Hello!

My two year old husky Lyra likes to play really rough at times,she will bite at arms, shorts, etc.
Even if we turn around and ignore her in an attempt to stop the bad behavior she will jump at our
backs and continue biting scratching. Telling her no while she is doing this makes no difference..
It's getting to be a real problem and I'm at a complete loss!  

What can we do to stop this?

My 2 year old does that as well and i have tried so many things. We never played rough with her either so it wasnt something we taught her was ok. Sometimes its like she gets so excited when playing she goes to far. I will be watching for peoples ideas as well.
Good luck!!

Ignore and leave the room without a look or word to her

mine does that too. not as much inside but outside she gets really wild on the jumping and biting{nipping}.super hyper. haven't figured out how to change the behavior. shes a year and a half old and I thought she would b getting better about it.

Okay I have some advice that may help about some things I have read.

As far as the biting. Let me put this in terms of the wild. In the wild, if a wolf would bite another wolf, the bitten wolf would give a high pitched, "Yelp." It has been known to use that very same tactic to get huskies (and other breeds) to understand that hurts you. So when they start to go for a bite, just as HIGH PITCHED as you can say, "OUCH!" and it "should" stop the behavior. Note: this is NOT an immediate fix, just like teaching your dog anything, it takes time, association and positive reinforcement. There is also other threads about biting on here if you use the search option in the tabs at the top, you may get some more insight from others that may not see your current thread

for the jumping. There is a couple different things I have read in books or around here.
The most effective from what I have read, is IF you have a glass door/glass sliding door/a door your dog can see you from the other side of it.
When you come home from anywhere, stand in front of the door until your dog seems "settled sown" <--- usually they will settle because you aren't coming through the door, but will immediately go for jumping the second you walk in the door. At that very second your dog starts to jump on you slip back out the door and get it shut and wait for calmness again. Continue to do these steps until the desired behavior is met. Again like I said before, it takes time, and patience so you have to do it everyday.

The other borderline things I have read that help with jumping is to grab the front paws and hold them up on their hind legs until a sign of calm has reached, and you HAVE to let go at the exact second they calm down otherwise you won't associate your actions with what you wanted with them. Everything is told to a dog through body language and timing. If you are to hyper and fast your dog will be hyper and fast. So talking in speedy tones, i.e ,"who wants to go outside who wants to go for a walk oh do you do you!" You're going to send your dog through the roof with excitement and possibly encourage jumping. But if you say things slllllooooooowwwwlllyyyy, like, "Heeey, dooo you want to goooo ouuutttsiiiddee?" you will keep a calm reaction from your dog, and your dog may start understanding more and more key words over time with association to specific words, rather than just picking up on your excitement and intimating you.

That's all I got for now. Hope it helps.

This was a huge problem when we first got Ami 4 months ago both the little tiny nips and huge, bounding leaps as he threw himself at me from a full run. He was just around 13 months old when we got him. The behavior is now not nearly as much a problem - but I don't think our "solution" was deliberate, it was more self preservation! He's a big dog - 24" and 60 pounds - I am only 5'3" tall and 62 years old, when we first got him, I was rather debilitated (no longer  , he's brought me back to health!) So, when he would do his hockey player thing, I would just have to walk away (he was on 100 ft trolley with 20' lead). Especially since one of the times he did his leapy, zoomy, hockey player thing, he wrapped his tether around my neck - out of self-preservation I grabbed whatever I could, which was the nape of his neck, fur and skin, hollered NO as loud as I could and brought both of us to the ground. We had a staring contest, he settled down and now his "body checks" are just as exuberant but he only comes to within an inch of my shoulder - unbelievably agile, he actually does not fully contact me! As for the nipping, I use "gentle" when we play as a caution and a loud "ouch" when he or I misjudges. He has become exceedingly respectful of both commands (though "gentle" is used softly as a warning, not really a command). I think it all comes down to, if he gets too rambunctious, I have to back off and he likes the contact and he learns so unbelievably quickly that he knows how to prolong the play. I also get the sense that he is always monitoring me, somehow understands my limitations. Really weird, 'cause when I'm babbling to him, I tell him he has to be patient with me cause I'm an old lady  

liamdav6 wrote:

Ignore and leave the room without a look or word to her

This is also another tactic, but make sure when you leave the room, the dog is unable to follow you out.
Also time outs are good too, DON'T use the crate as a time out place, the crates are sanctuaries and safe place, if you put any association of negativity with the crate, you may find yourself re-crate training.

So a timeout spot, maybe pick a corner and tell your dog to lay down, or find a small enclosed room in your house i.e Laundry room or maybe a bathroom.... a couple of minutes 2-3 is all it really takes to associate bad behavior with time out so don't leave them for too long. (just like a toddler lol) Just keep giving a time out or leave the room un-followed as well... some more tools for your tool box!

If you yelp when they bite or scratch, that seems to at least stop and confuse them for a few seconds-often enough time for the behavior to stop. It's worked with our puppy, maybe try that?

I had never considered a small room as a time out spot, I may have to try that if Achilles misbehaves!

Haha just make sure you remove the toilet paper and rugs from the bathroom or else time out turns into "tear up everything in sight for the next two minutes."

Also, if my puppy is getting really hyper (zooming, etc) sometimes I take preventative measures and crate her for ten minutes (lots of praise cause it's no punishment) to let her calm down. She will often fall asleep like a baby that was so tired but didn't know what to do with itself until it was wrapped up and couldn't flail.

we use the "out" command. My step dad used it on his dog when we were growing up. I say out in a loud firm voice and scissor my hands and arm like a baseball umpire. It means play time is over, you were too rough settle down. The result is a sitting husky impatiently waiting for play to recommence lol In the beginning I would make the motion say out, grab his collar and push his butt down into a sit. I would repeat until he stayed in the sit. Once he stayed in the sit he got some gentle (calm) affection and sometimes a treat. That way he knew i still loved him but play time was over. If out is too sensitive a word for your husky pick a different one, any word will do it's the tone, motion and posture that really relays the command.

One of the great things about huskies is they are very very very smart and it really doesn't take long , with consistent effort on your part, for them to learn. But just like a 3 year old if you give in once that is all it will take to send you back to square one lol.

This is all very good advice i have the same problem with Nala i just recently got a huge gash across my forehead because when i lay down on the floor Nala thinks its time to attack OUCH! she also does laps around the top of the sofa and like to almost hop into peoples arms when they walk in, the trainer we had told us to use a blow horn so we did and that worked for a while until she started to get used to the noise so it no longer bothered her when the sound would go off, now we just ignore it.

the only thing that stuck with her from the training class are the sit stay lay down shake high five and "drop it" every so often she will "speak" as well