Make it stop!
 re-home her! |
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| Crate her when you are not home or can't give her your immediate attention for corrections if needed. Dogs generally do this stuff when they are bored. Enroll her in some kind of stuctured classes like for obedience training. Sounds to me like she is a dog that wants to have a job & can't figure out what is acceptable. So you will have to channel her talents. Call your breeder & ask them for some suggestions too. They may have more insight into the issue since she is from their lines. |
| Sounds like time for an obedience class to me. This breed generally has a high level of energy. If you channel it to an acceptable "job" rather than letting the dog try to find its own outlet, I predict you'll have success. While long hikes may (or may not) tire the dog physically, your dog might also benefit from more mental stimulation. I would be working on training something new every week to stimulate this dogs brain. Sit, stay, recall, shake hands, whatever. And I hope you keep trying to find a solution. Keep us posted. Linda Z |
Thank you both for the tips. Unfortunately, in our tiny town, we don't have any type of obedience classes, but we did read into mental stimulation for dogs... And OMG, it makes so much sense!  By doing these huge hikes and not helping stimulate her mind we're creating an animal that can do neurotic things longer, faster and better because of her stamina. I read that constantly learning new tricks can help and she is SO eager to please and so smart that I think that would help her. Know of any other mental stimulation excises that we could do?  |
snodani wrote: Thank you both for the tips. Unfortunately, in our tiny town, we don't have any type of obedience classes, but we did read into mental stimulation for dogs... And OMG, it makes so much sense! By doing these huge hikes and not helping stimulate her mind we're creating an animal that can do neurotic things longer, faster and better because of her stamina. Sorry, that did make me laugh.  I did that once, when I was a teen. We grew up with Brittanys. Showed, obedience, hunting and field trialing. I had this young female I was training. I took to running her with my horse on our land before training....  and my dad said the same thing...I had one super conditioned, and impossible to wear out dog!  There are tons of trick books and activity websites - I would read and surf and try some things that catch your interest. Have her earn her food, her walks, etc by doing tasks before them. Good luck  |
| Where do you live? I'm sure there is an abedience class somewhere close by. Adult Education classes sometimes offer them...or google it and see who is in your area... Mental stimulation? Try some sits, downs, stays...maybefuns tuff like throwing a ball, tell her to take it, let her bring it back and sit before you thrtow it again....You didn't say how old she is, but pups will be pups for a while so maybe crate her when you're not home...But not for too long or she will go crazy when you let her out! |
| You can also do things like put food kibble in a Kong or even in a water bottle and let her kick it around for awhile and as a kibble piece falls out, she can eat it. We do this a lot with Dahlia to keep her busy. We use different size water bottles (Poland spring or whatever) and she just kicks it around to get the little chunks of food out. We also use Kongs and stuff them with layers of food, peanut butter, treats etc and then freeze them. This can keep her busy for awhile. They need just as much mental stimulation as physical or they will find their own way to get into trouble and keep busy. If you don't have any classes nearby, I would suggest renting some dog training videos to give you ideas on what you can do. You can also ask your vet if they know of any classes or my vet even has videos that you can borrow for training and other behavioral things.... |
| Please give us an idea where you live. Maybe there is one of us close enough to help out. I know I'd be willing if the logistics were good. Vance |
| I live in Mount Shasta, CA (faaaaarrrr Northern California). I bought a Kong today and will try it out. I think she will really like it. My little fluff ball is 9 months old and we tried to start out crate training her at 11 weeks when we got her, but she would completely freak out! I've crate trained all 5 dogs that I've had past and present (Akitas, English Mastiffs and St. Bernard/Mix) and none have been as loco as she gets in that thing. We even got to the point where we could get her to go in on command and hang out with the door closed for up to 20 minutes, but then she would wig-out. Unfortunately she has never been into fetching anything. She MAY run after whatever you throw, but usually won't pick it up. We have also read about "No Free Lunch" and making her do "tricks" before get fed, pet, etc. She is SO reward-driven and just wants praise and love and I think teaching her new tricks and rewarding her will work wonders. Just today we can make her lie down and stay upstairs while we walk downstairs and, wait a minute and call her down. Our St. Bernard mix would NEVER do that! |
| Sounds like you're on the right track! As for fetching - yeah, sheepies are not known for it. My last sheepie would run after whatever you threw but would never give it back. It became a game of "chase me." My current sheepie just looks at what you throw, then looks back at you as if to say, "You want ME to go get that??" Gotta love 'em! |
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