly excited sometimes!
Good luck, this has been a tough one for me!

 

[k9kreationz]

Okay, glad I'm not alone, but bummer that nothing has worked yet. I would say Gus is like Benson....overly excited. I like the idea of bending over and redirecting. I may give that a try and work a little on "heeling". Instead of bouncing and following me, how about you heel nicely I'm just grateful when he gets mouthy, he doesn't really hurt me, but yeah, I do the ow thing and he stops, and as soon as I'm "over it", he continues. Brat! Haha.

 

[Bailey's Mom]

I will say a trainer really helped us with Teddy because he was impossible to walk with because he thought it was an amazing game. She taught us to walk and treat in a training area so there weren't the normal outdoor distractions that normally come with a walk or the house stuff that in our house makes this kind of training more challenging. Honestly, it took more to train us than him. With the trainer he took to it but it took us longer to understand when and how to treat so he walked with us as if he wasn't really even on leash. It was an amazing transformation I never saw happening.

One of the things we are still working on is jumping and the mouthing. One of the issues with jumping is finding when it is the worst and then creating a "practice" time you can control. For instance the front door is often a confrontation area of personal space pain for us so she had us practice when nobody was at the door, one of us wasn't leaving so he wasn't crated as he is when we both leave home. We've been working on place for the person staying for instance and the dog being released when the person "leaving" gets out safely. We got busy the last few weeks and I noticed a door got slammed shut today by a frustrated Sheltie because we haven't practiced and he's taken it as a sign he doesn't have to follow the rule. We will have to get back to the rules or he will lose the skill.

One thing I have discovered with his mouthing behavior is it usually happens when he's tired or in need of some attention and sometimes it isn't at the best of times. First I make sure he gets outside. Then sometimes he goes in his crate or his penned area and while he initially protests he usually is sound asleep in no time at all. He will be a year in Nov but he still naps. As I'm typing this he's asleep in his pen after a bit of a cranky tantrum. As soon as he settled in his bed he passed out. He'd been out for a rousing game of soccer so I knew he had burned off his energy, it was clearly time for a nap.

We've also really been working on making sure he has chew time with appropriate teething chews. I swear he looks like he's flossing sometimes when he works one of those bones to the back gums. However, when he has chewing time with stuff he is supposed to chew I do find we are not completely free of inappropriately chewed items or wanting to teeth on my hands but I have noticed its so much less than when we first got him.

 

[Piper's mom]

Finnie used to be very mouthy when heeling or even just walking beside me. It didn’t help that he’s taller and can easily reach my hand with his mouth. When he’d grab my hand I’d just tap his face/mouth and say leave it. He’s fortunately never really bit hard, he never used his teeth.
You could try holding his snout (gently) and saying NO BITE firmly as soon as it happens. It might take awhile….it takes them no time to learn a bad habit but way longer to train them out of it!
Another thing that might help him is doing something like Crate Games…helps to teach them self control, builds confidence and teaches them patience. And it’s so much fun for the dog. I did this with Finnie when he was around 2 (although I think he could use some more of it lol). While crate games was originally created for helping with agility training it’s now so much more and helps the dog in all aspects of its life. Check it out…you can buy the dvd or do online streaming.
https://get.crategames.com/?utm_med...I2IGwnbl6YcySum5tl2sxCnHozxnV0gRoC_VIQAvD_BwE

 

[Caro]

I acn understand a breeder dog doing this, he's had competition for attention so he who was highest got the most attention.

Here's some ideas I teach in classes for persistent jumpers.

Teach an alternate behaviour. The jumping is an excited, energetic behaviour so you need to teach something with equal energy. Give he is a Sheltie I would teach him a spin - that's pretty much the usual insinctive behaviour. You need to identify when he is likely to do these behaviours - probably when he is getting ramped up or attention seeking. Teach a spin first and start putting it on cue when he has learnt a spin (I like to have a hand signal for this so you can get him to spin and keep talking or doing whatever you are doing without stopping to say spin, plus dogs actually respond to ). Then whenever he starts getting excited, well before the stage he will jump, get him to spin. Over time he will eventually gravitate to spinning in excitement rather than jumping, but you have to keep reinforcing and rewarding the spin whenever you can. Also, in case he seems resistent to spinning, some dogs are left-handed (like Kismet) so you need to find the natural direction he will spin.

I also teach on and off, which if the spin doesn't work you could try. It's really a matter of teaching him to jump on cue - but in a slightly different way, so often I get people to try to get them to put paws on the arms or legs. Say 'on' or whatever term you want to use, and then when you say 'off' throw a treat on the ground. In this process you only reward the 'off' and never the 'on'. If you don't want him doing it put your hands in front of his eyes (doesn't need to be directly in front, just block his view of your face).

Kismet is a mega jumper - she's tiny and jumps into my arms and she was jumping into my arms when I wasn't even watching and it was causing problems. So I taught her to only jump up when I said 'hup' and put my knee out for her to use that to bounce on (so she jumped with less force), at other times I do a leg pat and she puts her paws gentle on my two legs gets a pat and then I say off.

 

[woof]

In an obedience class i was in some years ago the trainer told us to knee the dog and say no jump-- not to hurt them but to push them away. She was pretty good at getting one of the dogs to stop jumping but it takes time. Our current crew jump a bit but they are not bad and we just turn away and say no jump and they get it but our male is a big mouther-- when we sit-- and he is very very careful to mouth gently-- I am bad cause I know this is his way of showing affection so sometimes we do mouthies for a minute then I tell him enuf. The enuf! command is a good one to teach because it can be used in so many ways, like when the zoomies get out of hand and other behaviors. I always follow a stern enuf command with a "good dog" when they quit and I give them a big smile. I think dogs that have been kenneled alot will be alot more work than dogs that came home as young puppies.. I even let my Shelies give me a thorough arm or leg wash cause I know it is there way of grooming me-- I wash off afterward and hey I probably have all there germs anyway..."that which does not kill me serves to make me stronger."...Nietzsche