10 week old puppy growling at my son - need to deal with ASAP

ali-t

blue_monkey wrote: »

Right.... so I have now just been on the receiving end of some growling. She was playing with the other dog and the growling got louder and louder, I stopped her going near the older dog and she growled at me. So I said no and put her to bed in her crate. It was just about on the hour I was allowing her out to play before putting her to bed so i do think that hour is enough.

Was this the right or wrong thing to do, please? If not, what do I do if she growls at me for stopping her play?

Personally I wouldn't put the dog in the cage for growling as the associations with the crate should be positive. I don't know about your other dog but staffies are generally very sensitive and don't like being ignored so time out can be a good thing but keeping the crate with positive associations is best. Just like sending a child to their bedroom for being naughty is counter productive when you want the child to go to bed early and they haven't been badly behaved.

blue_monkey_2

Thanks, so it's physcology then. If I cannot say no how do I stop her chewing a hole in the carpet as she has done tonight, how do I stop her doing it and if she growls, what do I do? If I ignore it, how will she learn it is wrong? If she is chewing a hole in the carpet, I am supposed to ignore that as well? She has 10 chew toys but is not really interested in one of them. Same as when we walk through the room and she is nipping the back of our heels or thinks it's a game to hang onto someone clothes?

These are serious questions, we have always said 'no to our other dog and yes, if we give her a time out it is on her bed and she sulks. But where do we put her if we give her a 'time out' then?

I am applying the exact same techniques used on our other dog who is well behaved, but our other dog never growled like this when annoyed/tired/upset and had more interest in toys when she was chewing.

PS. Hi ali-t. Hope all is good your end. x

ali-t

Hey Clare, all is well round here. Hope the holiday went well, I was just thinking the other day I haven't seen you round here for a while.

Rather than no I use ah-ah as a distractor. Could you use the hall or the kitchen? Like I said in another post my experience of staffies is they are horrors as pups. My rott boy was a gem as a pup but turned into a nightmare as puberty hit but my staff was a gem by the time she was one. Not much consolation for you just now but distractions work wonders. Good luck xx

Raksha

Ignore the behaviour you don't like

If you can't ignore it, redirect/distract the dog onto something else.

Reward and praise the behaviour you do like

sarabe

blue_monkey wrote: »

... If I cannot say no how do I stop her chewing a hole in the carpet as she has done tonight, how do I stop her doing it and if she growls, what do I do? If I ignore it, how will she learn it is wrong? If she is chewing a hole in the carpet, I am supposed to ignore that as well? She has 10 chew toys but is not really interested in one of them. Same as when we walk through the room and she is nipping the back of our heels or thinks it's a game to hang onto someone clothes?

Obviously you can't ignore her chewing the carpet and let her carry on. It's best to put her in her crate with a valuable chew toy when she is in a 'chewy' mood if you can predict that she is going to chew something you don't want her to.

If she has 10 chew toys then they will be of little value to her. She needs just one at a time and it needs to be really novel to her.

She is nipping your heels and clothes when you walk through a room because puppies are attracted to things that move.

Get yourself a tug toy or two that will touch the ground when you are holding it and stood up or walking through the room and animate that as you walk through. Make it like a snake in the grass. If she doesn't bite that instead I'll eat my hat.

Helps with recall too, having a really fun game to come to.

quietheart

Sarabe
Sorry to hijack the thread but what would you suggest for a 6month old lab/ret cross who behaves really well in the house but jumps up at random people in the street (to the point of walking on her hind legs - would be amusing if it wasn't dangerous.....).
Also she walks well on the lead if it's just me and we concentrate but when my children are there she's pulling like crazy.
Thanks!

sarabe

quietheart wrote: »

Sarabe
Sorry to hijack the thread but what would you suggest for a 6month old lab/ret cross who behaves really well in the house but jumps up at random people in the street (to the point of walking on her hind legs - would be amusing if it wasn't dangerous.....).
Also she walks well on the lead if it's just me and we concentrate but when my children are there she's pulling like crazy.
Thanks!

I've been working with a lab that can't walk past anyone without mugging them.

We have clicker trained her to keep four feet on the floor and she has pretty much got it now.

We started with her and owner stationary and someone approaching them. At the point that the dog sees them but they are too far away to jump on she is clicked and treated as long as four feet are on the ground. She quickly understood that. We then just gradually got nearer making sure that she was able to succeed. Also added the cue 'feet' at this point.

