How to Stop an Australian Shepherd Biting
So many people think about all of the cool tricks that they can teach their new Australian Shepherd that they forget to think about all of the bad behaviors that they not only want to watch out for, but that they want to make sure that they are not encouraging. Dogs and puppies might love to play rough, but it is important to make sure that you are not allowing play biting. No matter how cute it is when the puppy chews on your ankles, it is a behavior that will turn disastrous.
The key is to stop the situation from becoming a problem in the first place. To do this, you will want to correct your puppy or dog each and every time he bites you or your furniture. What can start at as fun times can quickly become a painful trip to the emergency room. If your Australian Shepherd were to bite someone and they press charges, not only could you lose a lot of money, but you could also lose your dog. This is not something that you want to put yourself, your family or your dog through.
As soon as you see this behavior starting, you will want to make sure that you are giving the “stop” or “no” command. Make sure that you are using a firm tone of voice and that you then walk away from your Shepherd. Ignore his attempts to get your behavior by biting you. He may simply be trying to get your attention. If you give him attention, he will realize that by biting you, he gets his way. You have to ignore him, no matter how hard that may be. Once he calms down a little and you can see that he is no longer trying to bite you or anything else, you can pet him and give him some positive reinforcement.
It is very important to make sure that you are consistent with this training. If you are scolding him one minute for biting and then playing a biting tug of war game the next minute, you will confuse your Australian Shepherd. Also, the confusion will mean that it will take much longer for your puppy or dog to catch on to what the rules are. When you are training your dog, for any trick or behavior, it is import to make sure that you are always consistent. It is only fair.
Now, it is best to take care of this biting problem as the Australian Shepherd is a puppy. But if biting was never a problem for your pet until he grew into a full sized adult, do not worry, you can still correct the behavior. The saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, does not apply here. Even the elderly dogs can learn new behaviors and house rules. Just hand in there and before you know it the bad behavior will be stopped. Everything will run so smooth in your house that you will barely remember a time when biting was a problem with your Australian Shepherd.