Pup Overly Excited By Movement?

[Michelleva]

My sheltie pup is nearly 5 months old. She gets VERY excited by any movement, especially like sweeping outside, vaccuming inside, or my son riding his bike. When she gets that excited she barks excitedly at whatever I'm doing, or what is moving.

The trainer at obedience yesterday suggest a water pistol/spray bottle to shock her a bit when she gets over the top like that. I'm going to the shops shortly to pick one up and see if that works. She also snaps her jaws a bit when she gets excited. She's not trying to bite anyone, it seems to be an excitement thing for her.

Any other ideas will be appreciated.

[jadesamara]

My sheltie pup is nearly 5 months old. She gets VERY excited by any movement, especially like sweeping outside, vaccuming inside, or my son riding his bike. When she gets that excited she barks excitedly at whatever I'm doing, or what is moving.

The trainer at obedience yesterday suggest a water pistol/spray bottle to shock her a bit when she gets over the top like that. I'm going to the shops shortly to pick one up and see if that works. She also snaps her jaws a bit when she gets excited. She's not trying to bite anyone, it seems to be an excitement thing for her.

Any other ideas will be appreciated.

Hmmm, I'm am going to hang around for answers too

I have seen the water bottle used, and intend to try it too. Someone suggested vinegar and water, but I wasn't sure if it would sting his eyes. Maybe lemon juice and water would be better...or just plain water? Looking forward to seeing some suggestions.

[Michelleva]

The trainer told me straight water is the best, then there's no risk of injuring or hurting the dogs eyes/skin. I do agree with that.

What sort of pup do you have jadesamara?

[persephone]

Hi

Your pup's ancestors were bred to herd sheep, and maybe cattle. Their instinct to chase anything which moves was very valuable for that work.

So - you have a 'working' brain responding as it should - BUT it is not appropriate in a house

While a water spray will certainly break the intensity (hopefully) it won't stop her wanting/needing to do it

What is your pup's daily routine? What walking/training does she get each day ? What toys does she have, and what games do you play with her? When she's indoors, where does she lie/sit /sleep?

[Michelleva]

Hi

Your pup's ancestors were bred to herd sheep, and maybe cattle. Their instinct to chase anything which moves was very valuable for that work.

So - you have a 'working' brain responding as it should - BUT it is not appropriate in a house

While a water spray will certainly break the intensity (hopefully) it won't stop her wanting/needing to do it

What is your pup's daily routine? What walking/training does she get each day ? What toys does she have, and what games do you play with her? When she's indoors, where does she lie/sit /sleep?

Bascially when we get up, she goes outside for her toilet, then back inside for a while, probably 30 mins later its breakfast time. She eats outside, while the cats eat inside. She'll generally have a play outside with her balls/rope type toys while I get the kids organised for school etc. Inside she has an array of toy/squeaky type toys. As well as a few kongs, which don't really keep her occupied because she's going through a fussy stage with food. We think it related to her teething.

When I get back I'll take her for a walk, usually about 15 mins duration with a stop at the park on the way home. I do a bit of practice training from things I've learnt at obedience but not at set times, just whenever I think of it. I will go outside with her and play, just running around and throwing toys etc.

During the day, she'll spend some time outdoors and some indoors. Outdoors, she has a warm kennel, which she will sleep in if it gets cold/wet. Inside she has two beds in the family room and the crate set up next to my bed. When she's really tired she'll put herself to bed in the crate.

She does come out with me visiting family and friends too. She's quite the socialite and loves everybody she meets. She's met LOTS of different people and dogs at obedience because we started the week she arrived.

Any ideas or suggestions will be great Peresphone.

[jadesamara]

The trainer told me straight water is the best, then there's no risk of injuring or hurting the dogs eyes/skin. I do agree with that.

What sort of pup do you have jadesamara?

This is my boy Benson. He's a Staffordshire.

Usually first up in the mornings he is very excited and nips at our feet (mine, and the kids). The other main problem we have is after we have been somewhere in the car. Once we are back in the car, he barks and barks right at me VERY loudly. It's not aggressive in any way...just really loud and annoying for about a minute. I wish I knew what he was "saying"!

Edited May 23, 2010 by jadesamara

[nicolatu]

Just a warning With the spray bottle, my puppy loves to play with it so didn't work for me. My boy is a water baby I try to train my puppy and go for walk therefore making him all tired before I do my own stuff. I find that he settles better this way. Also, I give him raw hide chews and a white-coloured chew thing(not sure what it is but it's recommended by the pet shop). If he chews, he can't bark and he won't look for my stuff to chew on. Hope that helps.

[persephone]

Hi Thanks for the background info I am hoping some of teh training experts pop in here for you ..but my first thought is that she is not getting enough walking.

15 mins is nothing really ... if it were twice daily that would be better .

On her walks, does she walk under your control? not sniffing/toileting- but rather comcentrating on walking nicely?

She needs to have 'work' to do . Whether it be walking withouy the associated wandering/sniffing ... or learning to lie quietly waiting for you at home ..or doing a few minutes obedience a couple times a day ..or even learning tricks - all this is making her think, and getting her to concentrate and practise conytrol. This in turn will make her tired to a degree, and will satisfy some of her instincts.

