# Growling and Nipping



## maxxie (Jan 3, 2010)

Bentley is now coming up to 13 months old and is mostly a fantastic boy. However, he has a problem that he displays while out walking although not every time. Up to now, my husband has said that he he sometimes gets over excited and starts to run around having a skit and barking. This then turns to focusing on him, jumping up, grabbing at his clothes and nipping at his heals or arms. It is as if a switch has been put on and appears to come out of nowhere. As he never does it to me, I have been giving some advice on how to get around this and calm him down. It usually lasts 30 secs to a minute to get him back to normal and then it is as if nothing has happened and he behaves perfectly.
Yesterday, I went with my husband to see if he would do it and he had 4 of these episodes and also focused on me, but assumed this was because I was trying to get him to snap out of it. My observations were as follows: He appears to do it when we come out of woodlands into open fields and he gets excited and starts to run around. Also if he gets his excitement levels up. It is almost as if his brain overloads and then looks around for someone to play with and thinks we are other dogs to do just that. Whilst we both feel uncomfortable while he is doing it, I do not feel threatened as he does not do it in an aggressive way if that makes sense. But we do not want it to become a habit and want to stamp it out as soon as possible. This is the first time time he has done it in front of me when we have both been together which is really odd, but my husband gets very uptight now, worrying if he will do it while they are out and this feeling obviously feeds the situation. In the home, he is really well behaved and quiet. We have been letting him on the settee but I have decided that any position of power is to be avoided so he has been relegated to the bed on the floor in the lounge now. All his other behaviour outside is fine and he is a submissive dog but does try it on with Malcolm who is not so hot on making sure he is boss all the time. If anyone has any ideas on how we should deal with this situation I would be very grateful, so Malcolm can enjoy taking him for a walk the way he should do. 
When 
he started to leaping round, I try and get him to come to me and get him to sit and go into a down stay, to break his train of thought and focus on me in a proper way. I do some of this for a couple of minutes and this seems to work, but if he is got really excited, it takes 30 sec to a minute to achieve this. If I notice the slight change in his behaviour quick enough, I can avoid the behaviour, but sometimes he flicks without any warning or without us noticing. As Malc is not so focused on Bentley anyway and has a tendency to daydream , this is not usually possible for Malc to act in this way.
Please help as my husband is reaching the end of his tether.
Caz and Bentley


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## Chilli monster (Sep 16, 2010)

Chilli is behavienng the same and she is 1 year old now... it happeneds ussualy on the beggining of the walk when i let her go off the leash and then when we are on the field where we usually playing fetch (she loves her ball and by barking and jumping on me she is demanding play) 

My technic is to turn my back and walk off from where we came, or if she is really excited then stern No.. if this is not helping back on the lead... for a while...
I can't see any interaction as helping because she thinks i am playing with her... so for me ignoring her works... She is catching the idea that we playing when i want and where i want (we not there yet, but she improved...) .... but i think i need to change places to play fetch every single walk to break the habit...

Hope both of them Bentley and Chilli will calm down soon  will be so good to go for a walk without crazy barking puppies 

Kat


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## scooby (Mar 23, 2009)

Hi Maxxie i'm no expert but if it happens at the same time (leaving woods 4 open fields) you could try getting Bentley interested in something before you get to that point, I'd have a tennis ball in my pocket and let him see/sniff it just before we got to the field and then as soon as we are there throw it for him to fetch, it might just focus his energy on the ball and not your poor hubby.
Like I say I'm no expert but it might be worth a try!!!!
Good luck


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