Puppy Advice (merged)

piratess

Our lab was exactly the same at around this age! teething most definatly! ...

The thing i found that did work (somtimes) is to "yelp" .. aparently they still accosiate this with being in the litter yelp and move your hand ..

Ignoring is also good maybe fold your arms and turn your back
Definatly lots of chew toys ... Frozen liver ice cubes or carrots to cool gums down.

Please dont use crate for punishment! the crate should be their place of sanctuary.

good luck .. what ever method you go with stick to it! ... they are like toddlers and know which buttons to press! oh and please dont smack the nose!

best of luck

supermezzo

^ I concur

Frozen kongs, frozen chunks of carrot, nyla bones do survive being frozen - just make sure not to give them to him 'for' biting but before he does or he'll see them as a reward for the biting itself.
A very high pitched 'yelp' when he bites followed by you walking away and leaving the room is usually more effective than putting them out of the room I find (you may need to record favourite programmes for a while as Murphy's law dictates that he'll play up at a crucial TV moment!) and ignoring him (even if he nips you again to get your attention) will eventually get the message through.
The barring his teeth etc sounds to me as though he's upped the stakes as he's realised that you are asserting your authority and pecking order - stay firm and he will soon accept who is in charge.

mojy

Thanks for all of the advice. The biting does seem bad to me (more than just mouthing) but as I said it is many years since we have had a puppy in the house and I'm sure that I have forgotten what it was like!
Will keep up the advice of the puppy trainer. He's off to puppy class tonight again so hoping for more advice then. It is difficult to train him to do anything at the moment because of the biting but I'm sure things will get better.The worse thing is that the kids are really fed up with him biting now (all teenagers) and don't have much interaction with him which is such a shame.I'm encouraging them to come to training classes with me to
see a different side to him.

I'm sure in six months time I'll look back on this time and laugh!

bertiebots

If I were you I would take him to the vets (to rule out any medicl cause) and ask for a referal to a dog behaviourist. This is typical dominant behaviour but I think you are being given poor advice by the trainer.
The only way for your dog to learn is for you to learn how to react to unwanted behaviour and biting is something that can be very dangerous. I have a staffy cross lab who mouthed a little when a pup but I was very firm about the fact that biting is a no no.
The instant any unwanted behaviour accurs the dog must be pushed away and ignored calmly...any stress in you will be seen as weekness by the dog and encourage more mouthing. The minute a dog bites it needs to be shown that you will not tollerate it and by making it into a game you are sending the wrong signals...sorry to disagree with other posters.

foreign_correspondent

I think it does sound like nomal pup behaviour, and the way the pup keeps coming back at you suggests he thinks it is a game - you need to let him know that you are not playing, perhaps by ignoring.

When we got my mums rescue dog she used to grab hands and arms when playing - we found that folding our arms and turning away from her everyime she did this worked well.

bertiebots

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

I think it does sound like nomal pup behaviour, and the way the pup keeps coming back at you suggests he thinks it is a game - you need to let him know that you are not playing, perhaps by ignoring.

When we got my mums rescue dog she used to grab hands and arms when playing - we found that folding our arms and turning away from her everyime she did this worked well.

Sorry to disagree but attacking your owner as the OP describes is not normal puppy behaviour. I have had lots of dogs and never had a puppy who attacked .

foreign_correspondent

bertiebots wrote: »

Sorry to disagree but attacking your owner as the OP describes is not normal puppy behaviour. I have had lots of dogs and never had a puppy who attacked .

very hard to say withut seeing the pup doing this, but to me it sounds like it may well be rough play, which is normal but unpleasant and should be discouraged, rather than an out and out dog 'attack' - perhaps the OP could clarify?

suki1964

bertiebots wrote: »

Sorry to disagree but attacking your owner as the OP describes is not normal puppy behaviour. I have had lots of dogs and never had a puppy who attacked .

And I really cant see that the pup is attacking tbh

A lot of people use emotive terms when describing behaviour - but mostly is lack of experience with pups - or even as in my case - forgotten puppy behaviour I swore to anyone who would listen my cocker was the devil dog and needed to be put down as he was viscious and not to be trusted


I really do believe what the OP is describing is totally normall behaviour. We as humans tend to not realise that puppies play like that with their litter mates and we get on out hands and knees and play rough and tumble with the pup. So it dives in the way it would its litter mates and all of a sudden we have bites and scratches and puppy is "vicious and out of control and attacking"

We as the humans need to train the pup out of this behaviour and that means not putting them in the situation in the first place - so dont play with hands, dont approach pup face on. As soon as teeth come in contact with clothes or flesh - game stops - simple.

Lots of chews this age -carrots, rawhides, frozen clothes, kongs etc

mojy

Just to let you all know that Alfie has been better behaved today. He has been mouthing a lot but I decided not to crate him every time. Instead I brought his puppy pen into the kitchen to put him into if he becomes too rough as he was starting to resist going into his crate and I don't want him to hate it.
I think he is a domineering dog and is going to be very big so I'll need to learn how to handle him when he is still small. I don't want to lable him an agressive dog or anything until I know for sure what I'm dealing with.The puppy trainer has agreed to come to the house to view his behaviour(and mine) and give me a few tips.
Can't really think of anything else that I could do at the moment apart from persevere.

suki1964

You are doing great, as you say the puppy trainer viewing how you interact with each other and then helping you see where things need to change is a great idea

My Alfie was horrible - really horrible. I don't think I even got a cuddle from him in his first 4 months here because of his continued biting - we certainly coulnt play but perserverence worked in the end and now the wee sod loves to sit on top of me and lick me to death. Id trust him with anyone one now - even my grandson,

Dont forget - always have chew things for him and never handle him less you have a toy to substitue for your skin