Need Advice on Puppy Biting!

[Anne and Scarlett]

10 week old Scarlett has been having frequent episodes of lunging and growling/nipping/biting us (hard).She tries to be dominant. We have tried everything to stop the biting...nothing seems to work. We always keep her supervised and have her leash on the majority of the time (not in the crate) because of the biting and to keep her from getting into everything . Putting a toy( she has a wide variety) in her mouth doesn't always work because she drops it and wants to bite us instead. If we ignore and turn away, she bites our legs and butt. Saying "no bite"and clamping her muzzle works once in a while but many times it seems to make her more agressive. Bitter Yuck and using a squirt bottle doesn't work. We have put her in her crate for time out but the crate is at the other end of the house and it is hard to pick her up when she is in that biting frenzy. This seems to happen in the mornings and in the evenings mostly and after she has gone outside to potty. Otherwise, she is smart, sweet, affectionate, loves meeting people and likes to have her belly scratched. She also is housebroken and is crate trained. Scarlett is very food motivated (loves kongs) and has responded very well to learning basic commands with the clicker.We try to praise her when she is behaving. The commands goes out the window though, trying to control her when she starts biting. She hasn't gotten much exercise outside except some in the evening since the temperatures are hovering around 100 degrees. We are at wits end and wondering what we are doing wrong or if she is developing a bad temperment or if this is the norm for puppies. My 11yr old daughter is becoming afraid of her...and we are becoming quite discouraged.

 

Anne

[Heather Martinez]

Teddy had the same issue at this age. He would get down like he wanted to play and then lunge at me. If I turned my back on him or tried to ignore it, he would bite my pants. He tore so many pairs of pajamas and even caused bruises and cuts on my legs. Like your daughter, I started to be a little afraid of him when he was like that. He was still doing this at 4 months when we started working with a private trainer. He already knew sit and down, but we started a strict training program where if he did not respond to a command after two times, you make him do it (by holding the leash in such a way that he either sits or down,). Once he does it, he gets praise and petting. We also started working on down stay. within a couple weeks the biting issue stopped (he was about 4.5 months old). I believe it is because we stopped coddling him and got better control, but it's possible he just grew out of it. Good luck! Teddy is an absolutely wonderful boy now at 7 months and we have very few issues with him. The period between 10 weeks to 4 months was definitely the most challenging for us.

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

Anne...What you described with Scarlett is EXACTLY what we are going through with Bexter (10 weeks old)!  I am soo glad you posted this discussion as I am looking for answers myself.  My younger son (just turned 6) is not helping the situation because he gets on the floor & kind of plays like they are littermates & he has a high pitched voice.  He has had many shorts torn by Bexter's teeth already.  My older son (10) is scared of Bexter if he is a playful nippy mode.  He always has to ask "Is he in a calm mood?" before he will approach Bexter.  It makes me sad because the boys are a major reason why I wanted Bexter.  However, I am hoping it is NOT a temperament issue, but really just a puppy phase.  Having said it is puppy behavior, though, I do NOT want to make excuses & get him in bad habits.  We yelp LOUD & it doesn't matter, we turn our back & he just jumps & nips at the back of our legs/clothes, we give him a toy & sometimes that works & sometimes it doesn't.  I have now been grabbing his muzzle while saying NO BITE!  Sometimes I have to do that like 3 times before he gets a clue.  If nothing else, your post lets me know I am not alone.  Sorry I don't have any advice!!!

[Shawn,Dana, Guinness and Barney]

We had the same issue with Sprocket. Heather is right in her suggestions. Scarlett is doing what puppies do. What you are seeing is Scarlett's way of playing, saying "good morning", "hello", or assuming dominance in her pack. This is Scarlett trying to communicate in the only way she knows. It's our job to use her language to show her how not to act. What is acceptable in the kennel with her birth siblings is not necessarily acceptable with you or your daughter.

There are two things that are done by her mother that will be very helpfull to you. These can be observed at any time with a mother and pups:

1. When one of her litter is out of line you will see the mother nudge or lunge at the pup. Not in violence just a simple bump on the side or a shove of the pup with her muzzle. This is sometimes softly, sometimes firmly, but is almost always proportionate with the unwanted behavior. This actually serves as a distraction to the pup to re-focus on something else. It will aslo somtimes be accompanied by a low quiet growl. Keep in mind inapropriate puppy behavior is not neccesarily inappropriate people behavior, and vica versa. As Scarletts human Mom you can implement this by using three fingers to give her a tap on the side with a quiet even no.

2. The second action you can take is to roll her. Some have issues in doing this. But this is a completely natural thing to do. If her mother does not have success with in distracting her with a "nudge" she will after a time with her mouth around her pups neck and a low but slightly louder growl force the pup on her side to the ground and hold her there until she goes limp in submission.

These are just some basics in puppy language commands, that she needs to know, that you know. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quick she will recognize the authority structure you give her. Once she figures out, that you have figured out how to talk dog. LOL.

A few other things to keep in mind.

Keep idle talk with her to a minimum. When you or the children talk a lot to her in an animated or excited way, or outside of direct commands, all she hears at this age is an invitation to play.

