I have a friend who has a 10 month-old German Shepherd who likes to nip at his feet. He is taking an obedience class and has made lots of progress in teaching the dog good behavior but can’t seem to get past this one behavior.
He uses a pinch collar and when the dog nips at his ankles, he gives the dog a correction and tries to either redirect him to something he can chew on or put him in a “time out,” but he says this hasn’t made any difference.
Someone suggested that he yell loudly and ignore the dog for a couple of minutes so he was going to try that but I thought I would email you to see if you have any thoughts on how he can handle this issue? Thank you in advance, Abigail Dear Abigail: This is a simple one: If the dog continues to do this behavior, then the handler is not correcting the dog firmly enough.
Ignoring the behavior is akin to ignoring bank robbers, in the hope that they will stop robbing banks. Here’s the key to fixing this type of behavior: Your friend will need to thoroughly understand three concepts: -Timing -Consistency -Motivation