# How to handle: 6 month old jumping/nipping me



## readmeli (Feb 28, 2013)

Non-GSD, but highly active and full of drive Duck Toller! She's a handful, and this forum is a godsend! I havent found anything specific like this in searches... Wonder what you guys think.

My girl is 6 months old coming up on Monday. She is not spayed. In the past several weeks she has started a behavior I am not having much success in redirecting. Usually it happens during some play, or after play.

For instance, this morning, we were doing "fetch" outside on a long line. She LOVES fetch... But out of the blue, she drops her toy and starts coming for me. Jumping, nipping, barking. Thankfully she's only 28lbs. I do not care for this behavior one bit. Nothing works for me... I've tried to ignore it (this is rather difficult to do as she is quite demanding and I"m not up for being bit and my clothes getting torn up) - I've tried grabbing her scruff and shaking. I've tried pinning to the ground until she settles. I've tried redirecting (hard to do as she's trying to get me). I've tried to get her to "Sit"... Instead she whirls around jumping and spinning and doing her best to stay away from me.

Thankfully having her on the line is helpful. I reel her in best I can and usually the only option at this point is to haul her up and make her settle on my lap for 5-10 minutes. Usually this does the trick.

I really really really want to do the right thing here, I just do not know what the right thing is. I do not like negative training at all, I would prefer I could deal with this is some positive manner but am unsure how to get there. 

After she settles on my lap for 5-10 mins, she's fine. This might happen 1-2 a day, or maybe not at all for several days. I was half wondering if it is OVERSTIMULATION for her, and a settle is what she needs?

Help please, I am open to all solutions. Thank you.

(We start formal obedience classes next week, YAY! She is pretty well trained but we need socialization)


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

Have you been working at all on a "wait" command? For instance when she eats do you make her pause before releasing her to eat? Or waiting at the door before charging through it?


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## readmeli (Feb 28, 2013)

Yes Shanna, she has a very good wait! She is never allowed to charge in or out - always sits first. At this point it is quite cute and she does it all the time... even new doors! She is very polite with that. I also make her wait politely 4 feet away while I get her food ready in the morning, and she only gets to go eat it when I give the "OK".


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

OK, do you use it while playing fetch?


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## readmeli (Feb 28, 2013)

I do some "wait" when we are doing fetch - I should do it more I think. I always make her sit before I throw, but it is likely time to work wait in a lot more often.


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

Delgado still does leak drive with the flirt pole, last night we went out to the backyard and as I was walking down the steps he jumped for the pole I was holding in my hand and punched me in the stomach with his paw by accident. It's been months since he's done that, the "wait" command has been great for that.

I'll use "wait" and he'll settle in a sit or down, then when I say "ready" he'll perk up but keep position until I tell him to "get it" and he'll leap up and grab it. It's broken down into steps because he would do the same as your puppy and that's what I found worked best for capping the energy in a good way.


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## readmeli (Feb 28, 2013)

Hmmm very good insight. I am going to work on integrating WAIT and READY when we are fetching/playing. Oh puppies....


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

LOTS of patience  I never had to deal with a landshark but his impulse control was hard to harness until I figured out how to


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## readmeli (Feb 28, 2013)

We did some "Wait" today at lunch break. Boy she catches on fast! Hopefully it'll help.


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## jmoney (Jul 21, 2010)

stop pinning the dog. I know some people advocate this, but it destroys the bond in many dogs (not all, but most) GSDs can be crazy pups, I know ours was.

For jumping. Pick a command, specific to the jumping. Give it when the dog is getting ready and give it a slight knee to the chest, if your knees aren't at the level where it will land on the dogs chest (like me) then just the foot. Don't whack her, just enough to let her know it wont be tolerated. Do it every time, and avoid using your hands all together. The jumping thing can become a game to the dog, e.g.. when I jump, i get the masters hands on me. After a few days of this the dog will really start to hesitate about jumping.

Biting. Get a word for this problem as well. Get a small spray bottle, fill it with water and a capful of vinegar. When they bite, give the command, spray.

for both problems, if you give the command and they respond instantly. Lots of very calm slow praise. we don't want to excite the dog all over again right?

