started nipping

[luckydog]

recently started training agility with lucky. but she has just started nipping at my arm and biting my sleve when jumping the hurdles.. she gets so excited.

any suggestions to stop this.. thanks

[3dogslater]

How many obstacles are you doing at a time?

 

I've found that people are too quick to start sequencing and "doing real agility".

 

Work on doing one obstacle and reward, two obstacles and reward. Work on your flatwork (following on your right and left sides, turns, front and rear crosses on the flat), distance around a marker, and single obstacle stuff.

 

Keep the rewards frequent and gradually increase the number of obstacles you do.

[Kat's Dogs]

Agreed. I see a lot of people will teach the dog to "jump" and then as soon as the dog sort of does it they start running courses - most of the time it ends in this sort of behavior.

 

One thing to help correct this is (using target plates, or toys) stand behind a jump and send the dog over in front of you. Then stand beside the jump and do the same thing. Do the same thing, but go farther away from the jump. Then you this A LOT! And as they say "around the clock" meaning from every direction (the jump being the middle of the clock). Go far away from the jump to, and even add distractions (a hotdog under the jump bar, and toy next to the jump, a person looking right at your dog, etc). This kind of training should teach the dog that once you say "jump" they need to go and do a jump, no matter what, not interact with you right after they do the jump. The same thing can then be done with a line of about 4-5 jumps. Just sending and getting the dog to be independent.

 

another reason it could be happening is WHEN and HOW she is being rewarded for jumping. If you tell her to jump, and then give her a treat - this is teaching her to jump and then come to your hand. Rewards for the obstacles should be independent from you (targets or thrown toys) otherwise you get a dog that after every obstacle will come to you looking for rewards when later you want them looking for the next obstacle.

 

Nipping can be to release some frustration. If she is confused and unsure of what you are asking a lot of dogs will react in that way. Go back a couple steps in jump training (like the targets I mentioned above) and make sure that she is comfortable with that before adding any more challenges (like sequencing, height to the jumps, etc). My Dazzle will start to snap the air or even bark if she gets too frustrated and confused during training - I know that this is her way of telling me this and make things easier for her.

 

If the above issues are addressed, and still she nips - then it may have become a habit (which happens way to quickly!). One way to deal with stopping the habit it this:

If she starts to nip then just stop playing the "game". If the dog isn't going to play the game correctly, then they don't get to play with you. The important thing is to show NO emotion! Just stop, clip a leash on, and walk away from the "game" and just sit for awhile (out of site of the obstacles is best). Once she is calm, you can go back and try again. When you go back you have to act like NOTHING happened! Be all happy just like usual. The goal is not to shut the dog down. So any rough handling, physical corrections, or even verbal correction are not what is needed. No emotion is the key - even if it is hard to do sometimes!

 

Hope that helps, or at least gives you some ideas.

[luckydog]

great thank good i will try all this you are correct about doing too much to soon.. i will practise from the beginning.. thanks very much.