twmoose82 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 I know there have been many threads devoted to this issue, but when I searched for the topic what came back was mostly why they nip and not what was done to prevent it. I am trying to train my 2 year old BC mix to stop nipping. He does not do it all the time but when he gets excited he nips a lot. I have a shelter dog and I think he was possibly abused so he does not respond well to any stern training. If I raise my voice or point at him he automatically rolls over on his back and sometimes pees out of fear. So does anyone have some good tips on how you stopped your dog from nipping? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms.DaisyDuke Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 I'm not really sure what others do to stop this and I really don't have much of a problem other than when the phone rings. If we have to get up fast and "run" to the phone, we were lucky to still have our achilies tendon at the end of it. Basically what I've done is taught Daisy a "wait" command. I use this when opening doors and I don't need her to bolt, when there is something she wants to get on the t.v., when there are other dogs around our front yard. She will stop her forward motion and wait for me to instruct her further (most of the time). So when she is going after my ankles, I either walk really slowly to relax her or hold my hand down infront of her face and say wait then put her in a sit once she's stopped going after my feet. Given the fact that you think he was abused and his actions lean in that direction. I would teach him a command like wait (or whatever) so that he can learn some self control as opposed to correcting him when he does this. My own dog is very soft on corrections, so I tend not to use them that much. Sometimes it takes longer because you have to teach the command then use it to re-direct bad behaviour, but if it takes down the stress level of the dog and teaches him something in the end, I think it's a win, win situation. Good Luck Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet_ceana Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 With Poke we have found that we can work on the issues by putting him in a situation that usually results in nipping and redirecting him once he thinks about nipping. We watched his body language very closely to the point where we can read his fuzzy mind. Once we redirect him we make sure that we have something very yummy that makes resisting the nipping urge better than nipping. This has seemed to work well with him. It takes a lot of patience and time, Poke is still a work in progress, but he has improved to the point where people who haven't seen him in a while (like my parents in CO) comment that he is an entirely different dog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bc4ever Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 I'm not really sure what others do to stop this and I really don't have much of a problem other than when the phone rings. If we have to get up fast and "run" to the phone, we were lucky to still have our achilies tendon at the end of it. Oh yeah! Scooter does that too. I think it's the running for the phone that excites him, so we've learned to walk to the phone. Besides, that's what answering machines are for, right? I think it's funny (and reassuring sometimes) to see how many other BCs do the same things Scooter does! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockstar Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 With Poke we have found that we can work on the issues by putting him in a situation that usually results in nipping and redirecting him once he thinks about nipping. We watched his body language very closely to the point where we can read his fuzzy mind. Once we redirect him we make sure that we have something very yummy that makes resisting the nipping urge better than nipping. This has seemed to work well with him. It takes a lot of patience and time, Poke is still a work in progress, but he has improved to the point where people who haven't seen him in a while (like my parents in CO) comment that he is an entirely different dog. Ok, this is going to be a stupid question, but what do you redirect him to? Treats? I ask because my new boy Kipp does not like kids. At all. Mostly because they just come up and grab his face and annoy the crud out of him, but he will nip at FACES (HUGE PROBLEM!!!!). Although, he has never actually touched a face, it's scary and I need to figure out how to correct this problem. He did it to me a few times when we first started fostering him (before we adopted him) and I think he does it out of uncomfortableness with a situation. The only problem is I don't really trust him enough around kids to try and take him somewhere and work on the problem, and he doesn't do it to adults so where do I start?? Help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Root Beer Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 Dean was all teeth when we adopted him. Not when he was calm, but when he was into a game. Or, if he wanted you to play with him, he would rush up and grab your hand with his teeth! It was light, but definitely not something we wanted him doing. I dealt with it by stopping whatever he wanted when he did it. If we were playing ball and the teeth touched my skin, the ball went away for a while. If he grabbed my hand or arm with his teeth, I moved away instead of engaging with him. If we were tugging and he grabbed my hand, the tug went away, etc. This took some time because at 10 months old (with his former owners), it was very much a habit for him, but it did work. If I had known then what I know now, I would have played off switch games from Control Unleashed with him to help him learn to control this faster, but since I didn't know, that's what I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet_ceana Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 Ok, this is going to be a stupid question, but what do you redirect him to? Treats? We started to refocus Poke by using a clicker and clicking and treating when we said his name and he made eye contact. I did this mostly for me because I am a bad doggy person and the first thing out of my mouth is always the dogs name instead of the command. This got him in he habit of we say "Poke," he looks. Then we added in simple things he knows like sit. This combines the habit so that he hears his name and now looks to us for direction. I typically redirect him by having him do a sit or down and then I treat him and tell him what a good boy he is. This worked especially well for him because Poke loves to please. Kids are the hardest thing for Poke as well. Around kids we have worked at making eye contact and holding it for long periods of time. That way he is thinking "look at mom, look at mom," instead of "control child." Training was the same thing as when he would make eye contact and then I would treat him except I slowly extended the time the eye contact needed to be made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruger's Dad Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 Wnenever I have been nipped or bit by Ruger it is my fault. There are a few easy ways to bring this about. First, intentionally running away from him. This is from the herding instinct. Horsing around with him will bring it out as well. Ruger is extremely rough mouthed and is not fun to play any biting games. I have found if he has a frisbee in his mouth we can act like idiots and he won't hurt me. If I am playing with the other dogs, he gets a frisbee before we start anything. Kind of weird but it works. That being said, you still need to teach your dog to react to a stern NO. Having to run for whatever reason and then getting bit is not to be tolerated, instinct or not. I taught Ruger how to stop and lie down with hand signals. I will give him the stop sign if need be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockstar Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 Thanks for the tips everyone, even though it wasn't my thread I'm going to use these suggestions! I appreciate all the input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiloh714 Posted July 12, 2008 Report Share Posted July 12, 2008 Ive heard that if you drop what your doing and pay no attention to your dog for about ten seconds, (s)he might learn that nipping would get her anywhere. my dog used to mouth, my dad wouldn't tolerate it and she soon learned Good luck, -Janeen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bexie Posted July 14, 2008 Report Share Posted July 14, 2008 With your second description of his reaction, I would worry more about reactivity than the typical nipping problem. "Control Unleashed" by Leslie McDevitt can really help you learn how to deal with these issues. In the mean time, keep him out of the situations that upset him--he's trying to tell the kids to respect his space and you're going to have to help him get comfortable with them so he feels okay sharing his space. Exposing him over and over again to the situation is just going to make it worse. You need to work with him from outside his reaction boundary to get him more comfortable. Accidental nipping while playing is a different circumstance and can easily be dealt with by saying "ouch" in a way that sounds like a yelp and taking a time out from the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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