General Discussion 💬

My 14 week old pup has learned to jump towards me with a bark and a bite motion. When she does this, I tell her no and stop the activity and/or get up and walk away.

What worked for those of you experiencing the same thing?

The word No doesn’t have much of a meaning to a young pup and simply stopping can go as far as making then feel unheard and dismissed.

Even if both successfully stop the behaviour, neither are good for your relationship in the long term.

Instead, redirect and save your voice to use it only as a reinforcer (imagine having to call her away from a passing bike one day, you want her to immediately come to you thinking something good is going to follow).

All of a sudden my dog getting a little jerky when he meets people (men). He’ll bark and growl and people are afraid. This is new. What can I do to curb this?

Listen to him and help him walk away as his main solution. Dogs who know they can remove themselves from an uncomfortable situation will not hesitate to do that, but when they can’t or feel like they can’t, their bark and growl is the hope that others will remove themselves instead.

Practice walking near men (at whatever distance your dog is comfortable with) that won’t care or expect an interaction and then walk away, mark and reward.

Your dog will want to learn that men = space, time and absolutely no pressure. Unfortunately I know most people might think that they’re good with every dog and that every dog should just be comfortable with them.

But just…