hi as many of you know i have a young springer of nearly 9 months. she is really hyper and full of energy. when playing with her she claws your face alot and sometimes goes to bite you (just playfully) should i stop her from doing this just getting a bit worried about her with my nephew as want her to be trusted around him. she does it all the time. she lies on her back a lot and just claws at you all the time. also she has started if you ignore her and she wants attention she claws at your face. how will i get her out of this. its really painful. i had 3 really bad claw marks down my face the other day and today my partner was playing with her and she bit his cheek. she just seems to be very all paws!!!

I would strongly advise you to have your young springer safely locked away whilst your nephew is with you.    It only takes a couple of seconds lack of concentration for a tragedy to occur.    Where playful or not, a bite is still a bite.    And until she is fully trained, and you are completely confident about her behaviour she should NEVER be allowed to play with him.

Margot

can i first ask is the pup of show breeding or of working breeding

I'm not an expert at this, but my suggestion would be that you need to end play when it gets too rough as you would with a young puppy, and be 100% consistent with doing that so she understands and links the two. Ditto if you want to stop the scratching for attention, you have NEVER to respond (if it works for her some of the time it becomes an intermittent reward (a bit like gambling) and actually increases the behaviour) and it's likely to get worse before it gets better.

I would agree do not chastise her as she is already nervous/senstitive/submisssive, just say ah ah in a matter of fact way and turn away and ignore her, consistently each and every time she does it.

honestly in the house you would never think she would be a nervous springer as she seems wild and hyper. she is so hard work as well since my other dog is the most placed springer i have ever came across!!!

she is a working springer. she is not doing it in a nasty way just seems to kind of want something to chew as she is playing and seems to like to play with your hands and feet especially. as for the clawing . you can be sitting on the floor cuddling her ( she likes to cuddle right in) and then she will just put her paw onto you and scratch especially if you are not giving her attention.sometimes in the morning i let her on my bed (i no i shouldnt) and when my alarm goes off she quickly comes right up sits near my face and when i press the snooze for 5 she will put her paw straight on my face and claw at me to get my attention(it really hurts).  i dont really let her with my nephew as she is a little hyper for him (would jump all over him) but just one day would like to feel like i could. my other dog who is only 18  month is brilliant. my nephew throws the ball for him and he fetches it back and drops it near him. he seems to understand that he needs to be gentle. were as mags just seems to be hyper and so full of life. she cant just play gently.

Our young terrier does this when he gets excited or wants attention. If he doesn't respond to an "ah ah" we put him out of the room for a short while and repeat the process if he starts again. If I see him starting to get over excited  I try to pre-empt the behaviour and give him a command such as sit or down. He is slowly learning that undesirable behviour gets a time out but it is a long, slow process. It is made harder by the fact that our other dog is such a quick learner and very biddable :)

ok thanks will try this. just at the moment it so difficult because she is so hyper ( we have wood floor all through which does not help at all) and alot of things she does i want to stop her but dont want to feel like she is being stopped from doing everything and getting told off all the time.

I would enrol her in a training class where  eventually she can do some agility when she is older ,working springers need to do just that 'work' she probably has a higher drive than your other dog .They need lots of exercise to work off thier energy , when you say no mean 'no' .Teach her to do things to get her brain working ie sit , down , stand heel roll over ,hide things for her to find etc

From the posters other posts it seems her bitch is hioghly nervous and is terrified of other dogs and at classes is gettig worse and won't come out from under the chair.

That is where requesting alternative behaviour incompatible with what she is doing will help as she can be praised for this.  for example a sit or a down mean she cannot jump at you and scratch. 

In her case  due to her nervousness, I would use the sit rather than the down as it is a less submissive posture.

Also make sure your praise in these situations will not wind her up more, keep voice low and movements very slow.  Generally try to keep your voice and movements calm around her so she does not so easily get over excited, break up games before she gets too OTT.  Teach her to chill.

My daughter has a springer now age 4yrs, when she got her  age 1yr she had been tied up in a kitchen for 24/7, just taken out into the garden to do what she had to.

A more nervous dog you could not get.  With a lot of hard, hard, work Kacy is now a brilliant springer great with my daughters baby and loves everyone to bits, is still hyper wants you to play with her all the time and carries a ball in her mouth when she goes out for walks. She still hates getting a lead put on her though, still associates this with "bad things", but we are getting there slowly.

We think she is from working lines and when she is at the caravan she will find things and bring them back to you, especially if anyone has left a ball under a van.

I have always said to my daughter that she would make a good "sniffer dog".

