Jumping and biting on walks

[Amylja]

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Hi everyone,

We have an American Bulldog X Staffy who is just a few days away from turning 1.

She has turned into a little brat and I need some advice!

She's started to jump up and bite while out on walks on the longline. We can be walking along nicely and then all of a sudden she'll turn into a little devil and jump and bite. We've tried standing still but she is persistent, we've tried walking on in the hope that she'll get distracted, we've tried using treats to make her sit, restraining her escalates the situation - nothing works.

We want to be able to continue her recall training and for her to have the freedom of the longline but it's got the point where we are so embarrassed and concerned that people will think she's dangerous that we are considering scrapping the longline all together.

Does anyone have any advice here?

 

[JudyN]

Been there, got the t shirt, got holes in the t shirt... My arms were black and blue with bruises for a long time, and it made me dread walks. I feel your pain. I'm cutting and pasting here from something I posted previously....

Jasper would mostly do it in open areas, so we avoided them - we'd walk up narrow paths, or through woods, or round the edges of fields. When he kicked off, I would turn towards a tree or fence and stand up close to it, with my arms tucked in front of me, and ignore him as he leapt at me. Then the moment he stopped and got all 4 paws on the ground, I would turn back to him, praise and reward him, and carry on. Often he would immediately start up again, so I'd repeat... and repeat... and repeat. Occasionally I would stand on his lead to stop him. Any form of 'telling off' was ineffective.

I wore a denim jacket throughout that summer, both to protect my arms and hide the bruises.

If you can teach a really solid sit/down, that can help a lot, though J was too worked up to pay any attention when I tried it.

Shorter walks (maybe with an extra walk to compensate) can help, as all the excitement of a walk, and maybe a bit of tiredness, can gradually build up, like a toddler at the end of an exciting day out. It also increases the chances of a 'successful' walk with no jumping up.

Sometimes when he was off lead he'd come belting towards me with 'that' look in his eye, but he'd change his mind if I raised my finger and give a firm glare (it took a while for us to get to that point, though). He'd then get praise and treat, and quite often then would run up to me, change his mind at the last moment, and then ask if he got a treat - which I was quite happy to give him!

It's important to remember that when they're teenogres they can't help themselves overreacting at times - they haven't learnt enough self-control - or if they learnt it as pups, they regress when adolescence kicks in. For that reason, impulse training can help - have a look for the 'It's Yer Choice' video on YouTube.

It was quite a long time before J was reliable, and for most of his life he could still have a mad jumpy moment when we went to the beach - it was just too exciting. Then OH and I would face each other, very close, arms tucked in, and waited for J to calm down again. You can't blame him for being excited by all that sand and sea air!

The more calm and zen you can be, the better - as you've probably found, saying 'NO!!' doesn't help. The more boring you can be the better. Try not to worry about what other people think - it quite amused me to calmly say hello to people as they walked past, shocked to see me calmly holding on to a fence to brace myself while Jasper blew himself out....

 

[Jan Woodhall]

Been there, got the t shirt, got holes in the t shirt... My arms were black and blue with bruises for a long time, and it made me dread walks. I feel your pain. I'm cutting and pasting here from something I posted previously....

Jasper would mostly do it in open areas, so we avoided them - we'd walk up narrow paths, or through woods, or round the edges of fields. When he kicked off, I would turn towards a tree or fence and stand up close to it, with my arms tucked in front of me, and ignore him as he leapt at me. Then the moment he stopped and got all 4 paws on the ground, I would turn back to him, praise and reward him, and carry on. Often he would immediately start up again, so I'd repeat... and repeat... and repeat. Occasionally I would stand on his lead to stop him. Any form of 'telling off' was ineffective.

I wore a denim jacket throughout that summer, both to protect my arms and hide the bruises.

If you can teach a really solid sit/down, that can help a lot, though J was too worked up to pay any attention when I tried it.

Shorter walks (maybe with an extra walk to compensate) can help, as all the excitement of a walk, and maybe a bit of tiredness, can gradually build up, like a toddler at the end of an exciting day out. It also increases the chances of a 'successful' walk with no jumping up.

Sometimes when he was off lead he'd come belting towards me with 'that' look in his eye, but he'd change his mind if I raised my finger and give a firm glare (it took a while for us to get to that point, though). He'd then get praise and treat, and quite often then would run up to me, change his mind at the last moment, and then ask if he got a treat - which I was quite happy to give him!

It's important to remember that when they're teenogres they can't help themselves overreacting at times - they haven't learnt enough self-control - or if they learnt it as pups, they regress when adolescence kicks in. For that reason, impulse training can help - have a look for the 'It's Yer Choice' video on YouTube.

It was quite a long time before J was reliable, and for most of his life he could still have a mad jumpy moment when we went to the beach - it was just too exciting. Then OH and I would face each other, very close, arms tucked in, and waited for J to calm down again. You can't blame him for being excited by all that sand and sea air!

The more calm and zen you can be, the better - as you've probably found, saying 'NO!!' doesn't help. The more boring you can be the better. Try not to worry about what other people think - it quite amused me to calmly say hello to people as they walked past, shocked to see me calmly holding on to a fence to brace myself while Jasper blew himself out....

 

[Amylja]

Been there, got the t shirt, got holes in the t shirt... My arms were black and blue with bruises for a long time, and it made me dread walks. I feel your pain. I'm cutting and pasting here from something I posted previously....

Jasper would mostly do it in open areas, so we avoided them - we'd walk up narrow paths, or through woods, or round the edges of fields. When he kicked off, I would turn towards a tree or fence and stand up close to it, with my arms tucked in front of me, and ignore him as he leapt at me. Then the moment he stopped and got all 4 paws on the ground, I would turn back to him, praise and reward him, and carry on. Often he would immediately start up again, so I'd repeat... and repeat... and repeat. Occasionally I would stand on his lead to stop him. Any form of 'telling off' was ineffective.

I wore a denim jacket throughout that summer, both to protect my arms and hide the bruises.

If you can teach a really solid sit/down, that can help a lot, though J was too worked up to pay any attention when I tried it.

Shorter walks (maybe with an extra walk to compensate) can help, as all the excitement of a walk, and maybe a bit of tiredness, can gradually build up, like a toddler at the end of an exciting day out. It also increases the chances of a 'successful' walk with no jumping up.

Sometimes when he was off lead he'd come belting towards me with 'that' look in his eye, but he'd change his mind if I raised my finger and give a firm glare (it took a while for us to get to that point, though). He'd then get praise and treat, and quite often then would run up to me, change his mind at the last moment, and then ask if he got a treat - which I was quite happy to give him!

It's important to remember that when they're teenogres they can't help themselves overreacting at times - they haven't learnt enough self-control - or if they learnt it as pups, they regress when adolescence kicks in. For that reason, impulse training can help - have a look for the 'It's Yer Choice' video on YouTube.

It was quite a long time before J was reliable, and for most of his life he could still have a mad jumpy moment when we went to the beach - it was just too exciting. Then OH and I would face each other, very close, arms tucked in, and waited for J to calm down again. You can't blame him for being excited by all that sand and sea air!

The more calm and zen you can be, the better - as you've probably found, saying 'NO!!' doesn't help. The more boring you can be the better. Try not to worry about what other people think - it quite amused me to calmly say hello to people as they walked past, shocked to see me calmly holding on to a fence to brace myself while Jasper blew himself out....

Thanks for you're reply JudyN, you've made me feel a bit better about the situation.

We will try your advice. I have to admit that on some occasions I have not stayed calm and it has made the situation worse so from now on I will become as boring as possible when she's doing this