# Growling zoomies



## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

He just wants to play. Bella does it too. 99% of the time, she's a fairly mellow dog, but she gets a bit out of hand with this. Fortunately, is always outside. She doesn't bite at me anymore when she does it, because the last time she did that, I sprayed her with a water bottle. I just keep it my pocket when she's off leash in the yard. She knows its there. 


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

My Georgie does something we call growlies. He is 10.5 years, but has done this since a pup, when he gets excited, he picks up a toy and prances with it, making soft growl noises. There is absolutely no aggression associated with it. In fact, he is the sweetest boy.... No possessive issues at all.. He just happens to be vocal.


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

I'd go with playing, but the biting part is not appropriate play with a human. We learned a good trick at dog school last week. (This is our fourth time through basic. Yes, four. And we're finally moving on to class 2!) All the other instructors had us call our dog and then grab the collar. This is pretty tricky with a ramped up, mouthy golden like mine. First he gets himself worked up by practically flying at me (at least he has an enthusiastic recall), then swings his mouth around when I reach around his head. This instructor doesn't have us grab the collar. Instead, we say "Casper, Come, Touch" and put our hand out for a Touch when he gets near. This works wonders. Casper has a great Touch command, so he comes flying over and bounces his nose on my hand. Instead of his feet on my stomach or some such other nonsense. Actually, he doesn't jump on my stomach anymore. When I use the official Front command, he runs up to me and bounces his nose on my stomach and then sits. I wonder how many points I'll lose if I ever get him in the obedience ring.


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## xoerika620xo (May 25, 2012)

quilter said:


> I'd go with playing, but the biting part is not appropriate play with a human. We learned a good trick at dog school last week. (This is our fourth time through basic. Yes, four. And we're finally moving on to class 2!) All the other instructors had us call our dog and then grab the collar. This is pretty tricky with a ramped up, mouthy golden like mine. First he gets himself worked up by practically flying at me (at least he has an enthusiastic recall), then swings his mouth around when I reach around his head. This instructor doesn't have us grab the collar. Instead, we say "Casper, Come, Touch" and put our hand out for a Touch when he gets near. This works wonders. Casper has a great Touch command, so he comes flying over and bounces his nose on my hand. Instead of his feet on my stomach or some such other nonsense. Actually, he doesn't jump on my stomach anymore. When I use the official Front command, he runs up to me and bounces his nose on my stomach and then sits. I wonder how many points I'll lose if I ever get him in the obedience ring.


This is awesome! I would love to teach Chester touch


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

Touch is a good command. It works for so many things... Things that you want a hand target for....and my Georgie,who as a young pup could be a bit of a handful (unfortunately my kids looooved to chase him, so keep away was a grand game) would come to me when I said, "touch".


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

I do use things like breath spray or a spray bottle to discourage biting...


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

Touch is an easy and dogs seem to love it. There are several ways to teach it, usually you lure the dog to one hand to touch and treat with the other hand. In dog class, the demo dog would just bounce his head from one hand to another! Once the dog is good at Touch, you can move him all around following your hand.


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## Dwyllis (Nov 22, 2012)

Loki does touch with his paw, but have not taught to touch with his nose. Guess that must be harder. Up to about 17 weeks old, he would have these zoomie attacks ...no growling but went crazy with a soft toy & then would leap about & try to bite us ...would not listen to any commands & drew blood on my DH several times. Used to be a nightly occurrence & would also target his papillon mate. Only way we could deal with it, was a few mins Timeout in his ex pe. & then he would calm right down & be very contrite. Thankfully, we have not seen this rather horrid behaviour for a few weeks. Sorry to hear Chester is doing it. Perhaps he will respond to Timeout, as Loki did.


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## xoerika620xo (May 25, 2012)

Dwyllis said:


> Loki does touch with his paw, but have not taught to touch with his nose. Guess that must be harder. Up to about 17 weeks old, he would have these zoomie attacks ...no growling but went crazy with a soft toy & then would leap about & try to bite us ...would not listen to any commands & drew blood on my DH several times. Used to be a nightly occurrence & would also target his papillon mate. Only way we could deal with it, was a few mins Timeout in his ex pe. & then he would calm right down & be very contrite. Thankfully, we have not seen this rather horrid behaviour for a few weeks. Sorry to hear Chester is doing it. Perhaps he will respond to Timeout, as Loki did.


I've been working all morning with chester to teach touch and he seems to love it. once my boyfriend comes home I'm going to practice it with him greeting chester with touch instead of the jumping on top of us. For some reason with chester anything that has to do with him moving his paw it's harder to teach. I try teaching shake and he just wouldn't move his paw. I tried showing the treat in one hand closed and waited but he just wouldn't go for it with his paw or nose. I'll have to talk to my trainer saturday and see what can i do because he uses his paws to open his crate door.


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## Bentleysmom (Aug 11, 2012)

Good for Chester! Touch was one of the 1st things I taught Bentley and we have used it to learn so many different things now, it's really useful!

Go Chester!!


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## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

Targeting is a lot of fun, and it is a good way to burn some mental energy. At our last class, the instructor had some of those Staples Easy buttons, as well as some buttons that said other phrases when pressed. It was fun to watch the dogs running over and pressing the button, and even more fun to see the dogs "get it" when it clicked in their head about what they were supposed to do.

We also have been using sticky notes as targets to teach Cookie how to close cabinet doors. For sticky notes, I only click with a nose touch (not paw) so she doesn't scratch the wood. We are still working on this, but the instructor recommends having 2 cues (touch and press for example) so the dog knows when to touch with paw, and when to press with nose.


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## xoerika620xo (May 25, 2012)

BriGuy said:


> Targeting is a lot of fun, and it is a good way to burn some mental energy. At our last class, the instructor had some of those Staples Easy buttons, as well as some buttons that said other phrases when pressed. It was fun to watch the dogs running over and pressing the button, and even more fun to see the dogs "get it" when it clicked in their head about what they were supposed to do.
> 
> We also have been using sticky notes as targets to teach Cookie how to close cabinet doors. For sticky notes, I only click with a nose touch (not paw) so she doesn't scratch the wood. We are still working on this, but the instructor recommends having 2 cues (touch and press for example) so the dog knows when to touch with paw, and when to press with nose.


I could see why its useful. Im trying to teach chester to use his paws but it seems to be harder for him to use his paw rather than his nose.


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