Blue heeler x problems

Question
Hello

I have a five month old female blue heeler x. She trys to bite anyone who enters the house, barks at anyone she sees, bites my ankles, jumps up and bites my shiz-tuz. She pulls when I walk her I have a choke chain but shes still pulls.I have a crate but I cant get her to go in it.

Is there anything I can do at home to break her of these bad habits?  

Answer
Hi there,

There's plenty you can do to stop your dog's bad habits!
First of all, I would strongly urge you to enroll your dog in an obedience class. Not only will the dog learn correct behavior, but YOU will learn how to control your dog. The dog will also learn important social skills about interacting with strange people and other dogs.

You can find an obedience class in your area by asking your veterinarian for a reference, or looking in the yellow pages. Some PetsMart stores also offer obedience classes.

Many dog trainers joke that training a dog is easy, training people is the hard part. There is a lot of truth in that joke, since a dog behaves in the way it's allowed it to behave. In your case, the dog is not being controlled, and as a result she is acting like the untrained animal she is.

Your dog is still very much a puppy, and needs to learn the right way to behave now. If you do not take charge of this situation, things will get a whole lot worse.

Your dog did not become out of control over night, and her bad habits will not disappear over night either. You must make a commitment to work with your dog every day.  You must offer firm and consistent corrections, and plenty of love and praise the moment she obeys your commands. Training should be fun. Every training session should be highlighted with games, praise, and hugging. Your dog should look forward to each session, just as she looks forward to her daily exercise.
You must never ever hit your dog when it misbehaves.

Choke chains are pretty useless. You've probably noticed that the dog doesn't seem to breath as it pulls you don the street. There is a kind of collar which go by the name "Halti" and  "Gentle Leader" . A Halti is like a halter for horses, only dog-size. It fits on the dog's head with a nose band that goes over the muzzle. It's very soft, wide web nylon, and comes in several different sizes. This halter style of dog collar is a very effective and humane way of controlling the dog while it's being walked. You can read about this kind of dog collar here:
http://www.allourpets.com/htmls/halticollar.shtml

When you first introduce a Halti or Gentle Leader collar to your dog, be prepared that she might resist having in put on. Hold a piece of food out for her as you put the nose piece on their nose, and even let them munch on a couple more pieces as they first have it on. Make your first sessions short, with lots of distracting food if they get too worked up about this *thing* on her face. Remember, it's like introducing the collar or lead for the first time. Don't attach anything to the Halti the first several sessions, just let her get used to it. Then when she seem to be coping better, put a leash on their COLLAR and lead her around with it on. When your dog is used to wearing this new style of collar, you'll be amazed how well she can be walked!

Your dog is playing when she nips and jumps at you. First of all, you must never play tug of war style games with her, or any game that treaches her to use her mouth on you. That only reinforces her bad behavior. Before you teach your dog not to bite at all you must teach her to bite softly. This means that you never discourage play biting until your dog has learned not to bite with too much force. A dog that has learned proper "bite inhibition" will less likely cause injury in the case he would ever feel pushed to bite someone than a dog that has never learned to inhibit his bite.
Here's a web site where you casn read about stopping your dog from biting: http://www.clickertraininglv.com/bite.htm

Dogs are very social and thrive on attention. If you give your dog any attention (including talking to him or even just looking at him) when he jumps, she's likely to continue trying.  On the other hand, if you completely ignore your dog by not looking at him or even turning your back whenever he jumps up, then she may eventually lose interest and stop jumping.  When you come home, ignore your dog until she is calm, and then give her a simple low key "hello", and a pat on her head. Do not make a fuss.

If she persists in jumping even when you ignore her, begin using the command "Down" or "Off" (a command you do not use for other activities). Use this command in place of "NO".  This is instructive rather than just a shout.

Here are two web sites where you can read about training your dog not to jump up on people:
http://www.perfectpaws.com/jump.html
http://www.lacetoleather.com/8.html

Teaching a dog to be a good companion takes time and effort. People are not born polite, honest, caring and well-behaved. Parents teach children. We can all see the results of children who have not had adequate parenting. Dogs are not much different. In order to have a great dog companion the dog must be around people enough that it has lots of opportunity to interact with people. During that interaction there will be love and cuddling, but there will also be instruction in polite socially acceptable behavior.

Remember to be always be patient,consistant and persistant with your dog, if you do then in time it will learn the lessons you're trying to teach.

Best of luck!
Patti