Dog Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Dog keeps biting ankles

12K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Dawnben 
#1 ·
Ok I am new to the dog community and to this posting stuff, but I think this could very well help my family and the newest member to our family TOPEZ our dog. So we ended up getting a dog from a shelter it is about 3 months old mix German Shepard. It's cute and fun but it's always wanting to chew stuff and it's always biting wether ankles or in bed and it's your leg or something. Now I understand it's probably teething I'm guessing and with it a Shepard it's a herding dog, but is there anything I can do to help it seems like 90% of time we are saying BAD DOG NO! please help out we want our dog to we are boss but def love us and stay away from harshness. Thanks to all who reply.
 
#2 ·
welcome to the forum, and congrats on the new addition to your family.

the first thing you need to do, is STOP with the "bad dog" nonsense. it obviously hasn't been working for you and it won't. when dogs are doing something that we don't like, we need to do a couple of things 1 find out what the dog is getting out of the behavior, that we would call the "reinforcement" 2 remove the reinforcement. 3 add reinforcement to a different behavior so that the dog is more likely to do that one.

so for step 1-biting at your ankles, it is likely that he is doing it for play/attention. shouting at him and giving him any attention for doing it is only going to increase the likelihood that he will do it more.
step 2-remove the reinforcement from the unwanted behavior. i would simply freeze whenever he bit at my ankles, cross my arms and sort of dramatically disengage from him, it will like like you are turning your head up snobbishly. don't say anything, don't look at him, don't move, just freeze. step 3- teach him to do something else instead. i'm not sure what the best behavior is for your situation, but a common one used is "sit" he can't very well chase/bite at your ankles if he is sitting.

once you've done all that, you aren't quite done dealing with the behavior. it sounds like he needs a bit more stimulation in his day, as well as an appropriate outlet for that energy. i highly recommend a .
you might also want to up the amount of training sessions you do (not the time of the individual sessions ;)) are you familiar with clicker training?

there are some really helpful videos in this thread:
http://www.dogforum.com/dog-training/helpful-training-videos-articles-11426/ you might want to browse through it :)
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the awesome reply inlike the video I will be making one for her to play with. No I'm sorry I am not familiar with the clicker training what is that and how could inlearn more I have tried started to train and she is kinda free spirited right now and just wants to play
 
#4 · (Edited)
playfulness is good, you just need to channel all that energy ;)

clicker training is a method where you use some sort of noise to indicate to the dog that what they are doing is going to earn them a reward. you can use a mechanical clicker, a whistle, your voice, snap your fingers, whatever. in my experience, the mechanical clicker is the most effective. they look like this:

but you can get started without one. if she is food motivated, you can use her regular kibble as treats, basically you will be making her work for her much of her meals :) if she isn't food motivated, you'll need to provide tastier treats. personally, i like to use the lowest value food that the dog will work for, and save higher value stuff for when you need it more. my dog isn't really thrilled with his kibble, i put a hotdog or two, sliced really small, into a tupperware, with the kibble, and shake it up, then i leave it in the fridge for a day or so. or i mix some chicken broth with the kibble, just enough to moisten it a little bit. to get started you just say "yes" (or click of you have a clicker) and give the dog a piece of kibble. every click=a piece of kibble, no matter what. after about 2-5 times, she should be "getting" that the click/"yes"=food. once that association is made, you can start to click/say "yes" or mark her for doing certain behaviors, as you will see in the this video:





 
#5 ·
Welcome to the world of a normal puppy. They want everything in the mouth, just like a baby.

Fawkese is giving you excellent advice and those videos are awesome. I also have a book to recommend for you and your family. It's a quick easy read and will help you immensely!

Amazon.com: puppy primer
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top