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He nipped the trainer!!!


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Last night was our second class at Petsmart and Poke found everyone a lot less threatning... except the trainer. She has a squirt bottle so he doesn't trust her. :rolleyes: He was doing so well- and she told me she wants to jump around near him to try and desensitize him to movement (he will no longer nip us- I put the kabosh on that the first two weeks). Mid class she started stomping her feet and making noise right next to him and he reached over and nipped her in the back of the knee!!! :D I feel so bad! I know this is not agression- it is controlling- but the rest of the people in class didn't understand that. She explained to them what happened and why and that it was not "biting," but if you could see the horror on their faces when it happend!

 

She said not to worry and that it was her fault for getting too close- but I am still embaressed. Her class and her methods are doing really well. Mr. Poke and I walked home 1.5 miles last night without a gentle leader. (Purely miraculous!!!) He did not lunge at one car or kitty. Do you think this will work... or is he just bound to nip?

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Oh, don't feel too bad. Violet nipped Jack Knox at the clinic in January. :D Dog, what dog? Oh - that black and white one who walked in the round pen with me just now? No, never saw her before in my life, why? :rolleyes:

 

It was the same kind of situation as yours sounds like. Violet was in her own little world, staring at sheep and blowing off Jack, so he walked up behind her and gave her a sharp nudge in the butt with the toe of his boot. So she promptly whirled round and nipped his toe! :D

 

Jack's a good sport, though, and wasn't in the least upset. He hardly slowed down - just responded to the horrified gasps from ringside with "oh, that's nothing, just a little bit of fear there," and sent Vi after her sheep. :D

 

Sounds like your trainer took it in stride as well. :D I'm glad Poke's making progress.

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Oh, don't feel too bad. Violet nipped Jack Knox at the clinic in January. :rolleyes:

:D Having been at a Jack Knox clinic in December, I can just imagine!

 

Sounds like Poke is making progress, so don't bother feeling humiliated. There is always someone with an even worse story!

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Like Sophie, for example. Sophie once was lying under the outdoor table at a microbrew pub (if you're reading this, Clara, it was at Steelhead) right after a frustrating (for her) herding lesson, while she was still quite keyed up, and she nipped a kid riding by on a skateboard. Not super cool, at all. Believe me, if you think it's bad for your dog to nip a trainer, imagine if he or she was nipping random passers by. It's awesome.

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My sheltie nipped the vet tech last week, he was in for his regular check up/vax and she was cutting his nails...she quicked him and he bit her. Frosty has also nipped me while I was sweeping...he has a thing about the broom, and he was running around me barking and went in and nipped my calf. I should have had him crated though. I'm not one to excuse a bite, but sometimes a bite like that just doesn't count....

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Round here the other day I threatend Sam with I was going to remove all his teeth and he would have to gum. He doesn't attempt to nip me. He only attempts occassionally the kids ( read when loud and fast moving usually when they run up the stairs). However, Sam has some issue with my husband. Dh has been nipped on the tush while kissing me ( no loud noise or running ). He follows my dh like he is just waiting for him to do something. I have to call him and down him. If dh spots him, he tells him off. So far the boy still looks at my dh as if he mite be a sheep. I know the man is white and that really short thinning hair is turning gray/white but he hasn't done any baa baa -ing really he hasn't. We will just keep working on it. One day when I least expect it, Sam will get it in his head dh is not a herding object.

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Round here the other day I threatend Sam with I was going to remove all his teeth and he would have to gum. He doesn't attempt to nip me. He only attempts occassionally the kids ( read when loud and fast moving usually when they run up the stairs). However, Sam has some issue with my husband. Dh has been nipped on the tush while kissing me ( no loud noise or running ). He follows my dh like he is just waiting for him to do something. I have to call him and down him. If dh spots him, he tells him off. So far the boy still looks at my dh as if he mite be a sheep. I know the man is white and that really short thinning hair is turning gray/white but he hasn't done any baa baa -ing really he hasn't. We will just keep working on it. One day when I least expect it, Sam will get it in his head dh is not a herding object.

 

It sounds like your dog might actually be afraid of your husband.

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It may be that this is the only class you have the opportunity to participate in. But if a trainer did that to my dog, known to have some issues, I'd be quickly finding another trainer. "her class and her methods are doing well" - EXCEPT for this instance? Sorry, she should have started this "distraction" at a much greater distance and/or with less noise.

Just my opinion....

diane

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I am glad that the trainer acknowledged that it was a stupid thing for her to do. Definitely not the way that you desensitise a dog, more likely to make him worse and increase his distrust. I am not sure why she is carrying a squirt bottle around with her either. I agree with Diane on this one.

