Hi
I have a GSD pup (8 months) who has developed an attention seeking biting/destructiveness behaviour.She will bite or steal things to get attention. I know the best way to deal with this is ignore the attention seeking behaviour and reward her good behaviour, however when it comes to biting she is really getting hard to ignore. I find that if I respond to her biting in anyway it gets worse (yelping in response or 'no bite' just make her more excited - it becomes part of the game) however no response is just as bad. She will either bite you directly or grab your sleeve or something and start pulling. If I ignore her she rips whatever she has. If I grab her muzzel and stop her she gets worse - grabbing my hand etc. If I get up she goes into the 'play stance' and runs towards me and bounds away if I go near her. She is a excellent dog ususally except if she wants to play she goes mad like this. I try to distract her by saying 'drop' or something and then rewarding her which she obeys but after she will just pick up where she left off.
If anyone has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated!
thanks
nikita

Hi Nikita

I have had and still do have the exact same problem with my nearly nine month old dobe. Ive found best thing to do is squirt him with water when he gets like this and if this still does not settle him he gets put in kitchen with door shut for a little while.

He is a lot better than he used to be and now find he is worse when he has not been exercised. It is like he will not leave you alone until he has been out for a run . It has become his way , ie. mouthing arm to tell us that he wants something. In his case mostly he wants exercise or go outside.

Good luck - try the squirty water thing it really does stop him in tracks - but you wont have to mind having wet floors . Lol.

Karen.