8 months and about to kill me..lol

ok so Chiquita is fully coming into teen age hood. What drama! She has promptly forgotten all her commands. And my favorite new thing is niping and then when told no she barks right in my face. When I try to ignore her she barks louder and nips the back of my legs. When I step up to step into her she runs and dodges away from me...BIG GAME :roll:

What a brat! Any suggestions for the nipping? She isn't biting. She is more mouthing/putting teeth on skin. I wonder why she doesn't respect me??? lol? Is this just a teenage thing and I need to endure?
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Try stuffing a stuffed toy in her mouth each time
she starts getting mouthy with you, then walk away. 8)
(Mouthy meaning putting her mouth/teeth on you.)
6Girls wrote:
Try stuffing a stuffed toy in her mouth each time
she starts getting mouthy with you, then walk away. 8)
(Mouthy meaning putting her mouth/teeth on you.)


I agree. Drez must have been like this as a pup too, and this is the method her first owners must have used to correct it. It always amazed me that whenever she wanted to play, she would look around and grab a toy first - then she would run or wrestle or whatever. She would NEVER do anything without a toy in her mouth. It was pretty cool to watch! :lol: :lol:
I also did the replacement training with Asterisk. Everytime she tried to get mouthy, she got a soft plushy in her mouth. Now when she gets really excited, she will scoup up a plushy and carry it around in her mouth, wiggling the entire time.
sounds like my duffy so i got him dreamer to chew on :wink:
This must be a sheepie trait. Sammy also did this. She would grab a soft toy whenever she got excited and played with the boys or Max. It's like she knew that with the stuffed toy in her mouth she would not accidentally nip the boys or Max.

Loving and Missing my sweet Sammy girl :hearts:
Same here with Linus. He can get mouthy and when he gets reprimanded, he immediately goes to his toy box and gets a rope. Then I praise him.

It will get better in time. Slightly.
Two words...CHEW TOYS!

The nipping is part of your sheepies herding instinct. She will not bite, but nipping at your heels is classic herding instinct....Get your sheepie some chewtoys. Rawhides work well too. Give those as a reward, and not too frequently however, as they could cause a tummy ache for her.
well, technically nipping is not part of the herding instinct, although I see that mentioned on this list a lot. It isn't a good idea if the dog takes a bite out of the sheep :oops:
suzptcruise wrote:
sounds like my duffy so i got him dreamer to chew on :wink:


I was going to say something similar! Get another dog. :twisted: Then you just have to deal with the one getting bit ...barking all the time, at least in our house!
kerry wrote:
well, technically nipping is not part of the herding instinct, although I see that mentioned on this list a lot. It isn't a good idea if the dog takes a bite out of the sheep :oops:


:lol: :lol: :lol:

Kristine
Sunny went through teen age hood too- "forgot" all her commands (aka ignored the commands), and started fake barking at us, we call it Farking. It's like a bark, but no noise comes out. Funny at first.....

We found the replacement thing worked with Sunny's nipping too, so I agree with everyone else.

The teen months pass, just keep reinforcing the commands, but unfortunately, some of the new bad behavior can linger (Farking in our case, became Sunny's way of asking to be let outside). So our lesson learned, is that a bad habit/trait needs to be nipped (haha, no pun intended) in the bud. We still get farked at all the time. It's relatively harmless, so I guess no biggie, but the nipping could be a bigger deal, so make sure you're consistent and persevere - This too shall pass!
We use a rather simple method to quickly correct unwanted behavior in Bailee. Our first Trainer suggested we put a few coins into a can and give it a quick shake. It immediately causes Bailee to stop the unwanted behavior and changes his attention in an instant. Not too loud, not too long, but it is really effective. As far as the commands go, you really need to stick with them, over and over again. Lots of praise and treats work wonders. Bailee is 10 months (yesterday) and I am not quite sure exactly when the so called "teen age" period is, but as of now he listens to his commands and does really well.
In addition to all the great suggestions you've gotten, I would consider two more things: (1) is she getting enough exercise and playtime with other dogs and (2) could you take her to additional training classes. The physical and mental exercise might take the edge off the teenage antics.
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