When I play with my dog she frequently gets very overexcited. I try my best not let her get to that level, when I see it coming I will start to give her simple commands to bring her down a little. Even though I try to look for the signs of her getting hyped up sometimes she will just go from 0 to 10 before I know it.

When she gets to that level she jumps up and snaps to snatch whatever toy we are playing with out of my hands. Many times she ends up biting me in the process. Its not intentional but it hurts! Today she tried to snatch a snowball out of my hand and she bit me so hard that I thought she might have broken something!

Whenever she tries to take something out of my hand I tell her "No....wait". She will sit and wait for me to throw the ball or whatever. Sometimes I down her or make her perform another command before she gets the toy if I feel her excitement level is much too high.

The thing is that I worry if she ever did this kind of thing to somebody else. Because the jumping up is sometimes accompanied by a play growl it might be taken as something more if someone wasn't used to dogs.

Should I start correcting her for this? Or is it better to keep going with the positive reinforcement stuff.

This is just one of the many areas where I'm not sure if I am already on the right path and just need to wait for her to mature more, or if I need to change up what I'm doing.

 Quote: Lauren Jeffery

When she gets to that level she jumps up and snaps to snatch whatever toy we are playing with out of my hands. Many times she ends up biting me in the process. Its not intentional but it hurts! Today she tried to snatch a snowball out of my hand and she bit me so hard that I thought she might have broken something!

Oh believe me its intentional, like my dog she learned that if she nails the hand they toy gets dropped. my advice is to correct, end the game, ignore her and try again later. I would also get a large tug they sell here to give her more target area

My lab was horrible about this when I first got her. Because I was preparing her for bird hunting I needed this behavior extinguished so she'd be safe around firearms so yes, I corrected. I used an e collar and a friend with the remote watching from a vantage point. My e collar I had with a tone so I could hear stims and mark when she did the behavior I wanted after.

It took months to get her to the point where she wouldn't jump up to grab everything out of my hands including my fingers. I wish I could say she's perfect about it now but it's a work in progress, it has gotten better. Sadly not where I need her to be for hunting yet though.

 Quote: dennis jones

Oh believe me its intentional, like my dog she learned that if she nails the hand they toy gets dropped.

Dennis, maybe I do need to move to your neighborhood. You really understand the wily ways of evil german shepherd bitches!

The problem is that my girl has really sweet eyes. When I correct her for something like this she gives me the "I'm sorry" look and I melt. Then I worry that I'm being too hard on her.

Despite the sweetness in her eyes, every once in a while I see a glint of the devil in there too. If she could talk she would say "Ha! Take that!".

She's got my number.

I have an e collar and the dvd. Sadly, the first time I put the DVD in my laptop scratched it, and two of the most important chapters can not be watched now. I just can't afford to buy a new dvd or pay a trainer right now.

I think the e collar will do a whole lot of good for us. My dog needs a relatively strong correction to get the message, and I have a hard time doing it with consistency. What would be a level 8 correction for my old dog is like a 3 to her.

Luaren,
If I were in your shoes.
For the dog, I use that energy/drive as a training opportunity.
For me, I'd learn how to teach the dog how to target better.

Think M. Ellis videos, absolutely the best.

Randy,

I have the dvd's, aren't they awesome!

I do feel like I need to do some sort of sport training with her. She could do schutzhund for fun. But I'm not sure she could handle protection training much beyond puppy stuff..

I'm looking into agility or tracking. I think she would probably love either (or both) of those. I just want to see how her hips check out on our next visit to the vet before we get started.

Maggie always goes for the hand side of the toy. I got a bigger tug. If I am playing fetch with a kong or ball, I toss it quick when we get started and then when she brings it, I place my palm up for her to give it to me or game over. If I toss it again, it is quick after she let it go--rare opportunity to grab it from me.

Playing tug is a little more artful, to keep my hands clear. As Dennis mentioned a bigger tug is good so that, as Randy mentioned, you can teach the dog to target better.

When Yote starts jumping around and acting like a fool when we are playing I end the game, otherwise I am likely to get hurt. I have ended up with plenty of ripped clothes and bruised hands and arms.

I don't actively correct I just remove the fun. If he were to jump up and/or bite at someone else I would correct.

For jumping I say "no" while picking my knee up to push the dog's chest away from me. It's not done with any appreciable amount of force and zero follow-through, so it's not striking the dog any more than pushing with a hand is. The dog will usually bounce off unaffected by the contact other than getting the point that jumping isn't going to work anymore. I think I got that from either David Dikeman or Uncle Matty, years ago. If I'm holding a toy I raise it above my head. From there, if it's my dog, I give either a sit or down command and continue playing. I've done this with about a dozen different dogs, two of which were mine, with pretty good success. Out of curiosity. Do you happen to give your dog toys without making her work for them first? My wife tends to do that with our dog and he's a lot more obnoxious with her than he is with me.

This has worked well for my dog's targeting issue. He has a thing about wanting to rip the handle off of the tug so he likes to target it. When he does I immediately stop playing, hold my position, look straight ahead, and go completely neutral with my body language. With a 22" tug I took the hand of whatever side he was biting, patted the center of the tug, and then put my hand back on the tug. If I'm using a pocket tug I slide my right hand down the tug until I'm holding mostly handle. When he retargets correctly between my hands I praise him in a super happy tone (vocal and body), engage him, and start being animated again. He caught on pretty quickly that this was the preferred way to play.