We have an old dog who does teh same with teh vacuum . And I discovered that an old dog CAN learn new things

After watching Cesar Millan stop a dog annoying the vac., I tried that method ...and it worked!!

he started the vac.. and as teh dog ran up to it, yipping, he stood straight and strong, and silent and CALM, and walked/stood in between pup and vac EVERY time.. moving so as not to let pup near the vac....and walking out from the vac, so pup retreated a bit. he repeated this a few times...

I did the same with our old nuisance (Koolie) and now she only does it on occasion, but will stop if I do the 'tssht' noise at her I was impressed...after years of trying other things

The bike riding? Hmm not sure of that one- but would perhaps be keeping her in another room, with a nice meaty bone , where she can't see that activity and so get stirred up as much.

[Michelleva]

With her walks, I thought because she was still a puppy I had to limit the amount of excercise she got. I could definitely fit in another walk in the afternoon. Overall, she's walking quite nicely on lead. She only pulls or comes to a complete halt on occasion if something scares or excites her.

I do allow her time to sniff some trees and have a wee, but only when I say so. When I give her the command to keep walking, off we go. She seems to have no problem with that. To be honest she walks the best when I have her by myself. When my little boy comes she's very excited, especially if he's on his bike. Thats when she'll pull. And if she hears a dog she can't see barking or a car flies past she'll plant her butt on the ground and it takes some coaxing to get her moving again.

I've tried a few different things today. She doesn't like the water spraying on her and that did stop her from barking at the broom. I've also done a couple of extra 5 mins sessions of training. And the kids have taken her for a walk around the block earlier today.

I've also started teaching her tricks. She can shake hands, and we're starting on high-5's now.

[persephone]

sounding good . remember tho she needs her work- she also needs to learn to CHILL

[Michelleva]

sounding good . remember tho she needs her work- she also needs to learn to CHILL

We'll keep working on it. She's a work in progress, just as we are. She looks pretty chilled at the moment, she's curled up at my feet, catching some zzzzz's. One thing we learnt yesterday at obedience was how to give a doggy massage. I did that to her before and she looked soooo sleepy, it really works for her. Now I need to teach her to return the favour.

[persephone]

One thing we learnt yesterday at obedience was how to give a doggy massage. I did that to her before and she looked soooo sleepy, it really works for her. Now I need to teach her to return the favour.

[corvus]

Massage is great. Love it.

I think whatever you choose to use, your aim with the barking at moving objects thing is to interrupt her so you can then ask her to do something else that you can reward. There are lots of ways to interrupt behaviour. In this house, we use a bridge that we would normally use to mark behaviour we like to reward it. They hear the bridge and come over for their treat and then we can get them to do other things for us. We often just play the Look At That game, where we reward for just looking at the interesting things. That way we keep them under threshold more easily.

You can get a long way with conditioning, too. We build our dogs up so they start out listening to us only in low distraction environments and then we gradually work up to big distractions.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

My dog thinks "leave it" means come and get a treat.

For joggers and cyclists and cars - "leave it" is very important with a herding dog.

So I started with mine on lead, and "leave it" and when she looked at me - I waved the treat for her to come get. Loads of repetition, no heeling joggers. Excellent. Important too. Though I still have a hard time stopping her from chasing joggers who carry treats for their dogs and have given her some too. We're getting there. But you can't let her off lead until she knows not to chase these things or she will be a squished flat herding dog or declared dangerous for harrassing a dog phobic jogger.

For the vacumming and sweeping, I stop the movement if the dog shows an interest and only start up again when she leaves it. If I really need to get the work done, I crate her or shut her out from where I'm working. We're still working on this one. Then again I don't clean often enough for her to get the required practice. I sometimes use it as proofing for "sit stays" too. Ie I give her something else to do, like a sit stay. She's crap at fetching so that doesn't work.

The water pistol is great at home but less usefull where there is a lot of space. I only use water, and I usually aim near but not at her. It's good when I'm doing floor cleaning as I use sabco flat mop and it uses water to clean. Not so good for carpet vaccuuming. Water pistol not so useful at the dog park or beach.

[lilyandjazz]

Welcome to the world of owning shelties........they tend to get better when they hit about 2 but unfortunately this is a sheltie trait and is quite hard to break.

I have found the best thing to do is on lead so they can't chase and bark or using a crate.

Unfortunately with shelties like this you can exercise them 24/7 and it does not help.

I guess that is why you see a lot of debarked shelties.

Good luck with your pup they are a great breed and hope you have years of fun with your pup

[Michelleva]

We just learned the "leave it" command at training last Saturday, I've been using it when she wants to chase one of the cats. One of them is very scared of her, while the other two are happy to interact. She knows the difference, but we still need LOTS more practice on that one.

Excercising her definitely does help. I just took her for a walk before, then gave her some lunch. After lunch she went outside for a piddle and she never barked or yapped once. Normally, she'll carry on at any sound. So I think I'll up it two small walks a day and see how we go. On our walk today I mixed it up, so it was a walk but with some training thrown in along the way. Now she's curled up asleep, as all good puppies should be.

Since day one I've really tried hard to be the leader. I'm slowly drilling it into the rest of the family too. I must say she does seem to have respect for me, so I must be doing something right. She will even sit and listen to my nearly 5yo son, I'm really pleased with that. He copies what I do, so as long as I stay on the ball, she will continue to understand where she fits in the pack.

[persephone]

baby steps - You will find what works, don't panic

With the cats- make sure they have an escape place .. or are able to go outside to their run with no doggy access. Also- try having her on a long lead around teh scaredycat- so you can reinforce her looking to you, and remind her when she looks at the cat. ;)