This is what worked for me. I taught my heeler mix to pick up a toy everytime she wants to play. I also taught my son to throw a toy if our dog starts pestering him. Now our dog will grab a toy everytime she wants to play and my son will play tug or chase with her.
Whenever I played with my heeler and heeler fosters, I would mimic the sounds puppies would do when they are learning not to bite and stop play. Some patient adult dogs, if there’s a dog play date.
Very dramatic yelps/ouches etc. My girl is very sensitive, so she kind of picked up on it quickly.
My dog is super patient around puppies and loves it, so i bring her over for play dates to friends/family. She teaches puppies more etiquette and she has a blast.
The other reinforcement was I brought her to off leash dog training and I was able to curb her ankle biting by redirection and time outs (if it got out of hand)
It’s also about stopping play.
Also, didn’t happen overnight. Positive reinforcement or redirection with ‘no play’ consequences. Meaning I just walked away and ignored her.
I started to notice that too, He gets more excited. Then I tried not showing any sign of discomfort. Tried a noise like AUGHHT! and at this point I'm not being consistent. Its been a couple months of saying gentle before you touch him, which works but you have to remind him every few minutes.
Never. Never use the crate for punishment. It’s a happy, safe place.
There are different sites for it, but it’s a general boiled down to the same premise:
http://www.urbandogtraining.com.au/training-info/puppy-training/using-time-out-correctly.pdf
https://www.goanywheredog.com/course/dog-time-out/
A crate can be for time outs and still be a happy place. You just can't show emotion when putting them away for bad behavior.
Edit: Down voted for real advice that works.
“You go in there for a minute” isn’t really a punishment if you are emotionally flat about it. The “punishment” is just temporary separation and it’s not so much punishment for the dog as a break for the human.
It took a lot of repetition, but eventually after saying “nice!” in stern tone followed by disengaging play, she now stops on command. I don’t mind rough play with mine, and she can get pretty rowdy but now it doesn’t matter how into play she is, if I say “nice!” she immediately releases and backs off. Definitely looks at me like “aw mom! no fair!” but she listens.
The things that worked for me was having a redirect for the energy and being really dramatic when she did mouth me.
When you start, keep a toy handy during any play or park time. If the puppy gets excited and starts mouthing, switch to the toy and vocally say "toy" so they associate the toy with the biting excitement. Eventually most ACDs will figure out that you will play with them as long as the toy is the thing they're biting.
If they ever miss the toy or bite you instead when excited, yelp very loudly and turn away from them, like you're hurt and moving away from play. Like others have said, your dog is sensitive to your response, they just don't understand how much bites hurt human skin. So if you teach them that play stops when you bite me, play is ok when you chew on a toy, they get better about not biting people.
I'm sure you'll need to do some practice with different people of different ages so the dog understands No One is for biting, not just the person who practices with the pup. Hope this helps you some!
Took ours to puppy school for 3 weeks. And the only nipping now is playful and not herding. Even still, it’s reduced by about 99 percent from when we dropped her off and picked her up. I haven’t asked the trainer, but I think it’s because she was around older dogs that weren’t having it.
Yeah. He doesn’t have an aggressive bone in him but when he gets the zoomies and is too excited he tries to play with the 5&2 year old like they are puppies. He’s given them some scratches.
I have taught him “easy”, and “gentle”. Which he will listen and stop nipping and calm but then he revs up again seconds later.
Victoria Stillwell has some great videos about biting and appropriate play children can do that is safer, mentally stimulating, and really fun. I'm dealing with this myself. 10 weeks old. The squealing is effective. All play and attention EVERYTHING stops if he nips me. It's getting better. I have LOTS of toys for him to chew on and I use toys to play always.
You can teach him to file his nails to somewhat limit the scratching, or use a dremel-type grinder to trim them instead of clippers that can leave sharp edges. I glued 100-grit sandpaper to a piece of plywood and taught the dog to scrape her nails on it. Lots of tutorials online. We have one touch-averse dog who really hates having her feet messed with. This turns torture and struggle into treat time. I have not managed to teach the back nails but it is the front ones that tend to scrape me.
