11 month old misbehaving

[SkyeSue]

Karen, Karma will be composing a post as I write, and she will be able to give you far better advice than I can, but in my limited experience, I have learnt than there is awful lot of junk in the supermarket dog foods. They contain hardly any nutritional value for your dog...I know the brands like Burns, Arden Grange, etc. might seem expensive, but usually with a good quality kibble you use less anyway. Your dogs diet is one of the first things to consider when problems arise.
Karma is totally right about the ball situation....I'm lucky in that Chloe loves her ball, but is not obsessed. So I can use it as a great training tool...ie. "you be a good girl for Mum, Chloe, and you will get to play with your ball  )  And I only ever use it outside.
Hang in there, you will get there, with the right advice and help, all these problems will be history in a few months time 

[MaggieR]

In terms of mental stimulation have you tried something like hiding things around the house for her to find?  Start with food or her favourite toy in one room so she gets the idea, and move on to hiding other things elsewhere and asking her to go find it.  Maggie loves this game, and I only have to do it for about 10-15 minutes and she's shattered.  She would play ball all night, but like Honey can be very ball obsessed, also to the point of not being very tolerant of other dogs when she was out, so its limited now to when its just me and her a few times a week or down the river. 

[karenl]

thankyou i will look into it. i am willing to try anything that will help as i desperately want to keep her .

[Sarah.H]

I think you need to completely change your attitude towards your dog. You have said that a behaviourist has told you that she is nervous and shows nervous aggression but you are wondering if she is a 'bad dog' and that she has 'strops'. If her behaviour is being caused through fear then all she is doing is expressing and protecting herself the only way she knows how, and you getting upset by this will only make her more nervous and so into a vicious circle! Jean Donaldsons The Culture Clash is an excellent book and certainly helped me change my perception of dog behaviour when I first had Millie and she started showing fear aggression towards people. 

[fifer]

it's all well and good ignoring grumbling, but unless you teach her new coping skills, this isn't going to stop her doing it. 

I agree with Karma.  You have not been given the correct advice by the behaviourist.  You need to train a good strong "look at me" for times when her behaviour to the doorbell, others, other dogs, noises etc is unacceptable to you. 

You also need to rethink the grumbling - don't ignore it - distract her with something she really can't resist (perhaps a favourite toy since she's not food orientated?).  Then use the "look at me" and reward her when she does it right. 

Baby steps at first, don't expect it to change overnight.

Develop your voice to command, don't waiver.  Deep, strong, solid voice for commands, higher, squeaky, excited "Good girl" for reward.  Above all be consistent in your training.  Your voice is very important for giving your dog a sense of security (even if we don't feel very confident ourselves!!  )

Fearful dogs lack self confidence, they look to us to provide them with security.  Is your lack of confidence with her perhaps influencing her behaviour?    You CAN do this you know.   

[karenl]

thankyou i will do anything to help and i will look into getting the book the culture clash.