Then we used lots of different people including ones that were more exciting. If she went wrong it was our fault for expecting too much. Then we increased the distance again and did it with her walkikng with her owner, gradually getting close to people.

Now when she is out walking and the dog sees someone the cue 'feet' and a click and treat or a game of tug is all that is needed.

Same with the lead walking. Reward what you want and then gradually set up the distraction of the children making sure that she can succeed. If she can't get it right you've gone too far too soon.

cheepskate_2

ali-t wrote: »

Not letting the dog call the shots in terms of himan contact is pretty common in dog training circles and has been reccomended by a lot of trainers/behaviourists I know. If you do this the dog should come to the child when the child initiates the contact so the dog realises that the child is in control of the situation e.g. the dog can be called over by the child, given a treat and stroked. This is similar to the principal of letting the child be the one that feeds the dog and prepare the dog for going outside - good things happen around the child.

Was thinking this myself. The dog only gets petted when your child decides, not when the dog wants to. This puts your child in control., not thedog .

Was this a dominant puppy out of the litter, more outgoing etc. This could make a huge difference in how to look at the behaVIOUR.

I can remember reading an article on its not picking the wrong type of dog / or the puppy being and agressive dog , but picking the wrong personality of the dog over your own personality.

I think its good you are getting help, but i would personally not be looking at how to train the DOG, but training yourself how to deal with a more dominant dog (whicvh it seems like)as along the way more little bits may come up..

A more dominant dog doesnt mean to say itis aggressive , just it needs a different (firmer)approach to dealing with things.

Also walk them seperatly when young or the puppy may not socialize properly, 1 walk aday forsocialization should befine

Good luck

shegirl

sarabe wrote: »

Obviously you can't ignore her chewing the carpet and let her carry on. It's best to put her in her crate with a valuable chew toy when she is in a 'chewy' mood if you can predict that she is going to chew something you don't want her to.

If she has 10 chew toys then they will be of little value to her. She needs just one at a time and it needs to be really novel to her.

She is nipping your heels and clothes when you walk through a room because puppies are attracted to things that move.

Get yourself a tug toy or two that will touch the ground when you are holding it and stood up or walking through the room and animate that as you walk through. Make it like a snake in the grass. If she doesn't bite that instead I'll eat my hat.

Helps with recall too, having a really fun game to come to.

I agree with this.

I've got a 10 week old gorgeous beagle who is full of energy and will happily chew or attempt to eat anything (even likes the idea of eating the content of soiled nappies:eek:).Anyway,if he starts chewing something he isn't allowed,either me distract him with something he is allowed to chew.His favourite is his sausages on a string tug toy,snaking it around gets his attention in no time and he eventually runs off with it ,after playing with you,and settles to play on his own.His Nylabone doesn't work too well though.We've also already taught him how to play fetch like this and he loves it Eventually he runs off when you try getting hi to give it to you again though as if to say '!!!!!! off,it's mine' lol

Fortunately,we've had no problems with him trying to bite ankles while walking though.He did attempt sleeves a couple of times while sat with us but he's so easily distracted!

Only growl we've had so far is when he was watching a moth:rotfl:

blue_monkey_2

Tsk, I've just done a long message and it did not post. I am shattered (always happens when I walk when it is cold) so will try and get back to post more tomorrow and answer PM tomorrow sara. Sorry. I am just too tired to think about the post again. I was pretty much going to say that we already do what has been suggested re: distraction and having toys. I am just worried everything I have been taught to do has now been wrong.

Also a quicky, our other dog jumps up when people arrive and I've never been able to sort this out without ending up yelling. Result is that she gets put into the kitchen until she has calmed down. So I can reward her for 'stay down' (does this work?), She is not a dog that is motivated by food. If there is a choice of people or food she will choose people and this is why it has been so hard. We also seen to have people who when we ask them to ignore her don't so that does not help. Unfortunately her dog friends all do the same - however, her dog friends do not weigh 25kgs and so it has to stop. She is 18 months old so I think can be trained but is adolescence the best time to do this? She does not jump up at strangers outside, just people who come to the house. She is allowed into the room when she has calmed down so she does not get put out there all the time, just when she has got used to them being there. She is lovely, wonderful natured job, just gets very excited in the first 10 minutes when people come round.