She is now a joy to have in the family and gets on really well with my terrors, sorry, terriers. LOL!!!

mags is excellent at obedience she sits,downs,stops,retreives,recalls. she is just as obedient as my other dog but just alot more hyper. so its not really the obedience we have the problem with she is just a bit rough in play. she has still been going to obedinece does not do much there, because she is nervous. she does not understand she is hurting you just wants to play. today i was stroking her and as soon as she put her paw on to me i stopped stroking her.. i think she is maybe a little headstrong because when i stopped she put her paws onto my shoulders. i put her down and ignored her, do you think this is what i should continue doing.

I really don't mean this as a 'I told you so post' Stanyer but this is where learning bite inhibition and to play nicely as a pup comes in. If she had been allowed to play gently as a pup she would have learnt how easily hurt humans are. The next time there is a bite inhibition thread perhaps you'll reconsider advising people just to shout no at their puppies.

I would now start teaching her bite inhibition as per this link. Be consisitant, use the same techniques when she scratches you too and it does work :)

she did play bite as a puppy tho, and we just said no. i did not mean shout and yell at her and she soon learned to stop biting, but however now she seems to like doing it when she is playing, i would say its more the claws then biting tho. when she was a pup tho she used to just bite all the time. were as now if you are not giving her attention she just claws at you. and also could someone please tell me what age is best to take her off puppy food please.

I seem to recall with Duibh that the bag said to feed puppy food until 2yrs old then switch to adult (it differed depending on expected adult weight), which I thought was a bit excessive and switched him over at about a year old when most of his growing was done. I would guess 9 mths may well be about right for a worky type springer to switch - what did the breeder say?

If she's that OTT then every time she tries to claw you I would stand up and walk away without paying her any attention at all - whether it's an 'ah ah' or anything else.  If it's very bad, walk in another room and shut the door.  I fostered a 9/10 month old springer boy for 6 weeks once, and he was very similar - very high drive, and very, very bitey, and noa mount of pushing, cues, 'no's or 'ah ah's would stop him.  The only thing that worked was walking out of the room quickly, he got the message and because he didn't like being left, it was that much more effective.

> today i was stroking her and as soon as she put her paw on to me i stopped stroking her.. i think she is maybe a little headstrong because when i stopped she put her paws onto my shoulders

Her usual tactic - the paw - didn't work, so she tried something else. "Ah ah" and taking her paws off your shoulders and putting on the ground is fine - but it is something you have to repeat EVERY time (and possibly if she's not giving up even leaving the room for a few seconds. But the consistency is the key :) (and obviously work\ exercise to reduce her energy levels as otherwise being a working type she'll be boinging off the walls - but I'm sure you've said you do that anyway. :) ).

i will give the working out on the room a try, however i do feel like i would have to do it all day as she always does it. as for the energy levels i was saying to my partner that i thought maybe if we took her out more to run around then this might calm her down a bit. just recently since my other dog is not allowed out at the moment we are prob being a bit unfair on her as she is not going out as often as she was (i no i should be but were so used to going out alltogether) and she seems to have become more hyper since then. 

If our Dobe doesn't get her hour off lead hunting, she's a nightmare. If she gets it, you don't know you've got her. Enough said I think ;)

spaniels are not stupid dogs so she will learn very quickly what is expected of her.  However, from your post it does seem that you have actually encouraged her.  She has established that pawing you get your attention and is working on that.  I'm not having a go at you because I have done exactly this with my Brac and it is always harder undoing what you have done rather than teaching what is acceptable in the beginning!!!! :rolleyes:

Its very important when puppies are young to teach bite inhibition as this is the basis for good manners for the rest of their lives.  If she had learned bite inhibition at a young age she would now know that biting - however playful - is not on!!!!  I would have a look at the thread and see if you can pick up some pointers on there!!!

Re puppy food.  I generally think that the puppy food thingy is a marketing ploy.  If she is hyperactive then I would change her food to the adult version of what you are feeding her.  It may be just too much for her.  Springers mature much quicker than adult dogs so its not so important to watch what they are eating as puppies. My working cocker wouldnt eat puppy food as he wanted what the big dogs were having so he never had puppy food and he has lived to tell the tail!!!!  LOL

You would do well too to hide things around the house.  With working gundogs its not so much the exercise because you could walk them all day and they wouldnt tire out.  They are built for endurance and working all day.  The thing to tire these dogs out is mental stimulation.  Buy her an activity toy and let her work it out.  There are plenty on offer at PAH.

Hope this helps
Kind regards
Spettadog

ok will try this. i do think if we take her out longer it might calm her down a bit. she is just still very puuppified compared to what my other dog was by 9 month. also you say to try her on the adult food will this not be to hard on her stomach just she allready seems to go to the toilet alot, i thought maybe the puupy food we had her on was to rich. also mags is a very loving dog and justs wants to cuddle right in on you and when you dont let her up thats when she will put her paw on to you.if you ignore her she then starts to scratch. i walked off like people suggested and will keep trying this. i dont think it will take long to actually get her out of it.