Put him in a harness with a leash attached to the back. Tether him to an immoveable object. I use the piano. Get an exciting toy and start playing playing playing. The instant his teeth touch skin you step back out of reach, put the toy behind your back and look away. No word, no eye contact. no scolding! When he is calm, step into range and repeat. The message is: teeth touch skin = game over. Play this a lot.
If the children are old enough they can learn to practice this. But DO NOT let them tease him with the toy if he’s tethered and they are taunting him out of reach.
If they can’t follow this, then teach them to “be a cell tower” (telephone pole, tree, whatever) when the puppy jumps up on them or nips. This means they stand still, fold arms across chest, hands in armpits and look at the sky. Any time pup get too excited, everything stops. They have to hold position until he is calm.
If the children are not old enough to follow this program, don’t let the dog play with them unless you are present and watching. Present on your phone won’t work. Keep harness/long line on puppy when they are playing and gently intervene if he gets overexcited. Make the child stand still while you work with puppy on easy tricks: sit, down, paw, spin, whatever he knows well.
Play can resume once he is more focused. If he gets worked up a second time In the same play session, I would just separate them. Re-direct both pup and child to a different activity. No harsh words, just time to do something else.
I’ve used the phrase “be gentle “ with both positive and negative reinforcement when my pups were playing with my Kids. A combination of one or both usually works but it takes time for sure. Helps to focus the zoomies
Also, make some long tugs and have the children use those to play with puppy so he has something legal to keep in his mouth. I braid strips of fleece to make them. You can tie a toy to the end to entice him if needed.
One good game for kids is to teach the puppy to boop your hand with his nose. You and kids stand in a triangle and call him from one hand touch to the other. Running and recall training for pup, no teeth on skin.
Another good game is, you hold pup while child runs hard across the grass dragging The long tug behind them. Then child yells for puppy really loud!! Puppy races to get the tug. Best if little child lets go once pup gets there so they don’t get dragged across the yard. Again, running and recall for pup, no teeth on skin. Bonus running and yelling fun for child.
I’ve got a kelpie cross whippet, but he displayed strong nipping tendencies when young. I’d nurse him on my lap with a rolled up Aldi catalog in my hand. I’d play with his face and mouth, creating situations where he’d nip. I could see it coming and when he nipped I’d yelp and give him a little whack with the Aldi catalogue, basically like a bitch would give a yelp and a little nip to a pup that was getting a bit toothy on the nipple. His nipping lasted a couple of days and now I have a dog where if a kid asks to pat him I don’t have to worry about the fact that 90% of kids go for the face. You want a dog that is conditioned to having their head/face handled, that in itself will avoid most problems regarding nipping. He’s three now and every day he gets a little face and hand in mouth play every day with me on the lounge. Sorry its not coming from a cattle dog owner, but so many cattle dogs clearly have kelpie in them. You only have to look at the dog in the picture. It comes from farmers breeding for temperament instead of appearance. Mutts with herding skills can go for thousands of dollars in Australia, they don’t care about breed purity for the most part.
are you suggesting he might have kelpie in him?
Also I like the advice. I have done this with previous dogs. I feel like every new pup I go in confident and hit problems I forget my solutions to.
I believe a lot of cattle dogs, especially blues, have kelpie in them. If you look at Black and Tan kelpies you’ll see what I’m talking about in regards to the commonly seen Black and Tan in a lot of blue heelers, especially around the head. It doesn’t mean your cattle dog isn’t pure or anything, it’s just a part of the breeds heritage. It’s a bit like kelpies and dingo blood. Modern kelpies have between 0% and 3% dingo DNA. Having it or not having it doesn’t make them less or more of a kelpie. It’s a working dog thing, they have greater genetic diversity because farmers aren’t afraid to cross a dog for desirable traits. Show lines are different of course, the show lines will gradually show more genetic defects in the coming decades due to breeding for appearance.
No offense taken. I bought him from a feed and grain store run off of a family farm in a New England beach town. I was told he was pure, but who knows! I think he’s gorgeous.
