BAD Temperment !>PLEASE HELP<!

Maggie has been really bad latley. She will tear up anything she can get her teeth on. When I go out to feed the horses shewill jump up and she will also bite your arm (not too hard) and she sometimes grabs my jacket and pulls on it. I have had a broken wrist for a little over , please help me!!a week, she will jump on my sling and hang from it, and I have had to ressal her to the ground more than once with only one hand.

I am really botherd by Maggie's behavior and I want her to be good... please, please help me!

hmmm,well i guess she is a puppy??i had the same problem with Kodie and still do,but not as bad as your Maggie.When Kodie was in the bad stage we got him a shock collar which worked wonderful,but then it got wet so it doesnt work anymore.:( im not really an expert on how to fix those things,but oone thing i do know that might help is to say "NO!" in a loud,but stern voice.and only say it once.It works for Kodie when im working with him,and thats what the trainer tought me.

Hopefully someone else here has more suggestions then me!

btw- if she is a puppy,thats what most puppys do,chew everything they can get their teeth on,Both my RB dogs did that when they were a puppy,but got out of it.

Like I said in the other forum, you should try working on being alpha and establishing clear rules.

If just saying "NO!" isn't enough, you could try carrying a little dollar store water gun in your pocket and spray her everytime she does something naughty.

I tell her NO and I TRY to get her to sit, we do have some Green Apple spray but it doesn't bother her that much.

Also, if she is jumping and carying on I sometimes try to go get her leash so I can control her and when she is in her "mood" she will chase you and growl at you, SO I try to hold onto her collar and walk her to the house to get the leash, if you try to walk her by holding onto her collar she will try to bite you and then flip over on the ground and refuse to walk.

Depending of the age of Maggie, when we took Emma and Moco to training classes they told us that when they jump up turn away from them and ignore them (it never workede for us and personally i dont think it is a great way for them to learn but different thinkgs work on different dogs so i though i would mention it) we never had big problems with the pups chewing things but moco did at first, what we found is that he just needed mroe chewing toys, or toys that keep the dogs interest. We got moco his kong and a couple other toys and that solved it. We found with Emma that when they are about a 1 year, she went into a stage where she forgot her all of her training and wasnt resposive but after about a month she was bac to normal lol.:D

if she jumps on you,( this is what my trainer taught me)

When your dog jumps on you, put your knee up,and say "off"
it works pretty good for Kodie.

What we do for our dog's when they jump on us is step into them and say "Off" it worked REALLY good for us!!

Try a spray bottle. Thats what I would do.

Ash

The knee thing worked wonders when RB Max was a puppy. Having an 80 poung hyper puppy jumping up on ur hurt & was anoying.

I use the spray bottle thing here with Cadeau. Cadeau loves to pee & poo all over the basement (I have to live down there), its along story why the dogs (2) do this. Cadeau also loves the trash as 1pm EVERY night. When the trash bag was at the top of the basement stairs & could hear her getting into all night long. So I would hide & leave the baby gate open just a bit. She would open it all the way & walk down the 2 steps to the trash. I would run quietly (I'm an expert at being quiet) & slam the gate closed so she was trapped. I would spray her & keep doing it untill she would cry several times (she HATES water) & let her go.. the dogs don't understand ANY commands (they littterly run wild) So water works just fine.

But my water bottle broke & after a month shes started coming into the basement again & its a sick mes down there :mad: :mad:

Nebo was a biting little devil as a puppy. What I found worked best was to just turn around and completely IGNORE him when he was jumping/biting me. Eventually he figured out that was not the correct way to get my attention. When you yell, push them away, etc. you are giving them attention...even if it's negative attention, it's attention...so they'll keep doing it to get that attention.

You may want to try also getting some Bitter Apple spray and putting it on things she grabs onto (like your jacket, sling, etc.) It has a very nasty taste and works well to stop dogs from chewing and biting.

I agree with Amy about ignoring.

Jasper was terrible for biting, and we started to ignore him, because he actually did get ALOT of attention when he'd bite us! And he stopped biting so much when he stopped getting attention.

The ignoring thing didn't work for us at all. Max would jump up on our backs & would endup scratching our backs. Thats when westarted to use the knee thing.

This isn't about her temperment. This is an untrained dog who is doing the only things she knows how to get attention. Dogs do what works. Act up, I get attention, I keep acting up! You have to show her, gently and consistently, what you want her to do. Bad temperment is a whole other ball game. If she had a bad temperment, she would do damage when she bites (as an example).

Ignoring the behavior is effective, but you also need to give her something else to do. If you don't want her chewing on your sleeve, replace it with something way more fun--throw a ball, a stick, play a game, something Maggie loves!

Reward and praise her like crazy when she does something you like. My Chum is like this--he's just a little nutty and no one bothered to train him before. I ignore him when he jumps on me, after the knee to the chest trick. When Chum does something I like, I act like a royal fool praising him. He used to growl and carry on about being put back in his pen. Then one day he did it on his own and I just happened to be standing there. I acted like he was the smartest, best, most wonderful dog who ever breathed. Now he goes in the pen, sometimes when I don't want him to, just to get that reaction! The being a jerk about it has stopped!

Maggie needs to be to be socialized and trained--get thee to a class or buy some books, but get her trained before it does get out of hand.

Everything Glacier said...very well written.

You MUST be consistent- ALL THE TIME. You cannot encourage play that 'seems' like the stuff she is already doing. And, if you are not exercising her regularly, I suggest doing so. How old is she?

when Lucy got the jumps,, we would step on her leash to the point where she could barely stand up,,,, told her no firmly and then gradually let the leash loose until she was able to hold her head up,,, if she jumped again,, we would step on it again making her head and upper body go back down... That cured the jumps within a few days...... Tons of praise when they finally get it!!!!!!

Obedience training, exercise. A tired & well trained dog is a happy dog.

I already do that knee thing but when I do that she goes nuts, runs al over the yard and comes running strait back at me and jumps again. So, I think I wil try ignoring her. At obedience class they said that getting her fixed would help calm her down, we got her fixed and it hasn't made the slitest difference. I also wanted to mention , maggie does not do this to anyone except me and my sister, is this just because we are the ones taking care of her and playing with her?

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Maggie needs to be to be socialized and trained--get thee to a class or buy some books, but get her trained before it does get out of hand.

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Maggie has gone through obedience classes and did very well.

sounds like dominance,,,,, just be consistant!!!!

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Originally posted by Toby's my baby


Maggie has gone through obedience classes and did very well.

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Then go back to what they taught in that class. Do what worked in the class at home. She's obviously a smart dog if she did well in class situation, she just needs to learn to do the same things at home.

OK!!:)
Thanks to all who gave me suggestions, keep um' coming, and I will keep you updated! -Thank You!