Help with Dog behaviors

[SpecialClassical]

There are so many knowledgable people here, so I would love some advice. Our mixed breed dog (1 yr old) has so many different breed behaviors that I don't know what is in him! He uses his paws like a boxer, runs like a greyhound, and prances like a toy breed.

 

He does have dachshund and supposedly lab. He's about 23 pounds. Anyway, he herds like crazy. If the children are trying to play with him and they start to run, he will bite their pant legs or shoes. Sometimes he just randomly runs up to people and bites their shoes. He's very persistent. Occasionally he will stop when corrected verbally, but usually someone has to physically stop him. He even had me stuck in the yard one day while he bit at my legs. He isn't being viscous, but it is obviously annoying and makes me worry about little children visiting. When he does it we tell the children to stop running and tell him no.

 

The funny thing is that he got out one day and started herding our chickens, but never open his mouth to bite at all.

 

Also, he growls at my youngest. ( 6'yrs old) We have worked on this quite a bit. However, recently my son was near the dog when a piece of food fell on the ground. My son bent over to pick it up right when the dog went for it. He bit my son's face. Again, not viciously, but he snapped at him. It didn't break the skin. We corrected him and put him in his crate. We had worked on food issues by having our son feed him and walk by him while eating and throw a treat near the dog. (To give him the idea that good things happen when you are eating and people walk near you. ). Apparently that wasn't enough.

 

Any words of advice? Thanks!

[Pawz4me]

When he does it we tell the children to stop running and tell him no.

 

I'd keep that up.  It takes tons of repetition, consistency and patience but it does work.

 

 

 

We had worked on food issues by having our son feed him and walk by him while eating and throw a treat near the dog. (To give him the idea that good things happen when you are eating and people walk near you. ). Apparently that wasn't enough.

 

Again -- repetition, consistency and patience.  I would have your son feed the dog every single meal possible for the next few months.  Have your son make the dog sit before placing the food bowl down.

 

I'd also recommend that you do a web search for Nothing In Life Is Free and start implementing that immediately.  It's a gentle way of reinforcing to the dog who exactly is in charge (and that it's not the dog).  Your dog sure seems to have some worrisome behaviors, and you want to nip those in the bud as soon as possible.  Consistently following NILIF will definitely help with that.

[SpecialClassical]

Thank you for the recommendation. We seem to have a knack for choosing rescue dogs with behavior issues, despite our efforts to identify a good fit. My 12 and 10 year old just love him and he is dedicated to them, so we will keep working at it. It is tiring after having our lab for 12 years. He had dominance issues. This guy is passive, but fearful. Add in the breed behaviors and he's a whole lot of work.

 

I do appreciate your help.

[MarinesWife]

I agree with the NILIF concepts.

 

We have a new dog .. she's a year old and has been with us for 3 weeks.  A friend of mine is a positive reinforcement k-9 trainer and is giving us lessons.

 

Izzy, our dog, started nipping about a week after we had her.  We were taught to turn our backs to her.  Also to yip like a puppy would as though it hurts.

 

Dogs want our attention and will do bad behavior to get even negative attention.  When we encourage the positive behavior then they'll act more positively.  Izzy has mostly stopped nipping ... we really had trouble for a couple days with my youngest children ages 6 and 8.

 

So what we have done to work on that is to have them do strict training with Izzy .. basically showing her who is in charge.  They walk her on the leash and I help them hold it if Izzy does not stay right next to them while walking (izzy weighs more than them and would just pull them over).   I've worked with my children on saying firm commands instead of their singysongy voices.

 

I love that your dog herds!  Izzy does a bit of herding which cracks me up because she's a boxer.  

 

Also we TRY not say NO or use harsh sounding words .. .it's so hard!  Our trainer said to use oopsie in a high pitched voice or turn our backs to Izzy until she does what she is supposed to be doing.