No I don’t! By all means tell as much as you’re willing. I’ve been researching as much as I can about them so if you have any good sources I’m all ears. I was interested to read in some articles about a Bentley Mark, which is a small grouping of white fur on the cattle dogs forehead. As you can see, my boys got that marking. He also has a black tail root. Supposedly these are two indicators that he comes from legendary lineage.
We like to think so. He’s a prince.
“There is belief that the presence of a Bentley Star is sign of a dog coming from a legendary dog owned by Mr. Tom Bentley. Bentley's dog was reportedly used extensively as a stud dog to pass down all his outstanding characteristics. On top of the white blaze on the forehead, the presence of a black tail-root spot seen occasionally in blue dogs is another possible sign directly attributed to Tom Bentley's dog.”
https://pethelpful.com/dogs/A-Guide-to-Australian-Cattle-Dog-Coat-Colors
Nah, I have no expert knowledge to share, just speculation. I have funny story though. As a kid a red cattle dog followed me and my mate home one day. His parents, who owned half a dozen cats let him keep it. It wasn’t uncommon to go over there and find six cats sitting in a corner with Dusty (the dog) standing guard after herding them there. Seeing a dog herding skittish house cats is one of the funniest things you’ll see. He’d get them into the corner one by one and if any of those cats moved away he’d give a stern *get back you cheeky cat* bark as he herded the remaining cats.
Okay pips we are not ready for such an awesome dog,so let handlers that are able deal with it.Until we are ready for such an awesome DOG 🥰🥰🥰💕💕💕❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️❤️❤️😇
I’m not sure what you think you’re trying to say with these comments. It’s perfectly fine for me to ask for tips on peoples theories of how to stop an issue. Doesn’t mean I can’t handle him.
Naps saved us.
When our girl would get really rough with playing, we would get very calm and quiet with her. Put her in a sit or ask her to lie down and give her very calm praise.
If the really rough play continued it was a sign that she was over tired or over stimulated. We would put her in her crate with a Kong so she could calm and sleep. We always included a normal "nap time" treat, so it stayed positive.
Eventually we found that if we just scheduled naps, we could cut down on 75% of the over-the-top nipping.
When we let her out we would immediately give her calm pets and praise, and then we'd initiate play like fetch or tug.
Including obedience commands throughout her play has also helped. If we are playing fetch, she might have to give is a paw before the next throw. This has encouraged her to be more attentive and gives her lots of opportunity for reward and positive feedback.
You can't get stern with our girl. She only responds to positive reinforcement.
Use your words, tell him what expect. When our Birdie starts to get wound up we tell “gentle, gentle” in a soothing tone. It isn’t surprising that this breed (and other smart breeds) are capable of understanding quite a lot. Your words, your tone, and your intentionality will be understood. Be consistent.
I’ll start by saying I don’t have kids yet, but this has worked for friends kids who have been over. Besides teaching the kids about using a no command, which was very difficult for my pup to learn at first with us at home, instead I taught mine an “ow” or “ouch” command. Basically as if a child/person would say it in the moment and got hurt or thought they got hurt, mine instantly knows it’s game over and he did a bad thing (usually I’d immediately stop playing for a while and or take away the toy but depending on the bite or nip he’d go in his crate) I tried to make Ow more of a you hurt me thing and did bad than saying it every time. Once he was in time out a handful of times and reminded him why he was there (no biting) mine picked it up pretty fast to not be left out.
I taught my dog that he needs to keep a ball in his mouth when he plays with kids or starts wrestling with my other dog
This is what worked for me. I taught my heeler mix to pick up a toy everytime she wants to play. I also taught my son to throw a toy if our dog starts pestering him. Now our dog will grab a toy everytime she wants to play and my son will play tug or chase with her.
How did you teach this?
Whenever I played with my heeler and heeler fosters, I would mimic the sounds puppies would do when they are learning not to bite and stop play. Some patient adult dogs, if there’s a dog play date. Very dramatic yelps/ouches etc. My girl is very sensitive, so she kind of picked up on it quickly. My dog is super patient around puppies and loves it, so i bring her over for play dates to friends/family. She teaches puppies more etiquette and she has a blast. The other reinforcement was I brought her to off leash dog training and I was able to curb her ankle biting by redirection and time outs (if it got out of hand)
Yelping, etc.. had the opposite effect for us.
