Romping around

I don't know how old your dog is, but this sounds like adolescent behavior.  It does sound like he could use some training so that you have a bit more control over him, but it also sounds pretty normal, just obnoxious LOL.

Now, when he does it, he bites the leather couch a few times. His tongue doesn't touch it, so I think that's why bitter apple isn't working. And when we tell him no after he does the play bow and mouths, he barks. It probably is adolescence, but it still seems quite strange.

He is telling you heneeds more exersice. That is why he is also being disutrictive to the couch. Obediance classes and a lto more exersice will do teh trick. What are you going to do when you have vistors? You cant very well lock him away because he hasnt been taught to be a good boy, you get what you put into a dog and it will only get worse as he gets older, he'll become more destructive as well!
 

He's not really being destructive, but just bites it twice. Always, exactly twice.

hhhhmmm, does he do that after provocation from you? When I try to play with Rory and she starts to get too excited she'll go tear apart one of her ropes. Its like she is so wound up, she knows she cant go after me so she takes it out in her rope.
She also did this when my ignorant friend opened the front door and sent her lil dog in without warning and he jumped on Rory;s spot on the couch. She looked at me like "fix it now, get him off" and ran straight to her rope and shook it.
 
Is it something like that?

Sheprano, I like the re-direction to the rope toy, did you teach Rory to do that, or did she just sort of start doing it on her own?  WolfDog, you had said before that your dog is just over a year, right?  Physically, he's an adult, but mentally, he's still a puppy!  Dogs this age often experience what an owner in our obedience class referred to as "the eight o'clock crazies" (because his dog would go nuts every night promptly at 8:00).  It's pretty typical puppy behavior.  It sounds like the only "bad" thing the dog is doing during his spazzy-mode is biting the sofa, so re-direction to a toy like Sheprano's dog will probably work well. 
 
Have you taken your dog to obedience class?  If your dog listens to you attentively and will sit when told, you could also try having the dog sit and stay when you sense he's about to go crazy, then engage the dog in a quick game of fetch or tug-o-war... this way the dog is expending his energy in a constructive way rather than eating the sofa
 
Yes, maybe more excerise would help, too, but a lot of dogs this age seem to have almost unlimited energy (at least mine does!), I'm not sure you could exercise ALL of it away!
 

ORIGINAL: alisiaj78

Sheprano, I like the re-direction to the rope toy, did you teach Rory to do that, or did she just sort of start doing it on her own? 

 
Well when she was a pup and she would nibble on my hand I would say "no bite", grab the rope and say "get your rope" so it was more as a bite inhabition thing,I never intended for it to go this far but I'm obviously happy about it. So now when we start playing rough or she seems frusterated she will take it out on her rope. She did it the other day too when she saw a dog through the fence, she got all anxious and wanted to play, I said "get your rope" and she ran over and gave it a shake. I've kinda improvised off her intiation of using the rope for frusteration or overexcitement.

sheprano: Good idea about redirecting frustration. Thanks.
 

ORIGINAL: alisiaj78


Have you taken your dog to obedience class?  If your dog listens to you attentively and will sit when told, you could also try having the dog sit and stay when you sense he's about to go crazy, then engage the dog in a quick game of fetch or tug-o-war... this way the dog is expending his energy in a constructive way rather than eating the sofa

 
 
And we took him to his first obedience class two nights ago. It was at petco, so I didn't expect much,but actually the trainer really knows her stuff. He already listens much better. But he still does get those eight o clock crazies still.

ORIGINAL: WolfDog

sheprano: Good idea about redirecting frustration. Thanks.

ORIGINAL: alisiaj78


Have you taken your dog to obedience class?  If your dog listens to you attentively and will sit when told, you could also try having the dog sit and stay when you sense he's about to go crazy, then engage the dog in a quick game of fetch or tug-o-war... this way the dog is expending his energy in a constructive way rather than eating the sofa

And we took him to his first obedience class two nights ago. It was at petco, so I didn't expect much,but actually the trainer really knows her stuff. He already listens much better. But he still does get those eight o clock crazies still.

 
Glad to hear Petco is good, we took one at petsmart and in the middle of class other customers would butt in and say "can we pet the puppy" the trainer would stop class for a ten miunte petting session and answer their questions, it was really frusterating!
Its always great to work at home as well, are they having you use hand signals in accordance with the verbal command? I ask because in one of Patricia McConnell's great books she explains that our dogs pay more attention to our body language then our verbal commands. When I read this it had been sometime since our last obediance class but I thought what the heck and used some of the signals we used in class and GUESS WHAT? Rory knew them very well, it was amazing. So now if I grab her attention and use hand signals, its neat to try out stuff so I thought I'd share that with you.
 

The one bad thing about petco is that there is another person who has a shep lab mix, it looks like. She has two 3-year olds. They run around the store. They often came up to ziggy and pet him. In my mind i thought, call me cold, but "Get the h*ll away from me". Then one said. he likes me (one 3-year old). I can't tell them to get away from my dog, you know. But now, we're taking the saturday classes, so hopefully they're not in that class also.