Pebbles jumps up.
Pebbles is six months old. Her mother is her father’s daughter – which isn’t a good thing! This means her father, a Springer Spaniel, is her grandfather – but fortunately her grandmother was a Border Collie so there are some new genes in the mix.
I absolutely loved her! Look at that face!
Bite inhibition
Before I went I assumed that in-breeding would be the main cause of her problems, but I think not now. She parted from her siblings too young and consequently never learnt bite inhibition. She gets excited and rough to easily. She jumps up persistently onto people – maybe grabbing and nipping also. She guards things that she steals and also her food.
I believe that a lot of this unwittingly has to do with the home circumstances.
The problem has been allowed to escalate. Although she is fortunate to have company during the day while the family is at work, she is alone with the old lady. The lady is neither mobile nor active enough to respond appropriately.
Unfortunately Pebbles has bitten her twice – quite badly. She’s not bitten anyone else – yet.
A difficult situation with the old lady
This is a difficult situation because the lady loves Pebbles and wants to touch and spoil her.
We have to play safe for Pebbles’ sake as well as the lady’s.
For now I hope Pebbles will be left behind the gate and that the lady will not let her through when she is alone in the house. They can all then work on being calm, consistent, quiet and firm.
Only when Pebbles has calmed down, learnt some rules and boundaries, stopped being possessive and using her teeth, should she again be in the same rooms as the old lady when nobody else is there to help.
To deal with jumping up and nipping in a way that doesn’t cause things to escalate or develop into aggression or defiance, one needs to be fairly agile, to be consistent and to react fast. Anything confrontational like scolding or saying NO only encourages her, as does waving hands about and trying to push her away.
Eating out of my hand
I taught Pebbles how to behave with me by how I reacted to her jumping up. Soon she was virtually eating out of my hand.
We could all see how happy she was being taught rules and boundaries in terms she understood. I concentrated on showing her what I DID want instead of the jumping. Not once did anyone tell her off, say ‘No’ or tell her ‘Down’.
