Help is on the Way!

[Phoebe's Mom]

I finally broke down yesterday and called a private trainer to come and help us with Phoebe's newfound tween behavior. My poor oldest son is taking the brunt of her biting and jumping with the awesome growling thrown in for good measure. When I consulted the trainer, she told me that dogs growl a lot in play sometimes and that it is not to be confused with the teeth baring, snarling growl of aggression--which Phoebe is NOT doing, thank heavens. While that made me feel a lot better, we still need help learing how to handle her jumping and biting...one minute we are calmly petting her then BAM, the next minute she starts the jump and bite routine. We are all very frustrated as we seem to have tried everything--she wears a leash in the house, we turn our backs, we walk away, we put her in the ex-pen when it will not stop, etc--but nothing seems to be working. Hopefully, we will have a better handle on what we are doing wrong with our corrections by the end of the day. Of course, she will probably act like the cream puff she is around other people and we will look like the crazy ones!!!!

[LuvMyAbby&Kaela]

Good luck! Its almost as if Phoebe needs a canine playmate to get all the rambuctiousness out of her system. She is using your son as that plaything. I cant believe the change in Abby since getting Kaela. She is calmer. She doesnt mouth me at all anymore, and she even doesnt go over the top greeting people anymore. Super enthusiastic greeting, yes. Insane hyper-enthused, no longer. She is 7 months now so I see a real maturing of her. She is so good to Kaela. They play and wrestle constantly but it is gentle, rolling, and barely audible. They make a great pair and I am very happy with the change.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Good luck. Please keep us posted on what works with Phoebe. Our puppy is not in that teen stage yet, but I'm sure he'll get there at some point.