 Barked: Thu Jun 16, '11 2:57pm PST |
 | |  | | I'm having some issues with getting my 4-month old heeler to quit nipping. She has extraordinary amounts of energy even though she is taken for two long walks daily (~2-4 miles) which involve fetch, playing on playgrounds (she enjoys going down slides), and durations of short sprints. Prior to each session a formal 10min training session is conducted with basics (sit, down, heel, come). She is also taken to the dog park regularly a minimum of 3 times per week. She is very good with other dogs although completely fearless. She has no problem approaching great danes to play. I'm worried because she has drawn blood twice once with myself and another time today when a guest was over. In her defense both times she was attempting to get to a toy but ended up on a hand. Things I have tried to date include:
1.) Bitter orange application to hands (didn't work at all)
2.) Hand in the back of the mouth (didn't work she thought this was a game and continued trying to bite the hand). I stopped this quickly as I read some negative things about it.
3.) Sending her to her "room" a half bath with nothing in it for 10-15 minutes when she is acting up.
I'm worried about her becoming aggressive so to date I have stuck with 3 hoping this psychological punishment would work but while it does calm her down eventually it takes 3-4 trips to her room before she finally does settle. Is it typical for an ACD puppy to draw blood while teething? She does not appear overtly aggressive (no growling, no problems being interrupted while eating etc.) she just has very poor bite inhibition. Should the level of correction used be raised at 4 months or should I still attempt to remain positive? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks! |  |  | |  |
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