Hi - I have a 3 month German Sheppard puppy (Bitch) - We have raised her from 8 weeks. She is very attached to my daughter but gives my daughter a hard time. Constant biting and barking/growling- only at her though;with me she is well behaved although she will try nad nip my fingers now and then.  Recently she has been " humping" ( apologise for the usage of the word) my daughters leg! She is definately a female. Also - she started digging every where in the garden. Can anyone please help me understand this behaviour. Many thanks.

Sounds quite normal to me. How old is your daughter ? What do you do when she starts playing this way(& it is play BTW)?

As for the digging I've never had a GSD that didn't dig at sometime during it's life & some were lifelong diggers

Hi - Thanks for the reply. My daughter is 15. Tyra my GSD pup plays quite normally and then after a while she goes into a frenzy where she starts grabbing the trouser legs or sleeves and starts pulling & growling at the same time. And when you stop her she would start barking. At this stage I would have to interfere and tell ( quite sternly)Tyra to stop.

It certainly sounds like normal puppy behaviour when they've got over-wound. As soon as your daughter sees the Tyra beginning to get too worked-up (the expression in her eyes will change and her face might start to look 'tense') she must calm the game and let Tyra relax. Puppies, like toddlers, are hopeless at knowing when they're getting over-excited and over-tired and both will get into a strop unless a responsible adult takes charge. With a toddler it's time for a story and for a puppy it's time for a rest with a bone or a chew!

A lot of it sounds like puppy behaviour but my girl acted in the same way with me but not with my OH and I think a lot of it was her trying to be dominant. From day one she has seen my OH as 'the boss' but she was prepared to battle with me for second place. I perservered though and shes now fine. However, we've recently got another dog (male) and she 'humps' him. She is definatley the dominant one out of them and again I think the 'humping' in particular is her way of showing shes the boss.

You shouldn't stop your puppy, your daughter should & I would advise her to ignore the puppy & leave the room the puppy is in. This link is quite a good bit of information & advice