We adopted an alleged 18-mo-old GSD from the GS rescue people about 4 weeks ago. We have no clue as to her true age or history, but have been working regularly on her obedience. She's learning fast and making great progress - crate trained, house broken and knows SIT, walks well on leash - but there are socialization issues to deal with. I've reviewed the BDO DVD a few times - probably not enough, but wonder if I missed something. I've read a lot of the material on the web site. I don't have the puppy DVD. Maybe since we are starting from scratch, I should get that one to make sure the foundation is there? I'm confused as to properly correcting her mouthy behavior. Doing this at 18 mos. makes me wonder if she's much younger than was represented.

She's a drive-by ankle biter and, when playful, likes to nip/bite hands and ankles. They're not "leave me alone" snaps, but this definitely needs to be stopped, especially before she's around our 2-yr-old granddaughter. I started correctly her with some vigourous shaking by the scruff of the neck with a stern "NO BITE" - probably at level 2-3. This merely got her more excited and brought on more nipping. I bumped it up to about a level 6-7 which brought on the whelping, but didn't totally stop the behavior. I've since modified these corrections and either substitute a toy to play with or chew on (not always handy) or adding a SIT to get her calmed down, which she does well, and follow with praise. These seem to be working. She's doing it a lot less and I can see her, "Oops, I messed up" look when she's corrected. I feel she KNOWS "NO BITE" now, but I'm not sure.

I understand (1) the need for 30+ repetitions when teaching a new command and (2) the need for a "I think I'm about to die" level of correction for certain behavior. So considering I've been at this with her for just several weeks, am I going the wrong direction here? Is it adequate that she stop the nipping with these repeated corrections? Or should I be applying just a few corrections at a much higher level? I guess I'm wondering: if it takes 30+ repetitions for them to learn, when is that fact ignored in favor of a few "I'm gonna die" corrections. Are those corrections used later when she KNOWS not to bite but screws up?