Advice Please - Young Foster Dog Starting To Get A Nippy Habit

[charliehotel]

Hi there, I recently (as in two weeks ago) became a foster carer to a 6-8 month old blue heeler rescue dog that we have called Jimmy. We have no idea about his background, but he has some significant anxiety issues with people and the world in general, which we have been working on slowly and gently. When Jimmy arrived at our house we had to carry him out of the car and into the house because he was too afraid to get out of his crate, and then he just shook on my lap for half an hour before I felt he was ok to meet my own dog. Luckily Jimmy and my girl have really bonded and he is much more confident if she is with him. He is now very comfortable around the home and yard with me and the female friends who I've had to visit (not so good with men, but we'll get there) and will happily play and seek attention from us. The problem is though, that as his confidence has increased, Jimmy has started to get overly mouthy, and will now try to grab at hands and clothes. At this stage it is only mouthing, getting up to light nipping, but he's very persistent with it and my concern is that if I don't manage it correctly now then it may well escalate into biting if he ends up in the wrong situation. He does it when he's excited (eg when I get home), when I pay attention to my own dog, or when I've been paying attention to him and then stop. So far when he does it I've been saying NO and turning away from him, and ignoring him till he settles down. But I'm not sure that this strategy is hitting the mark. He has started to sit when I say NO and turn away, (I've been teaching him to sit for attention, pats, treats etc) but then starts the nippy stuff again when I come back to him. He will eventually stop, but then it starts all over again the next time he wants attention. I've also tried to distract him with a toy to chew on instead when he aims for my hands, and this can work, but I'm concerned that I'm rewarding the nipping behaviour with the toy. If anyone has any advice on how to manage this issue without crushing his confidence I'd really appreciate it thanks.

[The Spencinator]

I am by no means an expert on this stuff but my lab was quite mouthy when we got him. We got some advice from our trainer and what has worked for us is to just completely remove any positive, reinforcing consequences that might be resulting from the mouthing. So what you're doing by turning away is definitely on the right track. If you want to take it a bit further, as soon as you feel his teeth on your skin, whatever is happening stops (be it a game or even just 'access' to you) and you walk away (into another room and close the door if necessary). That way he doesn't get any reinforcement for mouthing and the behaviour (hopefully) won't develop into a chain behaviour where he mouths, you turn, he sits and he then gets praise. It will really help to look at it from his perspective to work out why he's doing it. If its for attention, you take the attention away when he's mouthy and he no longer has a reason to do it.

It's a bit tricker if he's doing it while you're giving attention to your other dog. Maybe you could try asking him to sit while you pat your other dog and reward him with some yummy treats if he sits and waits patiently?

It might be worth contacting the rescue that you're fostering for and asking for their advice, I'm sure they would be happy to help out seeing as you're doing a lovely thing and fostering for them.

Also well done for not using anything too harsh with him, especially seeing as he's nervous!

[Nekhbet]

Your rescue coordinator should be in touch with a decent trainer to help you through these things with the dog.

[charliehotel]

Thanks for the responses. Our foster group does have a great trainer and we will be seeing them about this but due to circumstances beyond everyone's control it's not going to happen for another week, so I thought it would be worth doing some research in the meantime. It's a long time since I've posted on DOL but it's always been a great source of information for me.