Hello, i have a 12mth old Lurcher (x collie) (Had him from 8 weeks old) who is so well behaved when i or anyone else takes him for a walk or looks after him (he's good with little children, other dogs and other people). When my wife takes him out he jumps on the lead and tries to bite her wrist, when she lets him off the lead he jumps at her biting her, this also happends around the house and tries his hardest to stop her leaving by jumping up and wrapping his paws around her legs!! As soon as i come home he stops straight away and acts like nothings happened.. quite a sly bugger..! Any ideas please?

Hello
Is your wife quite a soft touch? If yourself or anyone else if firm with him when he is out, etc...that would be why he doesnt try it on with you..but if your wife lets him get away with stuff, or babys him, he will be thinking he can get his own way with her.
She needs to be really firm with him. She must make him sit before letting him off the lead and ignor him when she wants to...
I think possibly she isnt strict enough...discapline is really needed here or you are going to have a massive problem. I am sure she loves him, but she has to be incredibly firm with him. When he gets silly on the lead she must stop, make him sit and ONLY carry on when SHE is ready.
Training....lots of training im afraid...but you will get there in the ende because he isnt stupid, in fact, quite the opposite, sounds like he knows where he has an easy ride.
steph
x

Hi, thanks for the advice.. one thing we thought about was giving him the 'snip' would this be helpful in any way?. Some people have suggested it but we dont want to do it if it doesnt need to be done. (its not like he humps anything in sight, so cant think of any other reason he should be done)

Andy :-)

Castration will only affect hormone-controlled problems. This doesn't sound as though it's hormone-controlled. You could always try the Tardac injection to get an idea of whether castration would actually help.

Castration often "calms dogs down" but I dont think that that is the problem here ( although castration is recommended to reduce illnesses, and so he wont chase every bitch in season) because it is only to your wife he is doing it to.....does he play up with any other women?
I think you should begin some firm training with him. He will still know you love him (perhaps this is what your wife is worried about??) but he will respect you more, and that is what you need.
Was he a rescue? If so, perhaps this plays some part in this behaviour?
steph
x

Hi, the dog isnt a rescue dog, was seen with mum, dad and the rest of the litter some times before i got him. Going to chat to the Vet about him having the Snip... dont want him to be 'putting himself about' so to speak in the near future..thinking one of the probs may be that my g/f voice is .. well quite girly and that when she tells him off or shouts at him its not very scarey.?? This behaviour from him towards her has been going on for quite some time, she's thrown slippers and pillows etc at him when he's really bad!! but all he seems to do is dodge them somehow and carry on growling in a menancing way.. but when he jumps at her its not a vicious bite more like a nip.. and of course the wrapping around of legs. he acts like a child going through the terrible two's.. but apart from these little episodes generaly he's a completly different dog. We had be told that by putting a harness on him when walking would stop him jumping up but that was no good at all and never worked once. Does anyone think putting a muzzle on him to stop the 'nipping' when he's alone in the house or 'walkies' with 'mrs' is cruel or would it be a good idea.?.. ive also read on this site somewhere about using a little water pistol. Anyway thanks for the advice so far all. Andy :-)

Hiya
Get him a halti. Designed by Dr Roger Mugford and is an absolutely priceless piece of equiptment. They cost around £6-£7 and well worth it. It is a head harness which goes over the nose. Dogs dont like to feel pulling on their heads so they stop playing up...I would recommend this as your first port of call.
Also, the pillow and slipper thing...not a good idea. The dog will think its a game (I know what she feels, it is probably desperation that leads to it...but try to hold off from bringing physical objects into it)
I think your wife/Girlfriend needs to take the upper hand. She should lower her voice to a firm tone and get accross what she wants the dog to do..if the dog doesnt do it..then she should make sure he does..eg "Sit"...if he doesnt do it, then she should actively put him into a sit.
Also, if she can, itr would be an idea for her to take him to training classes as he would start to learn that she "means business" and is no longer a walkover.
Good luck!

sorry Andy, I can't help...but I did have a little chuckle at his craftiness ;)And to think, some people think dogs are stoopid :(
Hope someone can offer good, sound advise. I'm new here but have found the people to be soo helpful.
Stephxx

My lurcher used to do that when he was smaller, he is a bit younger than yours, 10 months, and he does the wrapping the paws around your legs thing. He has grown out of it though, cos neither i or my housemate respond to it, never have (apart from occasionally tripping over him), he does still do it occasionally, very very occasionally, when really really excited.

Dunno if that helps, but maybe get your wife to ignore him whenever he does something like that.?

