One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I started this blog a few days ago to commemorate Amaretto maturing and moving past a problem that really dampened our fun together - leg biting. Alas, I spoke too soon. My two days of happiness were short-lived. The leg biting is back in full swing and harder than ever before. At least she has lost the "must-bite-Xuan-as-I-cross-every-street" problem. I don't know WHY she does it, or why my communication to her isn't working. In theory, she and I have a good relationship together because I'm literally her only family during the school year. In theory, she should want to not cause me pain, frustration, and sadness...but I don't think theory is working well for me.

Usually, the events go like this:

She spots my shoes, makes a dive for it. OR, I take something out from her mouth forcefully, like a wad of wet tissue or an old pizza crust she picked up on the street. She'll make a rumble and frustrated little growl, and go for my shoes. I tug leash and flat collar and tell her OFF. Sometimes the tug moves her head higher than my foot, and she'll snap at my legs. At this point, I'll be hurting so I try to keep her away from my limbs by holding her collar or leash far away from me, dangling her off the ground slightly. (I know it sounds terrible, but it otherwise HURTS like no tomorrow!). Then she proceeds to want to jump and bite at my arms, coat, or hand holding leash. Sometimes I have treats, and I notice asking her for a sit and doing a bit of obedience seems to work. SOMETIMES this works and it takes her off the fixation of biting me.On walks, I carry her squeeker snake and shove it in her mouth when she gets bitey to facilitate safe street crossing. But I've been doing that for 3 weeks already, and she doesn't seem to get the idea that I prefer her biting snake to biting me.  

I've also tried bitter apple, which only works when it's still freshly sprayed and wet. I've tried luring away with toys...no-go. I've tried time-outs in a crate, but she comes out and resumes. I've tried leaving her tied to something when she bites and we're outside and walking  away, but she also resumes when I return.

How can I communicate to her that leg-biting, and the subsequent body biting and snapping is FORBIDDEN?

My abuse victim legs with the criminal right beside them. :(

In other news, we had two REALLY good play sessions today.

This morning, I was going to take her to do off-leash play at the tennis court because I thought maybe more exercise will help with the biting. As we passed by the school new track and soccer field, I noticed it had a complete fence and no one on it. It was 10 minutes closer to home than the tennis court, and 4 times larger, so naturally, I had to take advantage.

Pupper's never been on artificial turf before, so she had a good time exploring this new surface. I feel REALLY good about the environmental socialization I've been able to give her. She used to be afraid of grates, and now she can walk on one without even batting an eye. She used to be afraid of sitting on benches too, but now she'd voluntarily put her front paws on them. She can go down slides, go on top any high platform, really go anywhere with me. If only bite inhibition and dog reactivity were this easy to solve as well. 

mmMMmm, plastic with particles of human sweat

Taking a break with her FAVOURITE toy in the whole wide world - the Jolly Ball! She is leashed here because we're getting ready to go home.

The morning walk and off leash time was about an hour, and kept her quiet in her crate from 11 - 3:30. I really want to extend this time, but she starts whining and barking at 3:30 if I am home. Something to work on over reading week!

For our evening walk, we were able to play in the tennis court. This was one of the BEST structured play and training sessions I did with her. She was engaged and focused with me for the entire 20-30 minutes that we were in there. I tossed her Jolly ball as well as her favourite squeaky snake, and we were able to work on lots of GOOD heeling and stays. She was also able to bring her Jolly Ball back to me for treats, which is GREAT because her default action with the Jolly Ball is to run as far away as possible from me. 

This is just her second day doing "stay", but she can already hold it very well if I'm move away from her in a straight line. If I walk behind her, she turns around to look at me. But she is still young, so there's tons of time for me to work on that.

The evening walk took 1.5 hours, and she was pooped out for an hour in her crate before resuming chaos.

I REALLY enjoyed our walks together these past 2 days, and REALLY want the leg biting issue to be resolved. I can do dog-reactivity, I can do hand-biting...I just want to be able to enjoy our 2+ hours a day together instead of constantly worrying about being nipped in the legs. 

Just before she went to bed, we played with the Nina Ottoson Dog Brick to burn her little brain some more. I think she is just using brute force to get to the food though, so maybe I'll figure out a way to limit her paw use.

Floppy lefty.