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What Is This Behavior and How Do I Fix It?

by D

I have a 4-month-old female blue merle Australian Shepherd. Every morning for the last 2 weeks my sweet pup turns into a menace. She is yanking and tugging on my pants, biting my arms so bad she breaks skin and it bleeds.

She won't stop when I tell her "no" and she just keeps coming back to bite me constantly. She'll run around the house and go crazy when I tell her "no". All while doing this, she's wagging her tail.

Does she think it's a game? I have tried redirecting her attention off of me onto a treat and when she's calm I will give it to her—hasn't helped at all. I am at a loss on what to do.

I don't know what this behavior is or how to stop it. I am desperate and so are my chewed up arms.

Please help me out.

Comments for What Is This Behavior and How Do I Fix It?

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Patience
by: Richard

This is called the zoomie's and each aussie is different. Our first, Jackson, he tore up my wife and some of me exactly how you explained. Lot's of attention, walking, find a toy to focus on. With Jack, he was all about the ball and frisbee. Try both of those. Our other three aussies were different in one way or another.
I'm willing to bet you have a ball frisbee dog in the making, but be careful; bones and muscles are not fully developed until age two.
Start with rolling small ball around and see what happen. Out latest, Cooper, I bought one of those big push balls. it was so funny he was so scared of it for about six months and now he goes out back and pushes and tosses ball around the yard having a ball, (no pun intended). He wears himself out with it with no real interaction from us...he checks to see if someone is watching and if so continues around the yard.

Show time
by: jcrply

Here's something else you could try:
How good an actor are you? When she bites you, let her know how terribly it hurts. Yelp and cry out and hold your arm and put on a good show of being injured. It worked with my dog when she was a pup and occasionally got too rowdy, and even today as an adult dog if her teeth accidentally just barely touch my skin while we're playing tug she immediately stops and acts like she has committed a grievous sin. :)
They learn from their littermates how to monitor and control the roughness of their play. That's one reason pups should never be taken from their litter until they are at least 8 weeks old.

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