For the OB stuff, at that age don't expect perfection already from your pup. Find a good training program and stick with it. Try leerburg or don sullivans perfect dog. I like dons program, thats what I use, but leerburgs method is equally effective, I just think its more geared towards competition trainers that spend ALOT more time training their dogs than I have.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

jmoney said:


> stop pinning the dog. I know some people advocate this, but it destroys the bond in many dogs (not all, but most) GSDs can be crazy pups, I know ours was.
> 
> For jumping. Pick a command, specific to the jumping. Give it when the dog is getting ready and give it a slight knee to the chest, if your knees aren't at the level where it will land on the dogs chest (like me) then just the foot. Don't whack her, just enough to let her know it wont be tolerated. Do it every time, and avoid using your hands all together. The jumping thing can become a game to the dog, e.g.. when I jump, i get the masters hands on me. After a few days of this the dog will really start to hesitate about jumping.
> 
> Biting. Get a word for this problem as well. Get a small spray bottle, fill it with water and a capful of vinegar. When they bite, give the command, spray .


The knee method only made my pup go at me with more gusto.
What worked was leashing him and stepping on the leash to prevent it. 
Look at the dog's body language, figure out when he intends to jump, and curb it just as it starts. 

The vinegar... I don't like that one. What do you do when you don't have it with you? Do you want to spray so much acid into your dog's mouth? What if you get it in his eyes?


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## jmoney (Jul 21, 2010)

Sunflowers said:


> The knee method only made my pup go at me with more gusto.
> What worked was leashing him and stepping on the leash to prevent it.
> Look at the dog's body language, figure out when he intends to jump, and curb it just as it starts.
> 
> The vinegar... I don't like that one. What do you do when you don't have it with you? Do you want to spray so much acid into your dog's mouth? What if you get it in his eyes?


a capful per small water bottle is not enough to cause damage. It is sprayed on the nose. It is meant to be an irritant, but it won't cause damage. The main irritation is in the nose. You really don't want it to be very strong at all, and you always keep it on the mist setting. What if you don't have it with you? Well, thankfully, the response is so rapid I never had to really worry about it. If it hadn't been, I say small water bottle because it fit in my back pocket, so where we would have gone, so would the correction device. Having the bottle on stream is a bad idea, a fine mist is all it takes.

Mine had to take some pretty hard knocks with the knee before she bowed down, but shes a very tough, very stubborn girl. I started with a tap and moved up. The problem with the leash with ours was once we started working off-lead a lot she started the behavior back up.


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## AngelaA6 (Jan 20, 2013)

I disagree with the knee to the chest method...it's using pain as a method of training. The water bottle idea is good or treats. It isn't going to be an over night thing, something like this takes time. 

If Gunther tries to jump on me while playing I back away and give a command with a hand signal to sit or platz. It happens really fast. It also helps when you have treats to encourage the proper behavior. You can go outside with a ball and have treats and clicker, if she gets riled up and jumps make her sit/lay down then click/treat when she does it. When I first started I used to have to grab Gunthers collar and make him sit or lay down. Now it's automatic if I tell him to sit while returning the ball he'll sit and than I take the toy from him and we continue on playing  . Herding dogs are used to taking hand signals because while herding sheep they're at a distance from the person giving the command and look for signals because sometimes they weren't in a distance where they could hear the commands. Please try positive reinforcement first before resorting to the kneeing.


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## readmeli (Feb 28, 2013)

Thanks everyone. I will try to do all of this. I do not like pinning her, and it doesn't seem to work anyway, so other options are very appreciated.

My pup is familiar with the squirt bottle....works wonders for turning her off the cat if redirection isn't working.

Kneeing her has not worked, she thinks it is LOADS of fun, but maybe I am not doing it right. I will take your advice. 

Today I did do the short lead thing, and that actually worked pretty well. I got it just long enough for her to be near me, and took off walking. After a little while she seemed calmer.

Thank you all very very much!!!!! I love her, but gosh, this sure is a lot of work!


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## jmoney (Jul 21, 2010)

Sorry if i didn't explain the knee fully. It should start as nothing more than a block to the dog, just raised so that the dogs chest lands on it instead of fully jumping on you, no striking, then maybe a push at most. When you have a dog like mine though that has a pain threshold through the roof (literally looked bored when the vet was checking her ruptured cruciate, furthermore I have seen a shepherd completely ignore a full strength yank on a prong collar without even hesitating), a little bit of force does not harm or create pain. If you use your knee hard enough to where it hurts the dog, then you are using WAY too much force.


