New dog - behaviour issues

Hills30

We adopted a dog recently. She is 5 and I general she is good. We have noticed some behavioural issues with her and because she is our first dog, we are not entirely sure how to handle her.
She gets very excited and will jump up and nip/grab and sleeves jumpers etc.
She has nipped me twice which were relatively sore with one breaking skin and leaving a proper bite mark.
She also seems to want to chase after smaller dogs and tends to bark and go after them.

I'm just not sure exactly what's an issue and what may just take time.

Any advice is most welcome. 👌ðŸ¶

cocker5

Hills30 wrote: »

We adopted a dog recently. She is 5 and I general she is good. We have noticed some behavioural issues with her and because she is our first dog, we are not entirely sure how to handle her.
She gets very excited and will jump up and nip/grab and sleeves jumpers etc.
She has nipped me twice which were relatively sore with one breaking skin and leaving a proper bite mark.
She also seems to want to chase after smaller dogs and tends to bark and go after them.

I'm just not sure exactly what's an issue and what may just take time.

Any advice is most welcome. 👌ðŸ¶

What breed of dog is she and how long have you had her?

Some dog like to chase small animals - it's not always nice but it can be part of the breeds nature and not a behavioural issue ie my cocker up until the age of 10 chased all birds and cats ... like a mad man.. he was demented at times about them! Never caught anything thank god .. and I would always stop him / catch him etc. But for 10 years he was obsessed.. now that he's older he's not too bothered!

The nipping is annoying and needs to be addressed it's more than likely she is over excited and this is her reaction. When does this occur.. in what situations? I suspect she is excited an over stimulated etc. It's probably the most attention she has had in years (possibly).

What exercise is she getting?

Remember it takes time for a dog to adjust to it new home and learn the new rules.. it can take many months.

Patience and persistence is the key.

VonVix

When you say "recently", how recent did you adopt her?
Can you explain a little about when she gets excited; is this when you have just come back home, when you grab a ball to play with her, when you tell her "lets go for a walk", etc?
When you say she tends to go after smaller dogs, does this mean you are allowing her off leash? Or is this happening when she is on lead? Is she chasing after dogs excitedly in a "let play!" way, or is she barking/charging/growling?

Hills30

She's a Labrador cross (not sure what the cross is, some say terroir, others say retriever). We only have her a week.
No. We don't let her off the lead with small dogs or in the park. She just pulled to go to one this evening and the stupid thing broke!!

With the nipping it's generally when she is playing. So the worst one was when I was throwing the ball for ages with her, I raised the ball up and she jumped up biting the top of my leg in the process.
Other times have been when I've been moving her bed and she thinks it's a tug of war game.

She is generally great, and really loving. It's just our first dog so hard to know exactly what's what.

muddypaws

Have you spoken with the rescue that she came from? They may be able to give you some advice and will know what she was like at the shelter or in the foster home.

Jood10

We had similar problems when we got our guy. Adorable dog but the jumping was chronic He also has a really bad habit of pawing when he wanted something! It got so bad that I had bruising all over my legs. Its not so bad now but it has taken months to improve it.

A couple of things worked for us. With the jumping we tend to give him a couple of minutes to calm when we approach him before we engage. It has taken months but now he will do a couple of circles and then sits to wait for the loves, which is all he ever wants.

With the pawing we didn't give him what he wanted when he pawed, which was usually a belly rub or some sort of affection, we would send him to his bed and then follow him to give him a rub. He wasn't long realising this and now he will go into his bed and look at you like....arent I a great dog now give me some love

We adopted our two 6 months ago and its only now that we are seeing improvements in some areas, we still have some issues with lead walking. We did get a dog trainer to the house to help us and it was worth every penny!

It does take months for eveybody to settle down but it is so worth it!

bmwguy

She doesn't sound like a bad dog at all just playful. Needs a bit of stern reinforcement and training though. Dont give up on her invest a small few quid in a training class.

sillysmiles

Our lab will sometimes nip (very occasionally) when he gets overly excited in playing. Interestingly, only every my husband not me.

When she does jumps up I would cross my arms and turn my back until she calms down/sits down.

I would think that is is only a week - so still very early for her to settle into a new home.

She just needs to learn to play acceptably with you and when the boundaries are crossed, the play stops and you become boring!

Hills30

Yeah, I really don't think she is a bad dog at all, she just has some things we need to help her work on.

They don't really know much about her back ground. We have chatted to them though and they are going to help us with a behavioral assessment for her and then advise us on training etc. for her.

We are trying turning our back on her when she jumps up, and it seems to help for sure.

I think I need to be a bit patient with her, has there has been so much change for her in the last few weeks.

kylith

Keep going with turning your back. No love until all 4 are on the floor. When Finn gets too boisterous when playing and nips I yelp like a puppy so he knows he's hurt me and turn my back on him, no further playing until he calms down.

eezipc

I think you got a nice little dog here with very little to worry about. The dog just needs a bit of training.
It might sound rude but you probably need a bit of training as well.... For example, my two dogs are always jumping up on me but I enjoy it and I tend to play with them when they do that (I know it's not really a good habit). It happens mostly when I get home from work or when I bring them into the field for a runaround. However, they know not to jump up on my wife because she does not like it. Dogs are clever and they will pick up on things very quickly.

You only have the dog a week and the dog is excited and is showing it. She will calm down eventually. Labs are great dogs. I used to have a lab mixed with a terrier and he was the nicest and friendliest dog I ever had.
Good luck and good on ya for adopting a dog.