MissMaddy

I'm looking for somewhere to take my girl for training (9 month old German Shepherd), preferably somewhere that doesn't train on Sundays. I don't mind traveling up to 20-30 mins for the right place, as I would really like to trial her, and want her to love her work. The reason for this is that we have show training on Sundays, and there's only an hour between the 2, so I just feel that it's too much in one day, especially as she's only 9 months old. She has been doing well at our current training where they encourage using a lot of food rewards, but I would prefer somewhere that can help me utilise her very high play drive in training, as I feel this will help to maintain her focus and enthusiasm a lot better than the food, which she gets bored with. Any suggestions would be most welcome. I would also consider somewhere where I can do one-on-one lessons with an instructor to try and get better focus out of her before re-introducing her back into group classes (which she currently gets a bit distracted with).

Thanks everyone for your replies, some very useful suggestions there! Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to stop her getting excited, but while still ensuring she stays as friendly and social as she already is? She goes absolutely silly when people come to say hello to her, especially if she knows them. I remember my last girl being very similar in this way (but don't remember any mouthing), but she just took time to settle as she matured (about 18 mths- 2years old). She is improving a lot, she's almost finished her 1st season and seems a lot more settled since, so her excitement dies down a lot quicker than it would have in the past. Oh, and I've never been accused of being too soft on my dogs! I keep having to remind myself that she's not my well behave 11 year old that was put down last year, and she is still young and very immature. I have also noticed that if I'm too tough on her, she doesn't really respond, and just being direct, not emotional, and expecting her to do what I ask has worked really well, allowing me to be able to get her to do most things with very little effort on my part. ETA: we've been doing obedience since she was 10 weeks old (and she's doing extremely well at it, it took her just 1 month out of puppy class to go up to the next class), but she hasn't been for a few weeks due to being in season, and I didn't really notice or think about the mouthing until recently.

Mine's not desexed, and at this stage won't be unless her hips or elbows aren't good enough to breed from her. I'm planning on showing her and eventually breeding, so at the moment desexing her isn't an option. I had the same issue with Zali getting rough with the other dogs around 6-7 months where anything that was more submissive than her (usually labs), and she would jump on them roughly in play (although she usually did it on lead, like she feeling threatened being on the lead). As she was also getting a lot physically stronger, I started using a correction collar and the minute she got too rough she was told no, too rough (more for my sake than hers) and taken away from the other dog, especially with other puppies. She could only go back on my terms, if she wasn't too rough. It worked in a very short space of time, as she was obviously just pushing the boundaries. Now, if she's off lead and gets too rough, all I have to do is tell her no, too rough, and she settles down a bit. But the best thing for her has been other dogs telling her off (as long as they back off once she stops), it's really helped her to know that there are boundaries, and she will only get told off by them if she goes too far. With the mouthing, I guess I know the answers, as squeezing her bottom jaw so her lips press against her teeth works well, it's just training the other family members and people who come up and pat her!! Luckily she is pretty sensitive so will usually stop when told, so I guess it's just persistance and it will eventually stop once she gets the message it's not ok.

If it's not unpleasant there's no reason for the dog to cease what it's doing. You can give time outs a try, they don't work for all dogs but if you haven't tried it yet give it a go, otherwise you'll probably have to show the dog a reason for not biting. Sorry, I didn't explain that well. I meant as in I don't do it so hard that she's yelping in pain, but it's definitely hard enough to get the message across. She has almost completely stopped it with me unless we're playing, it's just that she does it to other people only when she's excited. That's where it's hard to stop her, as she's already going silly over them and is moving so fast, and there's usually no where to even try time out as we're not home. It's also really hard to try and tell people that I don't really know to try and tell her off, even though I know that it works much better if the person she is mouthing tells her off properly.

I'm just wondering at what age does mouthing usually stop? Zali is nearly 9 months old (german shepherd), and she still mouths occasionally. It's never hard, and it's usually not me who she does it to. She does it to my mum (who she doesn't respect, but she won't listen to me as to how to discipline her, as she's pretty sensitive, and only responds to particular tones of voice, etc), and will often do it to people that come up and pat her in the middle of going crazy over these people. I don't remember what my last 2 shepherds were like at this age, so I'm not sure how normal this is? When she does it, I usually just tell her "no" sharply, and she will usually stop, otherwise I will stop her physically just by her collar (this is when she does it to strangers), and allow her to get attention from the person again when she stops trying to mouth (although they usually just walk away, so I guess this is also teaching her that mouthing means the person she wants to talk to leaves her). If she does it to me, I'll also tell her no, and if she doesn't stop, squeeze her bottom jaw (not hard enough to hurt), and she's almost stopped doing it to me. I'm just wondering if she will stop this, or if I need to become a bit stronger in disciplining her when she does it to others? Or if there are other better methods to stop her more effectively that I can try and get my mum and other people to use?