Strange behaviour at night!!

Annetty1 · #1 19-11-10, 08:16 AM

ive noticed something very strange about Jess recently, since the dark nights really. She's almost 5 months now and walking her in the evenings has its moments, she is a car chaser, and a barker at people, dogs etc. But my main concern is when we take her on to the field when its dark she goes a bit mad, we let her off the lead, she wont let us walk, she runs from my OH to me, and bites at our feet and ankles, and she looks a bit deranged, OH got a bit peed off with her as she really bit hard into his ankle whereas I managed to stop her doing it to me with a loud yell, God knows what the scene must have looked like if anyone had seen us. Nightmare!!
Has anyone experienced anything like this before, I mean is she scared of the dark? Is She wanting to keep us close together or what??

When we take her out for a longer run at the weekend, (daytime) we have been pracicing her recall with my partner staying with her and I walk off ready to call her, well she goes mental as soon as I walk away, she does the same with him too if im trying to hold her, its like she wants us to stay together and not leave her?? anyway, its worrying becuase she really is hurting when she's biting us and obviously want to get this sorted out asap.

Please help?

Annette

#2 19-11-10, 09:05 AM

Hmm, it's either excitement or she's trying to round you up (herding instinct). I doubt she's scared of the dark, their vision is better than ours at night. Mine both get very excited and chase / playfight each other at night off-lead - sometimes I have to intervene and yell at them or I'll put the main culprit back on lead for a time out.

Try a firm NO and change direction when she does it. Also take her out in different light conditions, so try it at dusk and see what her behaviour's like. Is it an area you only take her at night, that might be adding to the excitement?

The recall exercise during the day - i think most sheps would respond like that, they like their whole pack to be together. Some are more needy than others - if i walk away from Remus he'll stress out, but Zee is curious as she's more independent. Something we do is off-lead walk in opposite directions, split up - so your OH goes one way and you the other. See what the dog does, who she'll follow, then take it in turns to do recall.

gloriab · #3 19-11-10, 10:34 AM

My last shep, as a youngster, did this.
If I kept him on the lead (long one) he was fine - let him off and he did same... trying to stop you walking.. feet nipping etc.

It was a confidence thing.
He grew out of it around 18 months.
Just remember - 5 months is still very young.

I also had a gsd who did this as he got older - then he would just sit down and refuse to move.... put the lead on him and he was absolutely fine. It only started when he was around 12 - again, a confidence thing, didn't want any separation.

Annetty1 · #4 19-11-10, 11:34 AM

She goes to this place in the day also at weekends, its a bit difficult for me to take her out at dusk as by the time im home its pitch black so i have no choice but to take her out in the dark and the same applies to the mornings i take her out at 6.30 and its dark then too. We make up for it at weekends, taking her out in daylight.

Will try the walking off in different directions, you do know this could cause some trouble with hubby and me if she follows him ... i wont be happy lol
Hopefully she will grow out of this and leave some skin on our ankles, lol

ldavidson84 · #5 21-11-10, 03:23 PM

Hi Annette, We have been experiencing very similar behaviour with Kara. We first picked up on it playing with her, if you throw something she would jump un and bite - we corrected this by getting her to sit before we throw her ball. But she still jumps up and bites when we have finished playing ball and put it away - we are working on this.

Also if i walk her on my own when we get to a certain track we take and i want to pass this track she goes nuts jumping up and biting turning and biting my leg etc. Also when out walking with hubby he took Kara and walked ahead of me and she started doing it to him. We swapped i took her ahead of hubby and nothing.
I think she does it when she wants to take a certain route and also rounding us up.

I have been taking very tasty treats out when walking passed track and give them to her when walking past it which seems to do the trick.

She stayed with my parents on Friday night as we were away and my dad walked her twice with no problem, then on 3rd walk she did it to him then on the 4th he couldnt even walk her as she was going mental with him

It is something we are trying to fix but not sure on best way to go about this.
The bites arent aggressive but cant hurt alittle at times, she caught my face with her paw few weeks back when jumping tho which hurt abit

Bonniesmummy · #6 21-11-10, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Annetty1

ive noticed something very strange about Jess recently, since the dark nights really. She's almost 5 months now and walking her in the evenings has its moments, she is a car chaser, and a barker at people, dogs etc. But my main concern is when we take her on to the field when its dark she goes a bit mad, we let her off the lead, she wont let us walk, she runs from my OH to me, and bites at our feet and ankles, and she looks a bit deranged, OH got a bit peed off with her as she really bit hard into his ankle whereas I managed to stop her doing it to me with a loud yell, God knows what the scene must have looked like if anyone had seen us. Nightmare!!
Has anyone experienced anything like this before, I mean is she scared of the dark? Is She wanting to keep us close together or what??