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This isn't the first time she has done the noises and the stomping... this is just the first time she was in reach. He had been so good at class last night that I think she thought he might be progressing fast enough to get that close. Everyone commented that he seemed like a different dog he was being so well behaved. (LOL shows why we are in the class in the first place)

 

We talked about what happened after class and she is going to take that aspect a lot slower. He is responding well to everything else in class and is even learning to make friends and ignore the other dogs. (the main reason we are there) If this is still a problem next week, I will talk to her about letting me continue to work on desensitizing him myself. (we have made amazing progress- he will turn his head to anything if I say leave it on leash) If she is not willing to try things differently then we will leave, but I do not think it will be a problem. The experience wasn't as detremental to Poke's progress as it was to my ego.

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It sounds like your dog might actually be afraid of your husband.

 

 

Humm. Now that would be something I could work on. Dh has never done anything to him. But large male who gets loud and runs with or like the kids could be scary to a 40ish lb dog. Thanks.

 

Sorry, for the slight highjack.

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I'm thankful that Black Jack has never bitten anyone, yet. But with so many stupid people out there I'm kind of surprised. Since he's so touchy and quiet, when other people stop by to say hi he'll just come to the door then go off and lie down. But someone always has to call him over and start grabbing his ears and rubbing his neck. All the while I'm praying that he doesn't bite them. I have become very blunt about telling people not to pet him like that, but you know people. "oh it's ok, dogs love me" Then a quick hand in front of them and a "no, not him" will stop them. I must say I don't have to many people stop by anymore :rolleyes:

 

 

ETA: He did almost bite Jack also :D I think it's because he likes to come up behind them and touch them on their butt. Some dogs really freak out when he does it.

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I always have an eye on my dog when we're out in public, and always warn people to move really slowly if they want to meet him. (Actually, he tends to dart away if they move fast, so I'm not so worried about biting as I am about scaring him.)

 

But... One day at the flea market we were standing at a booth, and a big guy came up behind Buddy, who didn't know he was there, and gave him a hard pat on the butt. Buddy swung around really quickly, in full anticipation of taking on something. If I hadn't been quick, he may have bitten. Stupid guy.

 

Again -in some situations, I don't think you can consider it a real bite.

 

Grr.

 

Mary

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Lili is a slightly fear-aggressive BC that I rescued last november. Since I live in the country, my two BCs don’t get to socialize all that much. Hence... Lili is wary of strangers and will snap at them. All hell used to break out (used to – now things are going well) when someone would ring the doorbell and since that does not happen that often, things were not getting any better. I got our trainer to come over (an hour’s drive for him) and help us out. Knowing that Lili loves our trainer and would probably not bark nor snap at him, I got a neighbor to come over to ring the doorbell. Well, the neighbor rang, the dog went apeshit, the neighbor was wary as to coming in or not, and we collectively let out a huge sigh of relief when the trainer finally got Lili to quiet down. We then meditated on what went wrong and had a quiet chat (along with our neighbor and Lili) on how to behave in such circumstances. After some twenty very calm and ordered minutes of serious talk, my neighbor abruptly gets up, says he has to leave, turns his back on Lili and - quick as the wind! - Lili is at his ankles, grabs a bite of jeans... and I didn’t get to see my neighbor for a few days! 100$ worth of jeans! and let us not forget the trainer’s fee! (OK, my neighbor and I now get a good laugh when talking about it.) So, talk about being embarrassed!

 

John

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Lili is a slightly fear-aggressive BC that I rescued last november. After some twenty very calm and ordered minutes of serious talk, my neighbor abruptly gets up, says he has to leave, turns his back on Lili and - quick as the wind! - Lili is at his ankles, grabs a bite of jeans...

John

 

Classic behaviour from a fear aggressive dog. I had a similar dog that nipped the bottom of a jogger I had been talking to on the beach as soon as he turned away. First and last time she did this. I engaged the services of a trainer specialising in this problem and after a lot of hard work and slow desensitisation over an extended period of time my dog improved a great deal although I always had her under control when strange people turn to leave. She became much more relaxed in these situations and would sit nicely by my side instead of lunging after the retreating ankle or bottom.

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I think I would feel LESS embarrassed over something like that BECAUSE it was the trainer. If it were just your normal everyday person, then I would be reallllllly embarrassed, but I would suspect (and this is just an assumption on my part) that dog trainers deal w/ quite a few nips over their career. And who knows, (not that dogs biting are a good thing) but it presented an opportunity for the trainer to educate the other owners about approaching strange dogs and how to deal w/ something like that.

 

P.S. I hope all this makes some sort of sense because I'm so tired right now I can't even think straight....so I hope you get my point. :rolleyes::D:D

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