High Praise, High Excitement - Nipping

[TrishB]

Parker and I are working on obedience. I've been very pleased with his progress to date. :) His finishes are coming very nicely (we're doing 'around' - thanks for the advice ;)). In order to keep his focus and enjoyment, I keep it high energy and super happy! :D

Here's the problem: I give him the high energy encouragment / praise and he responds - no problem right? Well, he jumps around, leans for pats and then sneaks in for that I'm-having-so-much-fun nip!

I know it's just the energy of the moment. He has wonderful bite inhibition (never places any pressure with his mouth). But the little sneak nips on the back of the arm aren't required. :p

Since this is my first obedience prospect - how do you personally balance the high energy praise within the "I'm so happy I could just eat you up" limits? :D

[Judi W]

Not all dogs should get a big exciting release every time they do some little thing. The release needs to be a calmer "good dog" with a nice pat on the head. When I recognize a dog like this in the classes, that is what I instruct the handlers to do. Some dogs are simply too reactive so we limit praise to calm verbal and not physical. You don't want the dog to quit thinking but to prepare for the next piece. It might be that Parker is one of those dogs, or it might be that he will mature out of this, but I don't do that kind of release until we are finished with the work, not just a small piece of it. You can give the dog a nice pat on the shoulder or head, tell him what a clever boy he is and then move on to the next exercise. The build should be in doing the work, not in the ending of work. The work well-done and the pleasure of the handler becomes the reward. Otherwise, you might be teaching him to more desire the end of the job not the job itself. Does this make sense?

[TrishB]

Sure it does! :) Thanks Judi.

Most of the time, a little scratch on the chest with a "yes, good pup / smart boy" works. Sorry if I gave the impression that we were throwing party streamers for every sit. ;)

I'll temper my reactions in order to control his. :)

[Brooke&Ryan]

What I did with Julius was simply not allow it. We would be having a TON of fun until it happened and I would inforce the "NO BITE" and firmly hold his jaw together. After he realizes what he did, we go back to the fun exciting training. With Julius he would open his mouth and shake around his head so at some point his teeth would end up upon my skin. Even if he did not mean to do it I would infoce the no bite. He soon realized to keep his mouth shut when he was having fun!


Ryan

[Gabby's Mom]

Trish- I had the same problem with Gabby! I was releasing her in the obedience ring between exercises and she would go totally goofy puppy on me! It was hard to get her to settle down for the next exercise. Judi W gave me this same advice a little over a year ago and I haven't released her in the ring since. She's still a little anxious between exercises and doesn't heel as well as she should be, but I can at least keep her a little more focused and prepared to go onto the next exercise. I'm still waiting for some maturing to come into the picture for us! In the meantime, we're having fun and competing anyway. Gabby is 26 months and we only have 1 more leg to go for our CDX. So despite this "goofy puppy syndrome" we're doing pretty good.

So....keep up the good work and have fun!

Andrea

[LynnS]

Although I do not have the EXACT same problem with Bella, she does go into hyper overdrive at times during training. Judi's advice is excellent - When I am in class,sometimes I put Bella in a down stay for a minute or two to calm down.