Hi everyone - first time poster here.
We recently adopted a kelpie x ACD from a shelter at 8 weeks. He's very clever and was able to pick up basic commands like sit, down, stay, lie and spin very easily. He's very confident and friendly with people and other dogs.
He is now 13 weeks old. He is very bitey and we're struggling to get him to stop. He's especially bad when he's very tired (and doesn't know how to go to sleep). We've tried spraying him with water, holding his snout and time outs but nothing seems to work. We exercise him twice a day (at least a 1.5-2km walk each time to the dog park where he wrestles with other dogs or runs around the oval). He's usually very tired when he gets home because he'll go straight to bed (after some biting).
The other issue we're facing is seperation anxiety. At night he is able to sleep in the crate through the night and the crate sits outside of our bedroom. During the day, he is okay in his play pen as long as one of us are in the same room. The moment we step away from the room he starts crying and this can go on for over an hour. We're able to be with him while we're working from home but we don't want to shock him when we have to go back to work. The seperation anxiety works in our favour at the dog park because he has great recall!
We'd appreciate any tips on how we can work on these two issues!
Cheers
We recently adopted a kelpie x ACD from a shelter at 8 weeks. He's very clever and was able to pick up basic commands like sit, down, stay, lie and spin very easily. He's very confident and friendly with people and other dogs.
He is now 13 weeks old. He is very bitey and we're struggling to get him to stop. He's especially bad when he's very tired (and doesn't know how to go to sleep). We've tried spraying him with water, holding his snout and time outs but nothing seems to work. We exercise him twice a day (at least a 1.5-2km walk each time to the dog park where he wrestles with other dogs or runs around the oval). He's usually very tired when he gets home because he'll go straight to bed (after some biting).
The other issue we're facing is seperation anxiety. At night he is able to sleep in the crate through the night and the crate sits outside of our bedroom. During the day, he is okay in his play pen as long as one of us are in the same room. The moment we step away from the room he starts crying and this can go on for over an hour. We're able to be with him while we're working from home but we don't want to shock him when we have to go back to work. The seperation anxiety works in our favour at the dog park because he has great recall!
We'd appreciate any tips on how we can work on these two issues!
Cheers