NI's and Fighting. Behaviour

Thing is playing is not a bad thing! NI are huge clowns and I wouldn't like to see them always banned from having a good free for all because if they get to have a good play they are very good dogs - without it they start to wind up and get frustrated in my opinion. They must get alot of fun and they will be happy.

Of course you can still play fight but be it on your terms though. She can learn from you how much is to much and when to inhibit her roughness. Dogs can learn from body language that they can be rough when it is ok and more controlled when needed. One reason I would never have my dogs free play with children is that they don't have the right and easy to understand body language. But when playing with owners the lines should be very clear and easy to understand - you make them that way.

As far as other dogs go - Keena sounds very similar to your Jess in this aspect. When we lived in a different town nr the beach and took all our walks there all she wanted to do was find dogs to play with. There wasn't many at all that could play like an NI! We moved from there when she was 9 months and we got Takoda and she has rough housed with him ever since - gently as a pup and then when he got big they play really really hard, fast and rough and enjoy every minuet of it.

We moved nr the forest and to be honest now they don't tend to try to play with many other dogs because they know the owners mostly don't like it (even when their dogs do!) there is so much to do in the forest it keeps their attention away from everybody else and we don't have many problems now a days.

I always felt bad for Keena that she didn't have a playmate that matched her and have to say I love having the both of them together.

Don't rush out and get another though because there are things you can / should do...

The bad thing about NI is that they have zero attention for toys out and about (although a few do, the majority don't) Keena doesn't even do treats when out and wanting to play, she actually comes back when called and if you give a treat she takes it and drops it on the floor - far to busy! So unless the enviroment is very stimulating to the dogs then people and other dogs become the main point of attention and fun.

So, Think about where you walk Jess. I could not let my two off leash in small parks - they can clear a huge distance before you can even get the words out to call them back - they are so fast. We know that NI can be let off lead but they do have to be very occupied on their walks for it to be a sucess...

If you are walking somewhere that doesn't hold their attention they will look for other playmates and things to do. In the forest here all I have to say now is 'this way' and the dogs come barrelling back to go see what I must have found, they love jumping in and out of the tall ferns, over growth and heath and looking down rabbit holes etc...I also frequently hide from them to keep them guessing and their eyes on me, all of this is even more fun than any other dog as we make every walk an adventure and there is plenty of room for us to be off on our own and for them to run at break neck speeds and not bother a sole. So off leash walks have to be extreamly fun and interesting and in a very large area.

Forget little parks etc for now until she is more adult - of course still walk her there for socialization but for the real fun and frolics it's ideal if you can head somewhere out of the way.

NI are a breed that you do spend alot of time training which is great but they must have fun time or they can easily start to become stubborn and not want to pay attention to you. If you give lots of fun then they want to learn from you and do right - if things become really boring for them they want to rebel.

Good luck Hi to Jess

Aw your walks sound great fun! I do this sort of thing with Loki but only where I'm confident there are no other dogs because he will fight with them. :-( Poor Loki, if he'd stop this behaviour he could have great fun with other dogs.

Thank god for the forest and all the heaths around where we live is all I can say, the dogs are to busy exploring springing in and out of ferns or heath land to notice much else and it has really helped with recall cuz the landscape is so much fun and I am always interesting in these great places! - without it all I wouldn't know what to do with em If we spot anyone with or without dogs that we think might look a bit akward it's 'this way' change directions and away they come. We also have great bridleways and byways I can bike them up and down on lead and in harness if needed (now they are adult) - Honestly don't know what I would do if we lived in a place with only small populated parks and things.

Yeah I think I'd be trying to nip into school playgrounds to let him off the lead . I am lucky in that I live on the outskirts so there is countryside behind our house and many dog owners don't venture much further than the first field so we get to have fun. There is a stream that Loki loves to jump into too. I have a route where I have a good chance of spotting other people first.

We did take Loki to our local park on Sunday and it was like terminator on a Dogmatic . It was great with that because we could walk past other dogs without any real trouble but he would have been like a pig in swill if he'd been off lead.

Anyway sorry to go a bit off topic. We had a great game in the snow, I snowballed Loki and he tried to catch them , then we chased each other around the field. He does get a bit carried away and tries to tackle me by launching himself at me but it's just excitement and I can distract him.

when the kids are all in there :twisted:

:smt043 :smt043 :smt043 :smt043

Thanks for your advice Mys, it is really helpful.

I wish we had a good woodlend spot nearby, we are actually verylucky where we live in the aspect of no more than 15mins drive away there are a host of great places for Jess to play.

The problem isnt only her recall (which we are working on) its the fact that much is around farmlands and she isnt entirely socible with sheep yet.
We actually had a chasing incident a few weeks back which disturbed us greatly as she had never done that before, thank the gods that the farmer wasnt around....

Aww Kye. I know how you feel. We spent a year living in a very farm oreintated area and it made walks very difficult without us driving 10 mins first to get someplace that was ok.

Simply, you can not let Jess off where there are sheep I just wouldn't risk it - some farmers can even shot at a dog that isn't worrying sheep - just because it is off lead, so even with good recall I wouldn't let them off around sheep. Thing that got me was even in the feilds with no sheep or livestock your not really supposed to let them off lead for them to have a run around. So living there really did my head in! - All this open land in the lushious countryside that we couldn't play on - for miles because it was all farms or private.

Best thing you can do for Jess if possible is take her out to the places she can have a good old run without trouble and work on her recall and general obeidiance and disguise it all as fun - the best way for NI and Utes!

We are having the same problem with Dakota. Although he is only 3 months he doesn't know when to stop. His bites get harder and harder everytime. He is slowly calming down and we are getting another NI today (7 months old) so i hope this will help him to calm down and know whats right and wrong. Do you think this will help or make him worse??

Have you worked on bite inhibition with Dakota, Lorraine ? I did this from day 1 and I must say I'm constantly impressed with Loki's bite inhibition, even when he's really excited or annoyed he has a lovely soft mouth. It's more his wrestling that gets me . Those paws are lethal weapons ...

Hi Luck Star. I dont really know how to do bite inhabition. Can you help me?? please!

Sure .

The way I did it is everytime Loki mouthed me/chewed me/bit me as a puppy (with those little razor-sharp teeth! ) I squeeled in a high pitched voice like one of his litter mates would do. He would stop and early on he would then continue so if it went on a few times I would turn my back,stop the game and refuse to play with him/pet him. I also removed him from the room and closed the door if things got really, really bad. This isolation was only for a minute or so until he calmed down. I always rewarded good behaviour with a happy voice and treat. It took a while but eventually he learned to stop and he's fab now.

He does use his mouth a lot to kind of hold me or get attention but not in an aggressive or bitey way. It's more a form of communication for him.

I kind of followed Ian Dunbar's advice and Gwen Bailey - here is a link to an article by Dunbar :

http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm

and another one:

http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm

Having good bite inhibition is also important so that the dog doesn't immediately snap if, say, it is jumped on by a child or in a fight with another dog.

Hi, in reply to your teething probs, we have a NI who is nearly 5 mths old and is also at the bitty stage, however we have found that a silly amount of bones chewy toys and tuggies have stopped her using us as teething toys!She now just has a toy put in here mouth if she goes to chew any of us! It seems to have worked!Hope this has been of help.