When we take her out for a longer run at the weekend, (daytime) we have been pracicing her recall with my partner staying with her and I walk off ready to call her, well she goes mental as soon as I walk away, she does the same with him too if im trying to hold her, its like she wants us to stay together and not leave her?? anyway, its worrying becuase she really is hurting when she's biting us and obviously want to get this sorted out asap.

Please help?

Annette

I think its a night-time thing as Bonnie goes a bit nuts on a dark walk too

Its mostly excitement with her for some reason lol

With the recall, I didnt have much luck either with one pack member walking off as she went nuts too so I tried a different method which worked a treat with her! She is ball DAFT will do anything you want for a ball so I took 2 balls out with me, I threw one and had the other in my hand, I would get her attention by calling her name when she got the ball I had thrown and showed her the other in my hand - when she came running back for it I said 'come' when she was near enough for me to hold her collar I said 'good girl' and gave her the other ball (reward) it worked great and only after 2 training seasons of this she had picked it up and I no longer needed the 'other' ball to get her to come

wildmoor · #7 21-11-10, 03:42 PM

Go back to basics sounds like she thinks she is in charge and trying to get you to go where she wants

Bonnie Patricia · #8 21-11-10, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildmoor

Go back to basics sounds like she thinks she is in charge and trying to get you to go where she wants

This is very true i had the same problems with Jake and ive had to rearrange the pecking order and went back to basic training.never let your dog sleep in door ways or narrow openings, never let your dog up stairs, first thing in the morning put the kettle before going to your dog i do 10mins lead control in my back garden every day as he was a very strong puller and i do 10mins grooming on a night and a good grooming the weekend and always feed your dog after you and the family have eaten

Annetty1 · #9 22-11-10, 01:45 PM

Ok well we took her out at the weekend to a local woods and fields nearby to practice her recall which is brilliant, but as we seperated once again if even only a few feet away she became agitated and ran back and forth. We decided when starting the recall to both wallk off in different directions to see what she would do and basically followed me, then ran straight over th OH then back to me for the recall and vise versa. At lease doing it this way stopped her from sqwaking like a baby hahahah

We also decided to take her up town on Saturday, I have a chart from puppy class to tick off each experience she has, so cars buses etc were on it and she a nightmare car chaser, well walking along the busy main road into town was very hard work she was pulling all over the place and i was knackered by the time we got there, i dread to think what would happen if she got off the lead, anyway she went a bit mad and bit my hubbys leg, ooh i could see his he was not happy but fair enough she had bitten a hole through his jeans we couldnt see the damage but when we got back she had even cut through the skin as it had bled, he was not best pleased, i said it was becuase she was that wound up with all the traffic and would never intend to hurt him!! He's over it now hahah but it wasnt nice, anyway she was fine with the slow moving buses and fine with people she not too bothered about them there was also loads of mechanical diggers and noise and she handled all of that brilliantly, its just the cars that are the problem, even when i have her fav treat to hand and try to distract her it doesnt work!! Loads more work on this to be done!!! She is a lovely work in progress!!

Annette xx

Mewzard · #10 03-12-10, 08:50 PM

I just stumbled on this thread. Does she always pull? I just randomly thought maybe she doesn't like being off-lead as she doesn't have control of where you go? similar to hearding but not...

I think she probably bit your hubby through excitement - Oka is a nightmare with excitement when seeing other dogs. She pulls to the end of her given lead and then jumps, bounces, bites, goes silly... i just stand still until what ever has passed then continue without saying anything.

When Oka was little i would put her in a sit before the thing (car/bus/wheely trolly/carrier bag/person) got near then crouch with her, hold her collar gently and wait for it to pass - with no words or anything. When it was gone then i would get up and as "come along then" and keep moving. Now she occasionally tries to go after bikes especially if they are close, i just walk past even if she gets a little dragged. Is she hard to control on the lead? We have one of these: http://www.premier.com/View.aspx?page=dogs/products/behavior/easywalk/productdescription It is soooo brilliant I can walk her easily and have really good control.

Bonnie Patrica - just wondering about the reasoning behind not letting them sleep in door ways? If Oka does this and is in my way, i wake her up and move her....