 

The other thing is your dog is one ... she's a puppy still.  Izzy tends to start to get into trouble when she what she really needs is to have her mind stimulated.  We go outside and do some training or for a walk on the leash to sniff new areas.  When we're done she is much calmer.  that was the other thing we learned is how much mind stimulation they need at this age.  I bet we spend a good 2 hours split up actively working with her each day.  

[SpecialClassical]

You know I keep thinking this little guy still acts like a pup. I guess that is good because he is still learning and hopefully more impressionable. I already talked to my boys about what Pawz4me said.

 

My kids took a training class with him when he was about 5 months old and he did really well because he is food motivated and loves his kids. However, the one thing they have a hard time with is heeling, so we will get strict about that as you mentioned.

 

And maybe we better get back to daily training. He's such a smart little guy that it is fun to train him. We do already implement some of the methods from the above website. He knows to sit when he wants to come inside after going potty and he is starting to get that he can't jump on people. We have worked HARD on that one.

 

I wonder how far is too far to walk him. Maybe there is a chart somewhere.

 

What kind of dog is Izzy?

 

Partly I'm feeling sorry for myself because we can't seem to get an easy dog. I know,they exist because my dad has one. My brother does as well and we had the best collie growing up. My parents didn't do much training at all. Poor us. Haha!!

[SpecialClassical]

P.s. To both of you, Is play fighting okay? My husband used to play fight with our lab, but only my husband did it. Our lab only mouthed him, never bit down. He knew my husband was in charge, so they were having fun.

 

This puppy likes to play like that with my twelve yr. old. He sounds very ornery and sincere, but if you watch him, he never bites down and stops immediately when told to. It is interesting that he doesn't play like that with our 10 yr old daughter or anyone else. The dog knows our 12 yr old is in charge. Still I told my 12 yr old to stop playing like that because I was afraid it would encourage negative behaviors. This was a fairly recent development.

 

I would ask our trainer these ?s, but we had to postpone classes because our dog got whipworm. He's better now, so we need to go back.

[albeto.]

I have a boxer who I couldn't take on walks because he would lunge at other dogs. He's fine at the dog park because he's really not aggressive, but when he sees another dog, he wants immediately to run over there and sniff. When on a leash, that immediate run looks like a lunge, and to a smaller dog or it's human friend, that's often translated to I WANT TO RIP YOUR THROAT OUT NOW. 

 

Interestingly, I've discovered that he has learned the command, "leave it." We work on it all. the. time. I give him his food and tell him "leave it." At first I had to stand in the way so he couldn't get through. This would last only a second or two, then I would give the release command, "OK!" and step aside for him. Now I can walk around the kitchen for a minute or so. I also drop pieces of deli meat (the size of an eraser maybe) when I make dh his sandwich for work. I tell the dog "leave it," and go about my business. Then I give the release command, "OK!" and he's allowed to grab it up. I'm always close by so if he makes a move for the thing I want him to leave, I can jump right in his way. Eventually, I'll walk around the corner and let one of my kids tell him "NO" if he moves when I'm out of sight. 

 

This works on walks now. We see a dog and I tell him, "leave it." He doesn't lunge at the dog. If the dog is very close, he'll try to walk right over there, but then I stand in his way so he can only see me. I tell him "LEAVE IT" while making direct, close eye contact (uncomfortable for dogs, I understand, as it's a sign of dominance). 

 

So I'm thinking, if you teach your dog "leave it" during various things, then you can transfer it to things you need your dog to leave, like the food your child is going for, or their ankles when he wants to herd them. 

 

I would also think giving him "work" would help relieve some of that instinctual angst. Teach him games, let the kids play these games with him. Give him challenges, keep him thinking.

 

Good luck. Herding dogs are so cute, but you don't want them tripping or nipping at kids, for sure. Too bad they can't just speak English, right? 

 

 

As far as how far is too far, young dogs can walk for miles and miles without problem. 

