Phoebe is now 7.5 months old and tonight after a difficult walk with her pulling and jumping (despite the harness), she started growling at me and jumped grabbing my wrist in her mouth. I gave her leash a sharp tug and told her 'no bite' and then she started to jump at the leash and she caught my other wrist--all while growling right at me. She has done this with my son in a more playful manner but she has always considered him her 'littermate' and we are working on that. She growled at me as a little puppy but in play--tonight she really seemed 'annoyed' and it scared me. Again I say, she is well exercised and played with often throughout the day and today was no different. She is taken on long walks and generally, she is wonderful and a love. Am I still stuck in the teen years with her testing my authority and wanting to be in control? Your advice is always welcome and needed!
The teen years are the hardest. In the puppy years they look to us for everything and are so smart. They train pretty easily and with consistency they are 'perfect'. Now comes the teen years - all of sudden they seem to forget everything they have learned and become obnoxious. I guess they are just testing their wings. Hpefully this was just a 1 time incident. If not, I would consult a trainer that hs experience in the teen years.
Teen years definately. Call AWC, and talk to Jenny or whoever your trainer was - they will tell you how to handle it. If your not comfortable with that ask for a private lesson. Believe me it was well worth it for me! The boys have been slacking on the lesson we got, but we now know how to correct it.
If you want to call me, send me a message. We had a similar problem, but no growling and it was more aimed at the boys.
They taught us " Go Visit" at Charlie's obedience class. They said that this will teach the dog not to jump on people, I guess especially when greeting.
You will need another person who can help you teach this to your dog, and your dog will have to have "Sit " and "Down" on command.
First, you will have the dog and release him/her by saying "Go Visit !" to the other person who may be 6 or 7 feet away. Once the dog gets to the other person, that person will immidiately give "Down" command to the dog with the reward. You can repeat that back and forth....
We are still working on it. But some of the dogs at the training got it pretty good.
I have been where you are. She is challenging you for "top dog" position. Hartley (now 20 months old) was an awful teenager. He would bite at the leash, jump up and bite me (not much fun going to work in the summer with long sleeves on because my arms were covered in bites and bruises), and throw himself on the floor and have a tantrum. He was far worse with me than with my husband - I am top dog in our house!! He was at his worst between seven and nine months. You will be pleased to hear that with a lot of patience and training he is now an awesome dog. It did take hard work, but we got there.
I would advise getting in touch with a behaviourist for some help/ advice - they can at least provide moral support! I was getting to the point where my confidence was completely eroded by his behaviour and often ended up frsutrated and angry with the situation. The key is to be consistent with your commands and try (it is hard) not to let her get to you. If she realises she is pushing your buttons, she will only get worse. At one point, I was carrying Bitter Apple on our walks to spray the leash and my arms with at regular intervals. We increased his exercise, at his worst he was getting 3 one hour walks a day!! Be confident, if you believe in yourself - that you are the boss- you will behave that way and she will realise she is not going to take your place at the top of the tree!! Keep going with your obediance training, sign up for classes again or repeat a class you previously passed. This will help you to have something to work on together and make sure you keep practicing obediance together.
Hope that this helps you guys. It truely is just a phase they go through, but you want to make sure she knows you are in-charge and begins to respect you as the boss.