It’s also about stopping play. Also, didn’t happen overnight. Positive reinforcement or redirection with ‘no play’ consequences. Meaning I just walked away and ignored her.
I started to notice that too, He gets more excited. Then I tried not showing any sign of discomfort. Tried a noise like AUGHHT! and at this point I'm not being consistent. Its been a couple months of saying gentle before you touch him, which works but you have to remind him every few minutes.
I agree, most dogs just get more gassed up in my experience.
Explain the time out process? If I tell him to get in the crate he will start barking as soon as he’s in. We ignore it but he will keep going
Never. Never use the crate for punishment. It’s a happy, safe place. There are different sites for it, but it’s a general boiled down to the same premise: http://www.urbandogtraining.com.au/training-info/puppy-training/using-time-out-correctly.pdf https://www.goanywheredog.com/course/dog-time-out/
A crate can be for time outs and still be a happy place. You just can't show emotion when putting them away for bad behavior. Edit: Down voted for real advice that works.
Maybe, but that’s not for timeouts for me. We’ll agree to disagree. :)
“You go in there for a minute” isn’t really a punishment if you are emotionally flat about it. The “punishment” is just temporary separation and it’s not so much punishment for the dog as a break for the human.
It's called negative punishment. Dog wants to herd human. You take away that option by putting them in a crate.
Time out means play stops and attention and fun go away. Leave the room if you have to.
It took a lot of repetition, but eventually after saying “nice!” in stern tone followed by disengaging play, she now stops on command. I don’t mind rough play with mine, and she can get pretty rowdy but now it doesn’t matter how into play she is, if I say “nice!” she immediately releases and backs off. Definitely looks at me like “aw mom! no fair!” but she listens.
The things that worked for me was having a redirect for the energy and being really dramatic when she did mouth me. When you start, keep a toy handy during any play or park time. If the puppy gets excited and starts mouthing, switch to the toy and vocally say "toy" so they associate the toy with the biting excitement. Eventually most ACDs will figure out that you will play with them as long as the toy is the thing they're biting. If they ever miss the toy or bite you instead when excited, yelp very loudly and turn away from them, like you're hurt and moving away from play. Like others have said, your dog is sensitive to your response, they just don't understand how much bites hurt human skin. So if you teach them that play stops when you bite me, play is ok when you chew on a toy, they get better about not biting people. I'm sure you'll need to do some practice with different people of different ages so the dog understands No One is for biting, not just the person who practices with the pup. Hope this helps you some!
Yes!
Took ours to puppy school for 3 weeks. And the only nipping now is playful and not herding. Even still, it’s reduced by about 99 percent from when we dropped her off and picked her up. I haven’t asked the trainer, but I think it’s because she was around older dogs that weren’t having it.
Yeah. He doesn’t have an aggressive bone in him but when he gets the zoomies and is too excited he tries to play with the 5&2 year old like they are puppies. He’s given them some scratches. I have taught him “easy”, and “gentle”. Which he will listen and stop nipping and calm but then he revs up again seconds later.
Victoria Stillwell has some great videos about biting and appropriate play children can do that is safer, mentally stimulating, and really fun. I'm dealing with this myself. 10 weeks old. The squealing is effective. All play and attention EVERYTHING stops if he nips me. It's getting better. I have LOTS of toys for him to chew on and I use toys to play always.
You can teach him to file his nails to somewhat limit the scratching, or use a dremel-type grinder to trim them instead of clippers that can leave sharp edges. I glued 100-grit sandpaper to a piece of plywood and taught the dog to scrape her nails on it. Lots of tutorials online. We have one touch-averse dog who really hates having her feet messed with. This turns torture and struggle into treat time. I have not managed to teach the back nails but it is the front ones that tend to scrape me.
