Dog jumping and mouthing when excited

[UhtredRagnarson]

Rescue dog has been with us 2 months. Age estimated to be around a year old. I’m spending a lot of time rewarding calm- treating when she is calm and relaxed, when she doesn’t leap up when the door bell goes, etc and She’s doing well with those things. The issue is when she gets excited, usually with DC, and wants to play, she starts mouthing hands which is painful. Advice to remove yourself doesnt work as she clamps down on your hands/wrist/clothing and won’t let go. She went to training classes and the trainer told me that when she does this to put her lead on and take her to the kitchen where her bed is and give her a few minutes to calm down. I have been doing this but she now gets even more hyped when she sees the lead and starts jumping at me, biting the lead and barks at me. She “boops” me with her nose and sometimes will try and do tiny nips on my legs or hands. She becomes very defiant for want of a better word and I end up nipped and scratched. I’m trying to prevent the excitement happening in the first place by treating calm when she sees the DC. It’s having mixed results. Sometimes she is calm and sometimes ignores me. When she starts to mouth or jump on them I say “on the mat” and throw treats on the mat, she will eat them and go straight back to DC. At which point I have to remove her so she turns her excitement into me. I’m at the point where I’m telling Dc just not to come in the room if I can sense she is in that zone.

Any proven tactics?

Advice to do a sharp Yelp when she mouths doesn’t work either as she loves the squeaky toy noise. It spurs her on.

Well I had to make a low toned sharp ‘argh’ sound if I got nipped, kept hands well away from the dog during play and distracted the nipping/biting with toys. Sometimes directing their mouthing stage onto toys and plenty of praise when they maul the toy (rather than us) works better. I literally had toys everywhere that I could grab at this stage! You also all need to stick to the same method until the dog gets the message.

Yes I’ve been shoving a toy in her mouth when she starts mouthing and playing tug, distracting etc but she always abandons it for the much more animated human. Keeping hands away isn’t really possible because she is going for DC just when the enter the room or whilst sitting on the sofa. It’s not happening during play as they both aren’t playing with her because of how she hurts them.

Keep giving her a toy - she will soon get the message.
My old staffy is 12yo and the first thing she does when she is excited is to bring you her toy.

Get the kids to fold their arms and turn their backs if she jumps at them - they know when to expect it so they have time to prepare.
Training the people around your dog is important too.

Have you tried stopping still and ignoring till she stops? Essentially don’t react at all which I know is hard when they’re nipping. So folding arms etc… so she can’t get at hands, or standing perfectly still and ignoring etc.. wait till she’s stopped and calmed down, then interact, if she starts again stop all interaction and repeat the ignoring till she’s stopped? Just keep repeating this? They do eventually get the message but it’s hard to work out with some dogs what route to take.

Yes, our kids did that. Fold arms with hands tucked in as turned back. Behaviour is to met need. At the moment, this behaviour is meeting your dog’s need. Remove meeting their need (kindly) and they will stop the behaviour. It is tricky and we find our pup does it more when they’re tired. We use tiny non-rawhide chews that he loves. Probably too many of them but it stops the dog munching. The dog will likely grow out of a lot of this type of behaviour once their get older and settle.
In wild dog snd wolf packs, puppies get fed by jumping up and mouthing adults who then regurgitate food for them so it’s an image puppy behaviour that they’re pretty much hard wired to do. If it upsets the kids then reframing it for them would be part of my goal too. I tell ours that oops the puppy keeps things they’re a puppy too!
Our puppy doesn’t clamp down as it’s had a lovely start in life with no bad experiences but I wouldn’t be surprised that a rescue dog has the urge to clamp down. Their history leads automatically to an increased fear of loss of attachment and they’ll be doubling down on the behaviour they’re hard wired as puppies to do to to survive. I agree: time out or trying to Yelp has never worked for us as a strategy. The removal of affection that will be naturally happening as a human response to this likely be increasing your dog’s anxiety over attachment and security though so whilst natural for the humans to do that, steps need to be taken to mitigate I would recommend.

*innate not image. And a few other typos… I must start previewing my posts!

Steps I would take:

• Make sure dog is well exercised in lots of ways so not bored etc.
• Notice signs your dog is getting over excited and prioritise intervention then before the mouthing starts (that’s when we grab a chew for them, as I’m often not able/willing to stop what I’m doing completely).
• reframe if for your children and explain it’s because it’s starting to know them and things they’re lovely puppies to play with as that’s how puppies play. Let’s stop him as humans don’t like it much by doing xyz.
• build up your dog’s confidence in your attachment with them using affectionate voice, affectionate touch and we also use dog pate as little treats throughout the day. Our dog soon linked it to their name so I have some ready cut up in a dog treat bag in the fridge and so if I hear it starting I run to the kitchen calling them and they drop everything to followed me for that tiny piece of yummy dog pate! Can also get tubes of dog pate so when this behaviour was at its height, I used to carry it round in my pocket so I could whip it out at any time. Link it to calling them too and it’s a good dog recall exercise at the same time.

Should have said remove meeting their need this way and simultaneously meet it in a way that works for you so their underlying need is being met.

Thank you everyone. We had a dog previously since puppyhood (died aged 10 in December) so DC (12 + 15) were/are well versed in being a tree, standing still waiting for her to calm. What she does when they do this is clamp down, and then start tugging like their hand/sweater is a toy. Or she will start the nips and booping. We clearly just need to outwait her. DC get fed up being tugged and yell “mum get her off me!” So I remove her and she turns it to me. Need to get the DC on board with waiting it out until she releases them and calms down.