Em

Hi
I have the same problem with my 11 month old GSD Bitch, my husband has been working away for a few months, so I dont really know what shes like with him anymore, but she never used to bite him, I'll find out next week as hes home. but when my brother or my Dad come round she does just what they tell her to do and she obeys me when either of them are here, but when they have gone she doesn't do a thing I ask, I have tried all sorts when she bites, and its only me and my teenage daughter that she does bite. and the same as you she is a well behaved dog most of the time I think she bites when she wants attention or she doesn't want to do somthing I want her to do like get of the sofa, and again like you taking her for a walk is a nightmare with her jumping up and biting although she does stop by the time we get to the end of the road.
I'd love to know how you get on, and if you solve this problem and how you do it, I know how your wife feels its really frustrating when you seem to be the only person the dog behaves like this with, I usually shut her out the room for five minutes but not long after being let back in she starts again, I also think it has something to do with the voice I have tried to lower mine but it still doesn't work, she only seems to have respect for men, or maybe its fear I dont know.
let me know how you get on.
k

Wow, your dog must think he's in heaven having a giant toy to play with!
It sounds like he really enjoys playing that game with your wife, and she responds well by squealing and throwing things at him!
Get her to do some good calm training with him, train some simple tricks, like give a paw or close the door. Tricks are good because there's no pressure on anyone to get it right, so she wont end up losing her temper or getting frustrated. A good book is 'trick and treat' by Sarah Whitehead, it's available from www.apdt.co.uk
You might benefit from housing a house line on the dog (make one yourself by getting a cheap lead from a pound shop and cutting it shorter) so that you can move the dog around without physical contact. In your dogs case, physical contact is part of the fun, in some situations it can be very threatening.
If your dog thinks this is all a game, the level of physical punishment you would have to use to prevent it would be very harsh, and that would really damage your relationship with the dog. Any less and the dog thinks it's part of the game.
The tone of voice can make a difference, although if your dog is fine with children I would question how relevant it is in this case.
You could teach the dog a new game to play when he's excited. If you can get him focused onto toys, then he will rather play with that than with someones arm! My lurcher gets very excited at agility, and started nipping then, he didn't do it anywhere else. All I did was give him a squeaky toy to hold as he goes round the course and as he gets very worked up he just squeaks that instead.
When your dog starts playing up, your wife should not respond at all, not look at him, not speak to him, and if possible not even move so the dog really quickly learns it's no fun. The minute he stops, praise him in a quiet voice, and then if appropriate give him a toy to play with instead. As mentioned earlier, haltis are great for control, and usually have a calming effect on the dog as well.

K, With regards to dogs only obeying men, that is quite common, men are bigger than women, and do have deeper voices which automatically make a dog more wary. I think in the case of your gsd that she is a bit frightened of your dad and brother, so is generally more inhibited. If you don't want to your dog to obey you through fear, you could find that reward based training is much more effective. The dog does what you ask because she wants to, not because she's afraid not to. There's a lot of misconceptions about reward based training. Some people think of it as bribery, and some think you have to carry a pocket full of treats for the rest of your life. Neither is true, if you do it properly, you phase out the reward until the dog doesn't know when it's coming, and you shouldn't need to have a treat in your hand to get a response. A good book to read is 'good dog behaviour' by Gwen Bailey. It isn't full of jargon but has enough information in to make sure you're able to do it properly. You could also look into a training class in your area (look on the apdt link above - but remember to check the class out before you take the dog). A good trainer can tell you where you are going wrong, and help you to rebuild the relationship with your dog, so that the dog respects and obeys you, but more importantly trusts you.

Good luck both of you!

regards,
Jo

Hi K, my wife has been ignoring him when he's playing up but as you know theres only so much ignoring you can do when he's jumping at you and holding onto your arms with his mouth... The biting has calmed down a little but the jumping up and 'wrapping his legs around her legs' has got worse, hopefull he will grow out of this.. time will tell!! When she's out walking him he used to play up so then she made him sit until she feels he has calmed down enough to carry on, or just turn around and come home... this has worked so far and hopefull will improve in time. Good luck!

Ignore what you can - and distract from what you can't - can she do some training with him so she can ask him to 'sit' when he starts leaping around?

If she's going to go with the 'ignore' then it must mean IGNORE - don't look at him, don't touch him, push him away etc. Any type of contact like this isn't ignoring, and the dog will more than likely up the efforts to get attention, if you weaken then he's getting his reward for the increased effort and will put this kind of effort in each time, increasing it again if necessary to get the attention. If you stick with the ignoring totally, there will be no reward for the behaviour and it will start to cease so long as it's not become a habit.........

I was just about to say what digger has said, ignore what the dog is doing and if possible put hiom in a room away from you for 5 mins let the dog out, if it does it again put him back, keep doing this until you open the door and the dog does nothing tell it to sit them maybe give a treat for good behaviour.
He is prolly testing you out to see how far he can get (typical man :-))
I done the ignoring thing with my 17 week old GSD. She sleeps downstairs with my other dog and when we come down stairs in the morning she use to bound all over us and often we on her bed with excitement, as well as biting. So i started ignoring it took about a week for her to realise i was not going to give her any attetion until she calmed down, but the main thing is it worked.
Good luck