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## jmoney (Jul 21, 2010)

readmeli said:


> Thanks everyone. I will try to do all of this. I do not like pinning her, and it doesn't seem to work anyway, so other options are very appreciated.
> 
> My pup is familiar with the squirt bottle....works wonders for turning her off the cat if redirection isn't working.
> 
> ...


if the lead works, then stick with it. Just make sure she always has a short line on her when she is free about the house so that you can stay completely consistent with it.

there is no method that works universally for all dogs, once you find one that works for yours just stick with it


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## AngelaA6 (Jan 20, 2013)

Ah yeah I just have heard of people actually KNEEING their dog to where they fracture ribs or bruise them. But blocking them is fine but it doesn't teach them what to do instead.  I think of it as giving a destructive two year old a task, it's teaching them a more positive way of releasing their boredom. So you're taking that jumping and putting it into a sit/stay, something mental for them to focus on and straighten out that crazy I want to jump on you and love you jumbled brain.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

AngelaA6 said:


> Ah yeah I just have heard of people actually KNEEING their dog to where they fracture ribs or bruise them.


And kneeing dogs to where they got knocked off balance, landed wrong, and got injured.


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## jmoney (Jul 21, 2010)

Sunflowers said:


> And kneeing dogs to where they got knocked off balance, landed wrong, and got injured.


yes thats WAY too much force, it should never be more enough to redirect the behavior


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## Joshlaska (May 2, 2013)

See what happens after she goes through heat. Raging hormones can make 'em crazy.


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## jmoney (Jul 21, 2010)

Joshlaska said:


> See what happens after she goes through heat. Raging hormones can make 'em crazy.


luckily the person I got mine from remembered right when all the others went through heat the first time, we got her fixed right before then. It was perfect timing. She is a big strong adolescent without any of the side effects.


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## readmeli (Feb 28, 2013)

Lol! Oh no, we don't need any more crazy! Thanks again everyone, I am taking all this advice to heart.

She is going to my parents for a week while I go on vacation, should be interesting. They have another dog, and she Emme always seems to be much more calm at their house. Plus there aren't four cats to chase...


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## readmeli (Feb 28, 2013)

UPDATE! So far whenever she has tried this with me when we are outside playing, I snag her leash, pull it tight so she's right by my side, and start off walking briskly. We go until it seems like she settles into the walk. Then I make her sit, then I give her the go get it command to go get her toy. Is working very well, though last night it felt like we had to walk a mile first! LOL


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## readmeli (Feb 28, 2013)

Update: Well, some good, some not good. We had a really good week last week with about ZERO of this behavior. It was super awesome. Now this week hasnt been great. This morning I spent what seemed like an eternity "being a tree" when she started this behavior outside with me while we were playing. My trainer told me I should do that rather than take off walking with her because then she is getting attention for her poor behavior. OK makes sense, but standing there like an idiot while my dog jumps, pokes, nips at me and tears holes in my jacket is REALLY DIFFICULT TO DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gosh darnint. I did it though. I guess it was really only for a minute or two maybe. When she stopped to take a breath, I would say "sit" and praise her... couple times this made her start jumping/nipping again. We tried more. Finally got a solid sit when she stopped, then a down, then I was able to reach down and praise her. Then toy throw........ then inside.

Man.

Couple other things we are doing (upon recommendation of trainer): Do more toy playing on my terms -- that is: get the toy and do a "get it get it get it" with her so she plays... Then "Drop!" take it away...... and do "get it get" again a few times. She does respond really well to this.

I think mostly I've noticed this bad behavior comes when she's either bored and I am not paying the amount of attention to her she thinks she should have, OR, she is frustrated as I've noticed this start when I've made her sit/stay for traffic or other dogs or something and afterwards she's riled up. Last, I think over-stimulation. So its up to ME to not allow any of this to continue.

It is frustrating though. I need to continue to remind myself she is just a puppy, and pushing her limits and testing her boundaries. Just a puppy... just a puppy. Not a wild beast trying to bruise me... just a pup trying to play. My job to teach her properly.


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