Playful nipping !!!

Hi all . Well George is doing really well settling in. Such a lovely 2 year old rescue dog. All things going well except for a stupid, silly issue ! He nips either peoples hands or legs when being made a fuss of and with excitement ! It is an issue I am very keen to address as soon as possible as its annoying and would like advice on which way to deal with this please. Thanks Jon

Staffies can be quite mouthy, so don't worry that this is a George thing or in any way nasty. They do usually respond well to training. When he nips, stop playing/cuddling immediately and turn away. Relax, breath out and count to 3, then interact with him again. That's your way of saying that nipping gets him the opposite of what he wants but being relaxed and quite gets him nice things.

If you find that he does it when he reaches a certain point of excitement when playing, I'd suggest for the time being you stop play before you hit that point. As he settles and as he learns that he can play without nipping, you should find that he can cope with excitement better. If you do get to the nip point though, immediately stop and turn away.

The keys are consistency - that you do this each and every time - and timing. The closer you can get your reaction to his action, the easier it will be for him to understand that it's what he did that caused you to stop playing. That way, he can understand what bit of his behaviour he needs to change to avoid that unwanted consequence.

Random observation - we've got a staffie x collie girl in at the moment who looks so like George!

http://www.rspcaessex.org.uk/marmalade13824.html

Thanks Liz.

All in all the same sort of sound advice I had from the rescue lady Ruth Owen . She is a dog behaviourist also , so said a similar thing but just wanted to touch base here and see what other options there are , he is getting better already . On another note . I cannot move for him, very clingy , like my shadow which is great and what I wanted after losing my boy Conan nearly two months ago. George is getting some serious TLC right now and loving every minute of it lol. I've had staffies for years so know the drill and looking forward to many years with my new best mate. Yes that Staff X Collies has similar markings for sure !

Regards Jon

It's really early days if I remember rightly, isn't it? In which case I wouldn't worry too much about the clingyness. It can take some dogs a while to be sure they're safe and won't be abandoned again.

I've just checked out Ruth's websites, she looks lovely and very good! It's fantastic to find a real pro-bull breed trainer, that's quite a family she's got!

Is that where you got George from?

Yes she is a great trainer and rehab and rehoming centre. Lovely lady and knows her stuff. She asked allsorts of questions before deciding that George would be ideally suited to home here with us . and she was spot on.

They're lucky dogs who find her, I wish all rehoming centres were like that. It's the direction we're moving in at Danaher, very exciting!

She is a passionate lady about her dogs. When George was in my van and she saw how happy he was she turned and walked indoors and shut her front door and was visibly upset to see him happy and on a new path to a better future. I was more than happy to pay the release fee to help her fund her passion.