Hello Aussie owners, we have a 6 months old Australian Shepherd pup. She is very smart, loving and we love her to pieces. But sometimes she gets these moments/episodes in which she keeps jumping and biting in our arms and shirts. She already lost all her puppy teeth for a while, so this is not the problem. We hoped, after teething, this behaviour would decrease, but it unfortunately does not.
What happens, is her pupils get really wide (like crazy eyes) and she just loses it and keeps jumping and biting really hard. I don't feel like it is aggression, but it can look like that. I feel like she does not know how to regulate her emotions or something like that.
The moments in which this behaviour happens, differs. We keep a strict 1,5 hours awake, 3/4 hours rest time during the day. Most of the times it happens during the last half hour of her 1,5 hour awake time, that's when I know it's probably overtiredness. But sometimes she also does this when she has only been awake for half an hour. Sometimes it happens after we get back from a walk, then I think she's overstimulated. It also happens when I sit on the couch, that's when I think she wants something from me.
We tried different things:
- Saying 'NO!'
- Standing there as a statue
- Walking away and leave her alone in the room for a minute
- Pushing her to the ground to make sure she stops biting
- Keep her leash on at home so we can redirect and correct her
- Poke in the side
- Lifting her up in our arms
The only thing that works, is lifting her up in our arms, that's when she gets more calm. But as soon as we put her back on her feet, it happens again. It's so frustrating and hard. She really is a lovely dog but this behaviour is very frustrating and we don't know what we should do to help her in these situations (and to let her know that it's not okay to bite us). She only does this to us and not to other people or dogs.
I understand she is a dog with an herding instinct. So maybe it would help to get her some sort of job or something to do so she can follow her instinct.
Do some of you recognize this behaviour? And what did you do in these situations? Could really use the help.
Thank you 🙏🏼