Jekyll and Hyde behaviour in dog

[biddy53]

Can anyone help?

I have a rescue staffie/collie cross - I have 2 DC in late teens but she is very much my dog and I do 99% of the feeding and care. I have had her for 18 months and when she is with me her behaviour is exemplary - excellent recall, walks to heel on command, plays fetch waiting for ball to be thrown and returns it to my feet, when I put the ball away she gets on with her walk etc etc. DS has told me on a couple of occasions that he didn't want to walk her because she kept jumping up and nipping him. I have been out for several walks with him and Ddog and he says her behaviour is completely different when I am there and TBH I thought he was exaggerating to get out of walking her.

However, DD is back from uni and has said something similar also that DDog wasn't nipping playfully - she wanted DD to keep throwing the ball and when she stopped, she nipped DD's hands which were behind her back. I went for a walk with DD and Ddog and she also said Ddog's behaviour was completely different.

In the house everyone is agreed that her behaviour is good - this only happens on walks. Strangely she has no interest in tennis balls in the house.

How do I sort this out if I never see the bad behaviour?

It sounds like the dog sees herself as being higher in the pack than your children with you being the dominant pack leader. I am no dog psychologist but would think that some training that reinforces your children as higher pack members than the dog would help. It seems as though the dog feels in control of the walk and is dominating your children however your presence changes the dogs behaviour in the presence of the pack leader. Do the children hold the dog back from the door allowing them to walk through first. Do they feed the dog. Have they done training with the dog to reinforce the pack order? These maybe things that need work on.

Dogs don't live in packs...

The thing is you can't really sort out the behaviour what you can do is get them to work on basic training and things like playing and then stopping, with you around and then without you...and make sure you're all on the same page for things like commands and rewards.

If you're all consistent, she should pick up fairly quickly that she needs to behave the same way with all of you.