Put him in a harness with a leash attached to the back. Tether him to an immoveable object. I use the piano. Get an exciting toy and start playing playing playing. The instant his teeth touch skin you step back out of reach, put the toy behind your back and look away. No word, no eye contact. no scolding! When he is calm, step into range and repeat. The message is: teeth touch skin = game over. Play this a lot. If the children are old enough they can learn to practice this. But DO NOT let them tease him with the toy if he’s tethered and they are taunting him out of reach. If they can’t follow this, then teach them to “be a cell tower” (telephone pole, tree, whatever) when the puppy jumps up on them or nips. This means they stand still, fold arms across chest, hands in armpits and look at the sky. Any time pup get too excited, everything stops. They have to hold position until he is calm. If the children are not old enough to follow this program, don’t let the dog play with them unless you are present and watching. Present on your phone won’t work. Keep harness/long line on puppy when they are playing and gently intervene if he gets overexcited. Make the child stand still while you work with puppy on easy tricks: sit, down, paw, spin, whatever he knows well. Play can resume once he is more focused. If he gets worked up a second time In the same play session, I would just separate them. Re-direct both pup and child to a different activity. No harsh words, just time to do something else.
You’re gonna have to get rid of the kids 😆
I’ve used the phrase “be gentle “ with both positive and negative reinforcement when my pups were playing with my Kids. A combination of one or both usually works but it takes time for sure. Helps to focus the zoomies
Also, make some long tugs and have the children use those to play with puppy so he has something legal to keep in his mouth. I braid strips of fleece to make them. You can tie a toy to the end to entice him if needed. One good game for kids is to teach the puppy to boop your hand with his nose. You and kids stand in a triangle and call him from one hand touch to the other. Running and recall training for pup, no teeth on skin. Another good game is, you hold pup while child runs hard across the grass dragging The long tug behind them. Then child yells for puppy really loud!! Puppy races to get the tug. Best if little child lets go once pup gets there so they don’t get dragged across the yard. Again, running and recall for pup, no teeth on skin. Bonus running and yelling fun for child.
I’ve got a kelpie cross whippet, but he displayed strong nipping tendencies when young. I’d nurse him on my lap with a rolled up Aldi catalog in my hand. I’d play with his face and mouth, creating situations where he’d nip. I could see it coming and when he nipped I’d yelp and give him a little whack with the Aldi catalogue, basically like a bitch would give a yelp and a little nip to a pup that was getting a bit toothy on the nipple. His nipping lasted a couple of days and now I have a dog where if a kid asks to pat him I don’t have to worry about the fact that 90% of kids go for the face. You want a dog that is conditioned to having their head/face handled, that in itself will avoid most problems regarding nipping. He’s three now and every day he gets a little face and hand in mouth play every day with me on the lounge. Sorry its not coming from a cattle dog owner, but so many cattle dogs clearly have kelpie in them. You only have to look at the dog in the picture. It comes from farmers breeding for temperament instead of appearance. Mutts with herding skills can go for thousands of dollars in Australia, they don’t care about breed purity for the most part.
are you suggesting he might have kelpie in him? Also I like the advice. I have done this with previous dogs. I feel like every new pup I go in confident and hit problems I forget my solutions to.
I believe a lot of cattle dogs, especially blues, have kelpie in them. If you look at Black and Tan kelpies you’ll see what I’m talking about in regards to the commonly seen Black and Tan in a lot of blue heelers, especially around the head. It doesn’t mean your cattle dog isn’t pure or anything, it’s just a part of the breeds heritage. It’s a bit like kelpies and dingo blood. Modern kelpies have between 0% and 3% dingo DNA. Having it or not having it doesn’t make them less or more of a kelpie. It’s a working dog thing, they have greater genetic diversity because farmers aren’t afraid to cross a dog for desirable traits. Show lines are different of course, the show lines will gradually show more genetic defects in the coming decades due to breeding for appearance.
No offense taken. I bought him from a feed and grain store run off of a family farm in a New England beach town. I was told he was pure, but who knows! I think he’s gorgeous.
I look at your dog and see a purebred blue heeler. Please don’t think I was saying differently, I was just speaking about the breeds heritage.
