Quote:
Originally Posted by alienandy
Thanks for that my friend.
He is one spoilt dog! Yes he has looooads of 'perks'. Little sod. Well, big sod now. Not only has he damaged my shoulder due to his extreme pulling on the lead, I have scars mostly on my right hand and up my arm, with one on my forehead! The latter was really my fault holding a plastic bottle above my head and he jumped up. It's funny though, that all this is making him out to be a really bad dog, and he is not. Just playful. He loves people, and thinks that everyone in the street is there for him to get a fuss with. I think you are right, he sees both of us as 'playthings'. I think things would be a lot different if we had another dog with him, but the Mrs won't do that. We used to have two before and they were both the perfect dogs. However we never had them from puppies so this puppy thing is new to us.
I love Charlie to bits, but the biting is getting us down. We do have a large pen (with roof) for him which he sleeps in through the night and once or twice for an hour in the day. I have been known to put him in it if he gets totally out of hand, which fortunately is pretty rare. Funny thing actually, when it's his bedtime, he knows that it is so he runs to the back door and dives on the floor and becomes all limp, so that it's hard for me to pick him up. Then when I'm almost getting my hands around him, he sticks out his legs to make it more awkward for me. He's a clever sod. He really make me laugh at times!
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Hello again,
I wouldn't get too bogged down with the nipping being with dominance (not that you mentioned it but often for us as dog owners it is one of the first things thought of sometimes
).
The reason he does the nipping could be down to two reasons or a mix of these.
Number 1- By playing with him and tolerating the nipping he now thinks it is an acceptable way to play. He's not being nasty, dominant or otherwise. It's just like you said, he is a playful pup who thinks it's perfectly acceptable.
Number 2- collies supposedly have a disposition to show nip type behaviours as pups. I myself am a collie owner (my lad definately has at least some working stock in him) and we didn't find this too much of a problem with him other than the usual puppy nipping or overexcitment.
The only thing that occured to me is does he have a bite inhibition? You mentioned having scars from some of his over enthusiastic play behaviours, so that would suggest that that is something to work on. When dogs play with each other they will often nip but because they have learnt a bite inhibition (usually as pups) they will know not to nip so hard that it hurts or breaks the skin.
This article may be of interest:
http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/te...inhibition.pdf
I would also think a timeout/withdrawal of attention would be really useful in teaching him to play nicely. If you think he is getting over excited or nipping during play, immediately say "that's enough" and turn your back on him and walk away.
Alternately time out (i think i explained above) is really good. Use it in the same way as a withdrawal of attention. Nipping= "that's enough" or "no" = immediately lead him into another room for timeout for 10 or 20 seconds.
When you let him back in, don't greet him madly but calmly if at all to encourage calm behaviour.
With collies I think it's pretty important to teach them to have some "chill-time". With my collie, as a pup I would reward him for sitting calmly in his bed. I might notice him lying there, I would go up to him tell him "good boy" and give him a food reward. An "in your bed" or "crate" command is really good so that you can tell your dog when to go and have some quiet time.
Hope this helps