jumping, biting, running away

Question
We have a 1 year old lab mix (we think) who was dropped off at the Humane Society when she was 6 months old.  We adopted her after she had been with them for almost 3 months.  She's been to basic obedience class and I'm signed up to take her again, but one of the problems we have is that when she is outside and we try to correct her for digging (firm saying "no" and moving her away from the dig hole) she begins biting.  She runs after me, jumps up and nips then run away.  I've tried standing tall with my back to her and with my arms folded, but she just continues to jump up and nip...and sometimes the nips are more like biting.  Any suggestions on how we control this?  We believe that whomever had her originally played rough with her because when we first got her, she would jump up and grab your forearm when you had a coat on.  She's stopped that more or less, but we just can't seem to get the jump, nip, and run behaviour under contro.  Any suggestions?  We hate to not let her run loose outside 'cause we play fetch, frisbeee, etc. to help run off her energy.

Answer
Hi, PJ,

Thanks for the question.

The reason dogs dig is that it can be one way of reducing internal tension or stress. The problem you're having in getting her to stop is you're not giving her an alternative behavior for reducing her stress. It's a bit like taking cigarettes away from a smoker at the moment she most needs to smoke. She's not going to be happy with you! The fact that your dog doesn't get more upset is, I think, a tribute to the wonderful nature of dogs. The fact that she jumps up and nips you in play is also a tribute to their social nature. The fact that she does it with too much energy shows that she has a lot of internal tension and stress.

Here's something that should be stitched on a pillow of every dog owner:

DON'T CORRECT - REDIRECT!

You wouldn't take the corner of a baby's blanket out of her mouth, say, "No! Bad girl!" and expect her to be happy with what just happened, would you? The normal thing is to gently take the blanket out of her mouth and give her a pacifier in its place. That's the same principle you should use with your doggie.

As for getting the jump, nip, and run behavior under control: to her this is a game. If you haven't trained her to listen to you when she's in a playful mood, then guess what? She won't listen to you when she gets into a playful mood on her own! If you've taken her to obedience class I can almost guarantee that one of the first things they did in that class was to get all the dogs to "calm down so they can learn." Well, guess what? If you only train your dog while she's already calm, she won't be able to obey you when she gets energized! She won't be able to connect the two things. So re-train all her commands as part of a game of fetch or tug-of-war*. Don't waste any more time on going to class, unless it's an agility class.

*In fact, you should play tug with her a lot. It's one of the best ways to reduce stress in dogs. Here's a link to explain: http://www.tiny.cc/tug

If she won't play tug, you'll have to do a pushing exercise where she has to push into you in order to eat. http://tinyurl.com/3balu6

(These are short urls; if they don't work, let me know.)

Finally, when you catch her digging the first thing I'd do is praise the heck out of her. That's right, praise her instead of telling her no. After you praise her (and I mean it has to be over the top, "people will think I'm nuts" kind of praise), then you'll find that it'll be much easier to redirect her into another stress-reducing activity like fetch or tug.

Do these two simple things and I can almost guarantee that your dog will stop digging holes in the yard.

Here's another link:

http://www.tiny.cc/praisetocorrect   

I hope my advice doesn't seem too odd to you, because it'll really work!

LCK