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[dancing_ghost]

I mentioned in my previous post that when we met Luna at the shelter, she was very mouthy. She continued to be mouthy when we brought her home, but whenever she would start to gnaw on our arms or legs, we would redirect her to a toy. It only took her about a day and a half to realize that humans are not chew toys, which is great

Comments

[tinuviel]

I would go with an ouch followed by a strict "No!" and ignoring her for half an hour or even removing he from your presence into a different room for a period. Afterwards practice with her the offending actions and give her a treat or a praise whenever she let's you do it. We tell ours "Leash!" and then they have to sit and patiently wait until the leash is on. Afterwords they get praised. Same when the leash comes off. When one of them refuses, they get left behind while everyone else gets to go on a walk.

[dancing_ghost]

Thanks, I will try ignoring her.

We already do make her sit before the leash goes on or off, but maybe I will try adding "leash" to it. Unfortunately, we had our backyard graded last weekend and are waiting for new grass to grow, so right now, she can't go outside off-leash at all. So just not taking her out because she's being bad isn't an option right now. :/

[tinuviel]

Urg! What a pain! Yeah, when we do it, the offender can still go through the backdoor into the garden, s/he just can't come into the woods with us. Good luck!

[miss_teacher]

Anticipate when she is not going to enjoy something you need to do and plan accordingly.

Taking the leash on and off:
-sprinkle treats on the ground before you take the leash on and off. Use good quality treats. Or grab a wooden spoon with peanut butter. Or a bully stick. Give her something amazing so she doesn't care about the leash and protest. Make sure she's well into her treats before reaching to do the leash.

With redirecting her on to something else...how are you redirecting her now?

[dancing_ghost]

When she's biting in a way that we are able to redirect, we say "ouch" and then give her a toy with peanut butter or treats in it.

[miss_teacher]

You said she you try to redirect her from doing something you don't want her to do that she then bites you. So what are you doing to redirect her, not to stop the biting, but before that. How are you redirecting her from the ting you want her to stop?

[dancing_ghost]

Oh, I misunderstood, sorry. She doesn't bite when we're redirecting per se. She bites when she is asked to do something she doesn't want to do. For example, last night, I had a cat in my lap, and she came up and started barking in the cat's face. We've been working on go to mat for this purpose. She doesn't have it down yet, but she's getting there. When I asked her to go to her mat last night, she bit me. When I asked her to go to her crate at bedtime, she bit me. When I asked her to sit before I put food in her bowl, she bit me. She doesn't bite every single time I ask her to do something, maybe 30-40% of the time, so it's fairly difficult to predict if she's going to find a particular command annoying at any given time.

[crysania4]

First of all, I understand the frustrations! My dog gets very frustrated and while he doesn't always bite, he HAS bitten me (and drawn blood too because he wants his toy and HE WANTS IT NOW and he'll just chomp down on anything in the vicinity even if it is my boob...anyway

[dancing_ghost]

She sometimes goes into the crate on her own just to hang out, but I haven't tried any games with her yet. I'm definitely going to do that

[crysania4]

Not knowing where she's come from before and her reaction to the leash touching her shoulders leads me to believe there may be some negative associations with having her shoulders or collar touched. Definitely a good thing to try to make that into a super awesome thing