Biting and nipping LGD

707 Views 12 Replies 3 Participants Last post by JoanneF, 4 mo ago

Fidelis

Good day to everyone

I have a livestock guardian dog 8 months old male.He lives in our yard/garden.

When we come outside the house door, when we are away and come back from work and in general when he plays and gets excited he starts biting and nipping.....its a combination of his herding instinct..frustration cause he is alone in the house for a few hours and puppy clumsiness... the result however is, although he means no harm, that this behaviour needs to stop. He is a big dog 50kgr+ and often his teeth hit bone and its quite painful...he even grazed by accident my 4 y.o. son's eyebrow when they stumbled together to the ground while playing...

The truth is that i dont have huge amounts of time to dedicate but i ve trained him to basic obedience/leash walking and many other simple things. I tried to stop him biting with positive reinforcement , with a slip leash, by shouting that am in pain e.t.c...but only work momentarily.i dont have a crate to isolate him for a time out when he demonstrates this behaviour but i can put him on a leash and let him calm down in a corner of the yard for a short break...which seems to work a bit.
The behaviour is much more pronunciated when he is around my child that have the same height and the dog treats him as another puppy and plays rough with him...the truth is the child is also reactive and when the biting starts the child reacts and i have to intervene and step in not knowing who to protect...The truth is... that due to a panosteitis problem and loose hips for the last two months i have stopped being strict with him and let him do whatever he likes,but that led to stubborness and dominant behaviour from his side...Now though we are into adolescence and need some catch up in training

Any suggestions? Will he quit doing that or do it less growing up?Which method do you suggest considering all the above?

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JoanneF

· #2 · 4 mo ago

If you can't isolate him for a time out, remove yourself (and everyone in the family needs to be consistent with this - every person, every time).

When he learns that teeth on skin = immediate end of fun, he will get the message.

Fidelis said:
dominant behaviour from his side

That's the flat earth theory of dog training - thoroughly disproven and discredited, but old fashioned trainers still insist on referring to it. Please disregard anything you have told about dominance; until he steals money from your wallet and takes your car without asking, I promise you dominance is not what you are seeing.

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JoanneF

· #4 · 4 mo ago

Fidelis said:
. By dominant behaviour i mean behaviour is exhibiting such us: growling if my wife tries to handle him by the colar,

That isn't dominance, that's a communication that he doesn't like what she is doing. And, it's a pretty strong warning too - there will almost certainly have been more subtle communications that he was uncomfortable but these haven't been seen - or, in his view they have been ignored so now he is having to be even clearer. If she continues to disregard what he is saying, the next stages will be snap and bite.

Rather than handle him by the collar - when he seems to dislike - can your wife lure him out of her way, or teach him to touch her hand with his nose, then she can use that signal to move him. What you don't want to do is stop him growling, that would be like taking the battery out of a smoke alarm - the noise might stop, but you don't solve the real problem.

Regarding behaviour between dogs, your dog knows you aren't another dog. And, I think you will find different dogs will take the lead in different situations. There's also a big difference between leadership and dominance. If you think of great leaders that you admire in your own life, they inspire followership, they don't get it by dominating people.

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JoanneF

· #6 · 4 mo ago

Possibly. You could try stepping out of the room yourself rather than try to lead him out.

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JoanneF

· #11 · 4 mo ago

Fidelis said:
that is why i have tried a time out, and unfortunately as i dont have a crate i needed to leash him.

Maybe having a short (~30 cm) leash attached to (hanging from) his collar would help so it's just something to get hold of, rather than have to put on? If possible, use one without a handle loop for safety.

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JoanneF

· #13 · 4 mo ago

I should have said, it's also a good idea to get him used to being handled around the collar. So start with rubbing his neck and reward, touching and holding the collar (without pulling) and reward; and so on, a little every day until it becomes a non-issue.

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