Make sure when you are walking away from or towards her that you keep your hands by your sides, not up in the air . Again if you watch dogs in there natural state the are continually competing for every thing. The bone. Mom. Food. Attention from there siblings. Hands in the air is just a trigger that sparks curiosity and competitive nature.

Keep in mind she is 10 weeks old she will learn a tremendous amount over these next few months, as will you. These are incredibly intelligent animals and they will amaze you over time.

By the way there can be a time when spraying with water can help to distract, or holding her gently by the muzzle to avoid harm to her or some on else can be productive, but 10 weeks is a very early for that.

You may also benefit greatly from puppy classes get her enrolled as soon as you can. This will help both of you, and it's a lot of fun.

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

When Sedona was a baby, we asked her trainer how we could eliminate her biting/nipping.  She suggested that we didn't really want to eliminate it, rather we wanted to help her calibrate the force of her bite.  We did that by allowing her to nip as long as it was "gentle".  If the nipping became too hard, we yelped loudly, like a litter mate might during play.  We'd then continue the play session, praising the gentle nipping.  If we had to yelp more than a time or two, the play session ended.  It was surprising how quickly she stopped biting hard.  Now at nearly two, she'll mouth us gently, but never bite hard.  According to the trainer, this is safer than trying to completely eliminate biting as she'll naturally restrict her bite pressure even when stressed.

[Eva and Fenway]

Deanna, 

 

This is where I've met with success thus far. Fen is still really young (9 weeks) but I've started allowing extremely gentle mouthing, yelling 'OW' when it is too hard. I guess I'm following the Dunbar method on this one. Slowly I will decrease the allowable bite pressure. Eventually we'll move to "mouthing is never okay unless I start it". Basically the point, if I'm understanding, is to train them that biting does not initiate play, but rather stops it. The hard part is when I stop the play, and hold 100% still, arms crossed, she may jump up on me or other bad behavior. It's really hard to ignore, but that's the important part of it. 

 

Traci/Ann - hopefully this all works for you guys. Would love to hear updates as I'm going through the same phase, it sounds like. :)

[Linda and "Toby"]

I know how worrisome it is when they start to show these signs of aggression. There's a big difference between this and biting/nipping while playing. At around 3 to 4 months old, many young dogs will try to establish their position within the hierarchy of your family.  Toby did this, too. He would turn into a Tazmanian devil - a whirlwind of snapping and biting - if we tried to pull a stolen sock out of his mouth, or heaven forbid, try to make him move over when he was sleeping. He would never dream of doing this now. He's a total love-bug. :)

Although I knew at the time that it was very common problem, and something you MUST address/correct within the next few months or you'll have a lifetime of it, I was extremely discouraged. It made me feel sad and hurt that this precious pup that I loved and adored sooooo much would "turn on me." He never did this with my husband - just with my daughter and I. Having young grandchildren running around our house, we had to nip this behavior in the bud, so to speak. Fortunately, I had worked closely with a trainer many years ago when we had a HUGE 150lb Akita mix that had "aggression issues."

Shawn's Action #2 works GREAT! The moment your dog growls/bares her teeth, you have to swiftly grab the fur on the back of her neck with one hand, and with your other hand, swoop her feet out from under her and ROLL/FLIP her onto her side. (Practice this movement several times while you're playing so can learn how to do it fast/smooth.) Once you get her down and she stops fighting and goes limp, hold her muzzle carefully, and then lean in and growl at her aggressively for about 30-seconds. If feels mean, but it's not - this is what dogs in the wild do. It's "tough-love" and these doodles are so smart/trainable, it works beautifully!

Side note: Keep in mind that she has to be able to count on you to protect her from young children who may trap her in a corner and poke her eyes or pluck her whiskers. There are times when she may have to growl a little bit to get your attention. :)

 

 

[Anne and Scarlett]

I am working on action #2 and have seen some improvement today. Adding the growl seems to snap her out of it. I just have to keep working at it.

[Shawn,Dana, Guinness and Barney]

Awesome! Soon you'll have a well behaved Doodle

[Lisa Ortmann]

My Oscar is now 9 months old and we went through this too when he was around 10-20 weeks old...  Around 10 weeks he was doing the growling and niping and I was really starting to think I had brought home a monster instead of a family dog!

We continued with telling him "no bite", and the muzzle grabbing, and having the kids and others turn their backs to him if he started with the mouthing...  The growling he grew out of very quickly.  My husband and I made sure to take treats and food right out of his mouth and then hand it back and put our hands in his bowl with his food while he was eating.  He quit growling and became much more passive in just a week or two.  The nipping continued when he played but the kids weren't afraid of him anymore...  We still have to watch him some when he gets excited because he seems to like to use his mouth when excited and playing but it is night and day better.  If she is doing so well in all of the other areas I am sure this will get better.  My two goldens were always "mouthy" too in the beginning but grew out of it...  Hang in there!

 

 

[Helen & Kirby]

Eventually your puppy should grow out of this biting stage.  The moment  she starts ignore her, walk away, turn your back.  I know its hard when they are jumping up biting on your shirttails!  Puppy class helps too.  When you teach leash walking, sit, etc. the pup learns who is the "alpha."  Puppies really want attention, so withholding it when that biting behavior starts really helps.  Mostly it just takes time --and a lot of torn clothes, bandaides, etc.