Agressive Play

Posted by JERRY-WHITE
Jun 10, 2008
my mal is 5 1/2 mos old. She can get aggressive with her wich I hope is play and not trying to be aggressively trying to take over the back yard. She will run arround the yard in a big circle just as hard as she can run. She acts like she wants you to run with her. Any way she will run and jump on you. Then she nipps your hand not hard enough to break skin. I have tried turning my back and ignoreing her just makes her try harder. screemed ouch. Agressivly growled which seems to make her worse. She is too quick to catch, will not respond to recall, or any other command during one of her sessions. NEED HELP. She respons and is very good during our training sessions which I try to have two to three times a day for 10 to 15 min.
we feed her last. make her go throu doorways last. make her move when she is sleeping at a doorway or middle of the room. Go for short walks because of her adult size long walk usually are not recommended. We play retreive with a ball almost evry day I always stop the game. Need help.
Posted by Todd
Jun 19, 2008
HI there and thanks for the post.

I am very glad to hear you are working on the alpha training and obedience as these are the most important things to work on for any behavioural problems.

SO keep up the good work on these.

Now for the over-excitement issue.

There are a few things you can do in general that can help.
Firstly when you get home ignore her for 15 or so minutes. This means not looking at her, talking to her or playing with her. This will let her know that overexcitement isn't acceptable. After that period you can go to her and say hello.

When you are playing with her avoid getting her all built up and excited. Keep it calm and if she starts to get over excited ignore her and stop playing.

In the back yard if she gets overexcited there are 2 options but it sounds like the ignore method hasn't worked.
The other option is to tell her off sternly and straight away the second she gets overexcited no matter how minor or major it is. Use a loud GRRRR as well as a squirt with a water pistol. Then ask her to sit. If she doesn't tell her off again.

When she does sit and calm down then praise her and let her know she is doing well.

Good luck and thanks for the post. Let me know how things are going and if i can help anymore

Todd