I think intervention would be better then. Someone else around distracts with something your new dog likes more… eg their favourite food.

Good luck! If you can get the kids on board with it then hopefully you’ll end up with a quicker result.

Ok so perfect example just happened.

I’m in the kitchen folding laundry with ddog. She loves stealing laundry and running off so I’m rewarding her for laying down calmly while the basket is on the floor beside her. DC12 walks in to bring some dirty laundry. I reward ddog for staying down but then it’s too tempting and she lurches and grabs his hand while he walks past. I call her, no response, I try and shove her teddy in her face but she ignores. I’m telling DS to just stand still and not react. She is lurching and tugging and pulls him over into the counter and she is pulling on his sleeve to the point it is going to get ripped so I throw treats away from him and she lets go and gets the treats and then I have to hold her while DS escapes. While I’m holding her she’s twisting and leaping and biting my hands. There’s no way we could have just stood still and waited for her to calm down, she wouldn’t have done it before his sweater was ruined. And probably she would have upped the ante and gone for his hands when there was no response form tugging the sweater. I’m trying to teach her “release” when playing with her toys, offering her an alternative or a treat but she is really not playing ball with it.

In all these situations I would get dog used to settling down by attaching a lead to a table leg nearby, comfy bed and chewy toy. Reinforce settle with presence and lead. I did this with my year old dog at our mealtimes when he was jumping up and getting excited. No need to put him elsewhere, teach him to tolerate exciting happening or visitor by preventing access. Worked well for us in all exciting situations, like a Stargate or playpen really.

Stairgate!

Do you use a really strong negative sound for when she is doing something wrong? Like an 'ah-ah' in a deep voice? It's been a life saver for me with my dog - she tends to freeze whatever she is doing to see what's wrong and then you quickly switch from this to a positive sound to reward the calm behaviour or coming away from something she shouldn't have.

So she has a real thing for lurching up and grabbing hands?
You might all have to resort to keeping your arms folded while walking around the house until this stage is over. Maybe even try getting the kids to walk a little slower if they are around the dog as the dog is seeing them as a moving target?

What is she like with a sharp firm assertive ‘no’ or ‘leave’ command?

My dog was (and still particularly is) a rambunctious dog. A very stubborn Staffordshire Bull Terrier. I had to get my daughter and partners son to walk slowly around her as she did go through this mouthing stage twice and developed a love for fast moving ankles at one point. Honestly I feel your woe!

Also try and play tuggy games with a toy regularly, that you put away rest of time out of sight so you initiate play not the dog. Laundry and sweater are tuggy games to the dog, so make it something that you DO on YOUR terms, tuggy is our dogs favourite game but only with a braided piece of rope, which we drop rather than him fighting us for possession. Leave is quite a complex task, you have to start by making dog feel it is a resource he feels confident of before asking him to swap

Have you tried offering treats as the first reaction before words or toys. Or run wildly in the opposite direction calling for them… & then reward with treats. The interaction you describe from a dog’s point of view is exciting and fun. They don’t understand words including no.
I’m sure you’ll sort this. You can’t change their behaviour (dog or kids), just your own though…which will then change the dynamic and changes in their behaviour will follow.
Our pup is still having accidents in the house in the afternoon. My DH just keeps saying shouldn’t the dog be stopping that now and looking at me. I keep telling that we can only change our behavour: eg set a timer for an hour and take him out each hour etc but my DH isn’t up for changing his own behaviour and I suspect it will stop over time so I’m not worried about it enough to change mine yet!

@Nettleskeins

In all these situations I would get dog used to settling down by attaching a lead to a table leg nearby, comfy bed and chewy toy. Reinforce settle with presence and lead. I did this with my year old dog at our mealtimes when he was jumping up and getting excited. No need to put him elsewhere, teach him to tolerate exciting happening or visitor by preventing access. Worked well for us in all exciting situations, like a Stargate or playpen really.

She’d pull the table clean over! she’s very strong. interestingly she has no difficulty going to her bed in the dining room as soon as I start to prepare dinner, she knows that’s where she has to stay until dinner is over.

We had to ask a behaviourist for advice on this btw....just commanding leave or yelping had no impact. But now at 2 he doesn't mob us at all for attention. He knows when the fun happens and it isn't randomly bestowed.

Ok so you need a "laundry" routine just like a prepare food routine.

@SunnySideDownBriefly

Do you use a really strong negative sound for when she is doing something wrong? Like an 'ah-ah' in a deep voice? It's been a life saver for me with my dog - she tends to freeze whatever she is doing to see what's wrong and then you quickly switch from this to a positive sound to reward the calm behaviour or coming away from something she shouldn't have.

Yes I started off using “ahah” as a quick distraction noise but she ignores it now when in “play” mode. She responds to it when on a walk if she starts to pull the lead, she will immediately stop and bring herself back to heel. But when she wants to mouth she just ignores.

Actually reading others’ posts we do have a “tttst” type noise we use combined with a click of the fingers than the dog has learnt to associate with stop what you’re doing. My DH instigated that instinctively and the rest of us have adopted it.
Laundry is also very exciting our dog - especially socks! - so I only sort it out when I’ve got the energy to deal with the dog too!
Every dog & every family is different so it can take a few different ideas to find what works with you. Training you’re doing is great but you also need to find an instant solution to resolve what’s happening now.