2 years, 2 months ago
Why does my sister's Australian Shepherd go crazy when we laugh or someone is being tickled?
My sister has a purebred Australian Shepherd that gets upset when we laugh hard or when someone is being tickled. My sister demonstrated by trying to tickle me, and the dog jumps up and tries to bite her. Why would this be? My sister has had her since she was 8 weeks old and she is now almost a year old.
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M$1 Answer
The Australian Shepherd is an extremely protective, sheep-herding dog. In that respect they consider who they are looking after to be family. That's right, the dog thinks he's in charge of looking after and protecting anyone who he is close to. If they don't have sheep or cattle to look after and herd, they herd the family :)
Loud noises like laughing and making grabbing movements like tickling towards a family member, by anyone including family will get 'disciplined' they will be told to lay off. The dog will nip and bark to stop you upsetting a member of the family.....at his young age he's still not sure that laughing is fun .... so he errs on the side of caution and 'asks' you to stop
They are beautiful dogs but he must learn that his family like to play around sometimes. He will need to be taught that this behavior is OK ...they are very very protective :)
as for the herding.....as a little experiment its fun to watch them herd people into the family car....if you all stand around he'll run around at everyone to try to get them moving....one of ours used to do that on the farm, like the car was our 'pen' ( his name was Jack, lovely dog )
http://www.321dogs.com/pictures/australian-shepherd-wallpaper.jpg
There's a link below with some good information about the breed
Loud noises like laughing and making grabbing movements like tickling towards a family member, by anyone including family will get 'disciplined' they will be told to lay off. The dog will nip and bark to stop you upsetting a member of the family.....at his young age he's still not sure that laughing is fun .... so he errs on the side of caution and 'asks' you to stop
They are beautiful dogs but he must learn that his family like to play around sometimes. He will need to be taught that this behavior is OK ...they are very very protective :)
as for the herding.....as a little experiment its fun to watch them herd people into the family car....if you all stand around he'll run around at everyone to try to get them moving....one of ours used to do that on the farm, like the car was our 'pen' ( his name was Jack, lovely dog )
There's a link below with some good information about the breed
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M$
you are most welcome :)