Rescue dog nipping

[OrwellianTimes]

We got a rescue puppy two months ago. She was rescued from breeder as she had medical issues, no troubled past that we are aware of. She was in a foster home until she came to us. It’s a breed I know well (known for being gentle and excellent with kids) and rescue said she was fine to be homed with kids. She’s on long term medication to manage her condition. Now 1 year old.

Ever since we’ve had her she’s been very mouthy, will respond with teeth if you try and stroke her. Jumped up constantly but never nipped. I’ve made some advances with training her to be gentle, been doing group puppy training classes, but the last 24 hours she has nipped me several times whilst I was trying to train her. She’s also a destructive whirlwind- destroying anything plastic she can get hold of, digging in lawn, eating my plants. I keep buying her things to chew on and she gets through them so quickly. We walk her twice a day usually an hour each time, i WFH and play with her regularly though probably less in the last few days because I’ve been really ill. She has way more energy than any of this breed I’ve owned before.

What do I do? Please tell me she will grow out of it! I can’t have her nipping my kids. I’m finding the medical issue harder to deal with than I expected, but the vets are very optimistic that it Will resolve soon.

If she has 'medical issues' then the chances are that is affecting her behaviour. I would have a chat with your vet as she may need a pain trial. It can also make them hyper, depending on the dog. My current dog mouths me if she is unhappy about being touched somewhere. My last one would go still and growl so they are different.

There is a lot you can do to help her feel better about being handled but nothing until any medical issues resolve really. Dogs don't grow out of things - they get better at them if they continue to happen.

She sounds incredibly overstimulated - two long walks plus training us a lot for a young dog.

How much sleep is she getting and how much training are you doing?

Nipping during training sounds like a frustration behaviour - either she doesn't understand what you're asking her to do or she's over-stimulated and not in the right head space to train.

High energy dogs do need exercise but they also need to be taught how to switch off and calm down. Too many owners focus on burning physical energy and not on teaching them the essential skill of switching off and just "being."

Personally I would reduce her walks and start ignoring her a bit more. If her needs are met (so she's had a walk, been fed and used the toilet) then she doesn't need anything from you. While it's nice that you want to play with get it will just excite her and make it even harder for her to switch off and sleep.

I would also look at the quality of the walks and make sure they include decent off-lead aerobic exercise as well as mental stimulation and lots of sniffs.

Nipping as in trying to stop you? Or nipping as in, this is exciting, I’m going to add teeth?

Nipping as in this is so exciting I want to get the ball now

I'd say this is normal but I am by no means an expert I have only just gotten my own dog 8 months and the first 4/5 months were terrible for nipping. Now it's when playing and when I instigate the play she wouldn't do it unless I'm messing with her. I love her with all my heart but I'd have 10 babies over a puppy lol. X

Then you want to be looking at not getting her over stimulated and working on impulse control and teaching her to be calm.

You’d probably get a lot more out of one to one sessions with a good trainer than with classes (classes are usually pretty useless tbh)

and... yeah IME it’s well within normal for a one year old to be a bit mouthy still.

I think this is most likely the case. Kids have gone to school and she’s crashed out on her bed now. I think she doesn’t get enough sleep at the weekends when everybody else is home - there’s always so much going on and there’s constantly food about (she’s very good motivated, swear she’s half Labrador)

I’ll try paring back on the walks, and might try to get her to sleep in a crate so she gets undisturbed rest.

She can’t go off leash yet, but we’ve got an extension lead she love’s running freer on .

Any advice on not overstimulating her with kids at home 24/7 over the holidays? Kind of wish we’d waited until September, but saw her come up on the rescue and just wanted to get her out of the kennels, she’s normally so gentle and calm other than overexcited jumping and mouthing when we first walk in the room.

“she’s normally so gentle and calm other than overexcited jumping and mouthing when we first walk in the room.”

Dont do that then 😂

No, but seriously, you want to work out a way of coming in the room so that she doesn’t get attention by doing that, because people tend to either go, yay hello back at dogs or, start telling them to stop and loads of interaction that way.

Something simple like you coming in first and making her sit could be enough to break that cycle.

Haha ok I’ll never go in the kitchen, sorted 😂

At the moment we keep her in the kitchen (it’s a large space) so the kids can play in the lounge undisturbed and free from risk of toys being chewed.

Our lounge leads straight into the kitchen so we have a baby gate across the door - she likes to sit there and watch when for us we are in the lounge, so the moment we go to the kitchen/garden she gets up and gets excited. I might keep some treats the side of the gate to reinforce sitting- we made good progress here but it seems to have gone backwards this last few days

Any advice on not overstimulating her with kids at home 24/7 over the holidays?

Don't let them play with her constantly and make sure she gets lots of enforced rest in her crate away from everyone else.

It's a lovely idea to get a dog that the kids can run freely with in the garden but the reality is that for many young dogs it's just too exciting. They don't have much self-control at that age and don't have the awareness to stop when they're tired or have had enough.

Again as long as she's had a walk, food and has been to the toilet, she doesn't need lots of interaction from you. The absolute best thing we did with our beagle was to just ignore him after walks. I knew he didn't need anything - he just didn't know how to settle because we were constantly playing with him or fussing him every time he looked bored 😂

Like children, it's okay (in fact I'd argue that it's essential) for them to be bored and to learn how to switch off.