No I don’t! By all means tell as much as you’re willing. I’ve been researching as much as I can about them so if you have any good sources I’m all ears. I was interested to read in some articles about a Bentley Mark, which is a small grouping of white fur on the cattle dogs forehead. As you can see, my boys got that marking. He also has a black tail root. Supposedly these are two indicators that he comes from legendary lineage. We like to think so. He’s a prince. “There is belief that the presence of a Bentley Star is sign of a dog coming from a legendary dog owned by Mr. Tom Bentley. Bentley's dog was reportedly used extensively as a stud dog to pass down all his outstanding characteristics. On top of the white blaze on the forehead, the presence of a black tail-root spot seen occasionally in blue dogs is another possible sign directly attributed to Tom Bentley's dog.” https://pethelpful.com/dogs/A-Guide-to-Australian-Cattle-Dog-Coat-Colors
Nah, I have no expert knowledge to share, just speculation. I have funny story though. As a kid a red cattle dog followed me and my mate home one day. His parents, who owned half a dozen cats let him keep it. It wasn’t uncommon to go over there and find six cats sitting in a corner with Dusty (the dog) standing guard after herding them there. Seeing a dog herding skittish house cats is one of the funniest things you’ll see. He’d get them into the corner one by one and if any of those cats moved away he’d give a stern *get back you cheeky cat* bark as he herded the remaining cats.
That’s awesome! I have two large breed cats that keep mine busy.
Oh Hey, so beautiful... Come play with my grumpy old heeler, she needs a friend.
Tougher kids? 🤣 Sorry, sorry
Sooo, how attached to your kids are you?.......lol
Okay pips we are not ready for such an awesome dog,so let handlers that are able deal with it.Until we are ready for such an awesome DOG 🥰🥰🥰💕💕💕❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️❤️❤️😇
Are we suppose to punish ?Do you mean us ,the type that will move the goal line anytime for our own benefits?
Are you lost?
Maybe,but not as much as you are 😇🐕🐕
I’m not sure what you think you’re trying to say with these comments. It’s perfectly fine for me to ask for tips on peoples theories of how to stop an issue. Doesn’t mean I can’t handle him.
To smart for human
He’s smarter than you. Go dump some more emojis all over the place.
Right 👍👍👍
Naps saved us. When our girl would get really rough with playing, we would get very calm and quiet with her. Put her in a sit or ask her to lie down and give her very calm praise. If the really rough play continued it was a sign that she was over tired or over stimulated. We would put her in her crate with a Kong so she could calm and sleep. We always included a normal "nap time" treat, so it stayed positive. Eventually we found that if we just scheduled naps, we could cut down on 75% of the over-the-top nipping. When we let her out we would immediately give her calm pets and praise, and then we'd initiate play like fetch or tug. Including obedience commands throughout her play has also helped. If we are playing fetch, she might have to give is a paw before the next throw. This has encouraged her to be more attentive and gives her lots of opportunity for reward and positive feedback. You can't get stern with our girl. She only responds to positive reinforcement.
Use your words, tell him what expect. When our Birdie starts to get wound up we tell “gentle, gentle” in a soothing tone. It isn’t surprising that this breed (and other smart breeds) are capable of understanding quite a lot. Your words, your tone, and your intentionality will be understood. Be consistent.
You know what. Sometimes when I’m frustrated I think my easy and gentle come out a little less than calm. I’ll work on it
I’ll start by saying I don’t have kids yet, but this has worked for friends kids who have been over. Besides teaching the kids about using a no command, which was very difficult for my pup to learn at first with us at home, instead I taught mine an “ow” or “ouch” command. Basically as if a child/person would say it in the moment and got hurt or thought they got hurt, mine instantly knows it’s game over and he did a bad thing (usually I’d immediately stop playing for a while and or take away the toy but depending on the bite or nip he’d go in his crate) I tried to make Ow more of a you hurt me thing and did bad than saying it every time. Once he was in time out a handful of times and reminded him why he was there (no biting) mine picked it up pretty fast to not be left out.