BeksGlanvill

Thank you. I like the idea of parallel walking, I know a much older calmer dog, she's a good influence on my ball of energy. I shall start telling my family to walk away as soon as she goes to jump/break sit. As for walks, she gets a road walk morning and evening after walking through the fields playing frisbee. On leash, I'm mostly super proud. On the main country roads, she's told to heal and she's really good at it, she also knows to jump on the grass verge and wait if a vehicle approaches. On the quieter back lane country roads I tell her to 'go wander' which means she can walk in front and stop and sniff whatever, which she's not allowed to do on the busier roads. Although if she pulls I either stop or make her walk in the opposite direction for a bit. This is hit and miss how well it works, it often frustrates her in to jumping or biting the lead. Food throwing helps but luckily she doesn't pull too hard on wander so we don't have a real issue. She's usually just at the end of her leash, she likes to stop and sniff too much to pull ahead too far. Allowing her to go wander seems to help keep her attention and if need be I can call her back to heal quickly. Our problem arises if we meet other people, which is often rare. Then she's so excited all the excellent leash behaviour she can do goes completely out the window! As for her jumping and biting during frisbee, I have no idea what causes it. We can be playing frisbee and she'll be sitting before each throw and then suddenly she decides she doesn't want to sit, she wants to play tug with my arm, bum or coat. Sometimes I see a change in her eyes before she goes and I can start throwing food and stop it happening but that is rare. Sometimes she's half way to sitting and then decides jumping is better. It's like we have a battle of wills to see who's going to submit to the other. It's like she says I've done what you've asked for a bit, now do what I want. Occasionally, she drains all my patience and understanding and I have put her leash back on and frog marched her back home but thankfully that is happening less. I know she'll get there and I remind myself she's still an energetic pup that sometimes just wants to play and get up to a little mischief and even though her best falls short at times, it's still her best and to praise her. Thank you for all your help and advice. I'm going to start reading the suggested articles to see what else we can work on.

Thanks for all your advice. I've taken things right back to basics with Spirit and reinstated a two hour afternoon nap. I've started to remove myself from her when she starts her demanding behaviour and her brain training has gone back to the beginning and I've broken it down into smaller bits. All this seems to be working on her behaviour on an evening. I'm doing a lot of work on helping her control her impulse behaviour. She still has her outbursts, and has better days than others. On her time in the field she has reverted back to jumping and biting, even though she was doing so well. I'm hoping that this is a final-ish kick back to authority as some days she's fantastic and other days she can't control herself. When I'm able to get her to keep all four feet on the floor I quickly throw high reward treats on the floor. I think it's all slowly working. One thing I am still struggling with is her over excitement at meeting people and other dogs. When meeting people she can keep calm enough to sit on her bottom to say hi and get a treat from them or a petting but then she loses her composure. With other dogs she just gets so excited that it doesn't matter what high reward food (pheasant, chicken or cheese) she's not interested. All she wants to do is jump on them and if we're walking in front she is adamant she's not moving until they've caught up. I live in the country so not a lot of opportunity to practice and socialising has been difficult with COVID restrictions. Thanks for all your help

Thank you. What you say makes a lot of sense. When she was a young puppy she would get what I call poogressive, if she needed to potty. I soon learnt her cue to go out. It used to happen in the field on walks whether or not I was playing with her. To combat it in the fields I've started making her sit or lay down before I throw her toy. This has curbed 90% of this behaviour in the fields. It mostly happens on an evening after she's eaten and whilst I'm trying to eat. I've tried taking her for potty before and after meals but this doesn't help, she starts when back inside. I've increased her fresh raw diet as she was refusing to eat any of her biscuits. This behaviour often only lasts no more than 10minutes but they can be very intense. Today it happened after lunch which she ate in the yard. I managed to get her to calm down and started some of your training. Take it/leave it she's brilliant at. Target, not so good. She knows what to do but if I ask her to do it more than once she starts jumping and panting. Chew toys and Kong's only hold her attention a very short time. She loves her bones but I have to limit how many she has. This evening she again started after her food but instead of ignoring her and pushing her away, I tried a very different tactic and one I may come to regret. When she jumped on me, I lifted her bottom up so she could sit on my lap, after a few minutes of gently mouthing my hand and chin she climbed off and went to sleep. Whilst I ate my tea, she slept! She gets three walks a day, with a nap late morning and occasionally mid afternoon. Until recently she was napping a couple of hours mid morning and mid afternoon but I found she was awake and unsettled in the evening when napping too much in the afternoon so I now keep her awake a bit longer. During the night she is calm and happily self entertains when she wakes during the night and doesn't do any of her attention seeking behaviour, unless she needs to potty. I'm with her 99% of the time but if I do need to leave her she's happy to be crated and will go to sleep or play with her toys till I get back. I'm aware when she does it she reckons she's not getting the attention she wants but I have jobs to do and this makes her a bit stroppy!

I have a 6mth German Shepherd and mostly all good. Except she goes through periods during the day of demanding behaviour. All of a sudden she starts jumping at me and biting. The bites don't really hurt unless she nips a tender area. It's like she's trying to communicate something and my lack of understanding makes her worse. Ignoring her makes her worse and redirection is impossible. I keep telling myself she'll grow out of it but I'm worried she won't and I need to stop this behaviour before it becomes a serious issue. Any advice?