[SpecialClassical]

Albeto, thank you. We did use "leave it" with our lab and have used it some with this dog. It is the one command he is really iffy on because he is food motivated. But if i can work with him and our 6'yr old, that would be a great way to train him to be more reliable around children. And because he is passive, the eye contact would surely help.

[SpecialClassical]

And yes, he is very,very cute and comical until he started rounding us up!

[SpecialClassical]

Starts, not started. Stupid iPad!

[RoughCollie]

I completely sympathize with you.  I had a very easy rough collie and when I got my terrier, I was overwhelmed by how difficult he was in comparison.

 

Heeling is useful in the obedience ring.  Outside that, it is useful when you are with the dog and waiting at a light, crossing the street, passing other people, and stuff like that.  When you are walking your dog, it is best to use loose leash walking and teach the dog not to pull on the leash.

 

Here is a great series of dog training videos on Youtube by Kikopup:  https://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup

 

All you have to remember it can take a long time and a lot of calm patience to train a dog -- it is not as quick and easy as it looks in the videos.  It is a great way to bond with your dog, too!

 

Some other links about children and dogs:

 

http://www.livingwithkidsanddogs.com/

 

https://images.akc.org/pdf/PBSAF2.pdf   (AKC safety program for children)

 

http://www.vet.utk.edu/dogbiteprevention/parents/links.html

[hornblower]

I personally no longer use NILIF.

Kathy Sdao's book Plenty in Life is Free really changed how I look at it. I was never keen on it and it helped to clarify why

http://www.clickertraining.com/node/3476

 

I <3 kikopup (linked above). This sounds like a dog hat need a job, a structure, lots of exercise and brainwork (like clicker training tricks, or nosework, or perhaps treiball)

 

Sorry for typos - I'm on iPad mini and can't find reading glasses :D

[MarinesWife]

Izzy is a boxer.

 

Our trainer is having us use leave it for things we never ever want izzy to touch, using take it as the opposite. We are using Cheerios for the leave it training with a treat when she turns her head away from the Cheerios.

 

And drop it for things she can have but we just want her to drop in that moment like a toy or ball.

 

 

We are really enjoying the training. I'll look forward to good news from you!! We have a long ways to go still ... Not just with Izzy but also because we have two 10-week old pups too. One is a boxer Lucy and the other is a lab Noalie.

[Pawz4me]

I wonder how far is too far to walk him.

 

Far longer than any human will be able to manage. ;)

 

 

P.s. To both of you, Is play fighting okay? My husband used to play fight with our lab, but only my husband did it. Our lab only mouthed him, never bit down. He knew my husband was in charge, so they were having fun.

 

There are mixed opinions.  Some trainers say it's perfectly fine, others say it's a horrible thing to do.  My opinion is that it probably depends on the dog.  I've never had one of my own who didn't seem to understand the difference between play and . . . not playing.

 

 

Interestingly, I've discovered that he has learned the command, "leave it." We work on it all. the. time. I give him his food and tell him "leave it." At first I had to stand in the way so he couldn't get through. This would last only a second or two, then I would give the release command, "OK!" and step aside for him. Now I can walk around the kitchen for a minute or so. I also drop pieces of deli meat (the size of an eraser maybe) when I make dh his sandwich for work. I tell the dog "leave it," and go about my business. Then I give the release command, "OK!" and he's allowed to grab it up. I'm always close by so if he makes a move for the thing I want him to leave, I can jump right in his way. Eventually, I'll walk around the corner and let one of my kids tell him "NO" if he moves when I'm out of sight.

 

 

I love the "leave it" command.  And it can potentially be a life saver (dropped medicines, something iffy on the ground on a walk, etc.).  I start teaching it with items the dog is interested in but are low value.  My oldest dog learned "leave it" because when he was a puppy the boys were young and he had a tendency to pick up any sock they left laying around.  So we practiced "leave it" on socks (and the boys' toys) and worked our way up to high value food.

[SpecialClassical]

Thank you, everyone!