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Old August 19th, 2004, 03:08 PM
Lady_Eleven Lady_Eleven is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: GTA, ON
Posts: 37
problem behavior in 9 month old puppy

After wadering around the forums here and answering a few questions, I figure I might as well get to it and ask mine - in hopes that someone can give me some suggestions.

Maggie, my (almost) 9 month old puppy has behaviors that, well, are a little out of control. She's a Lab/ Border Collie x Australian Shepherd. Knowing what exactly she is is a little helpful to me, as I know that some things are to expect with the breed. That in mind I give her lots of exercise and play time, and can expect high intellegence, but also a bit of goofiness lol.

Depsite doing the puppy training and constant (but not over-doing) attempts at training, she just doesn't seem to listen very well. She knows the commands, I know that (and will do almost anything for a treat lol), but otherwise ignores me. She still nips and chews on my hands and feet (only mine), pulls on a leash, and so far into walks she starts to jump at me and tries to start aggresive games of tug of war with her leash. If it's not with the leash, it with my pant leg, or t-shirt, or sometimes she grabs directly for my arm. She still chews on things she shouldn't chew on (even after offering her something else to chew on), scrounges around the house to eat anything from dust bunnies to the stray rabbit poop the bunny cages, and who knows what else (and she'll even do this after being well fed, so it's not a hunger thing). She barks like a maniac when greeting other people; despite this it's not an aggression thing but rather her trying to get constant attention from them (she hates being left out at all), mind you she gets alot of attention from me so it's not like she never gets any. She really is a great dog, really friendly, especially once you pet her (lol), I think she's just a little confused.

In terms of the exercise, she gets atleast 2 walks a day, between 1 - 2 hours long (most times she starts getting the issue with leash grabbing after an hour so I assume she's gotten bored), and I give her a seperate run time in the park across the street on her 30 ft retractable leash to play ball or frisbee. But despite that I'm not sure she runs off all her energy; and while I'm willing to stay out longer for her to run and play, she gets bored and plops down on the ground (we do switch toys). I'm thinking she would benefit from playing with a well behaved older dog in a fenced in area (I can't let her off leash without it being a contained area or she will run away and not come back; she once got off her leash and I had to trick her into herding me home by running away from her, only to once near home I quickly turned and grabbed onto her to bring her inside safe and sound), but the problem is that I can't find someone with a well behaved dog, or one thats willing to play with all 50 lbs of her, one who's taken care of with all it's shots and so on (I don't want my Maggie sick!) or somewhere where they can play safely. That or a person who has the time for a playtime like that; most people have backyards so they don't do that kind of thing... I don't have a backyard. And if you're thinking "well get another dog", no can do - I can't afford or have space for two, and really I'd rather be able to take great care of this one instead of having to split for dog care funds between two.

Any thoughts on what to do about some or all of these behaviours would be greatly appreciated, that or to share your experiences like this with your dog and what helped you would be great.

Thanks for reading! I love my dog and want to try to have the best possible life we can have together.
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