Am I in the clear?

[Alissa Edwards]

My puppy came home at 7 weeks 0 days and he's now 10 weeks. He gets a little rowdy sometimes, for the most part he's excellent with mouthing gently, not biting and rarely jumps on my kids (I've been taking him to obedience and working with him from 7.5 weeks. 

Obviously I'll continue the training, but my MIL keeps saying "just wait - he's going to be really nippy and jumping all over kids, etc." I feel like if he was going to have those behaviors they would have started by now and as long as we keep on them he should only get better not worse. 

What has your experience been? Did your puppy start out okay and get worse as he / she got older?  Or do you think you sort of "know what you've got" after 3 weeks and 10 weeks old?

[John Wang]

We got Boomer at ~8.5 weeks, and he's now 13 weeks at this point. He's become more excitable and nippy, with a dash of destructive (his playpen is up against the wall. This morning my SO called and said he'd been clawing at the wall and took out some paint and drywall.. so I have a project for me when I get home from work). However, we've had some progress in terms of him walking with us (little/no pulling, higher percentage of not getting distracted by stuff) and he knows (for now) what furniture he's allowed on, and that he shouldn't go after our house plants/slippers/rugs.

That said, I'm fully prepared (and expecting) him to get worse within the next two weeks, but of course hoping for the best :P

The best thing to do is to really emphasize positive reinforcement. If he acts out, ignore him. When he's doing well shower him with praise. Dogs are super social (so hard to emphasize, I never really fully considered it) so ignoring them or leaving them alone with no contact is a much more effective means of making them stop acting out.

If you have friends/family nearby who will actually listen to you, it's REALLY effective to have your dog in a small pen with everyone around on the outside. If he tries to jump up or nip, EVERYONE leaves immediately until he sits back down. They then can resume petting him-unless he gets up again. This will help with random encounters outside. What annoys me is when we try to explain to someone what we're doing, and they say "well that's no fun!" and let our puppy jump all over them...

Also, teaching him sit, I put a treat in my fist where he can only access it by licking. If he tries to bite the treat I can withdraw my hand. Same thing if he stands up from his sit. So the only way he can access the treat when I give it to him is to lick it out of my hand while sitting. Have your kids practice this as well. Pet him while he does this, but move away each time he gets up out of his sitting position.

[Kelly & Zoe]

In a word, no.  Be consistent with training.  When he jumps/bites, turn around and and ignore, and have anyone who interacts with him do the same.  A hard bite gets a yelp from you so he know he's gone too far.  Try teaching sit and stay as soon as possible (its never to early to start), and when you have guests, try either sit/stay (all four paws on the floor before petting) or as John says, pen him until he calms down.  Truthfully, at month 4 my husband and I thought this behavior would never cease and that we had a demon dog, but being consistent with training (and I mean every opportunity, every day), he will definitely get better.  Around 7 months Zoe really calmed down and even still at 9 months while she still jumps when she gets really excited, it's muted and only last for a few seconds.

Hang in there!  Hate to tell you, from my experience, I think the worst is yet to come - but in the end you will have a loving wonderful dood.

[Shanen Sadowski]

I have felt extremely blessed with Maslow.  (Knock on wood) we've never really had any major issues with her.  (She came home at 8 weeks and is now 6 mos.)  We taught her from day one that she needs to sit quietly if she wants to be petted, and she's never jumped up on anyone--always sits as straight as can be if she's wanting to greet someone.  I honestly feel like this is more luck than training as we didn't have to work hard to enforce it.   Nipping/biting/chewing: Haven't had issues here either.  Of course she DID go through a stage where she would chomp on a hand, but we would yell "OW!" loudly and then put a bone in her mouth.  She quickly learned her teeth are for toys not hands. (Maybe again-luck since we have a ridiculous amount of toys around always.) I think for that reason, she also only showed on her toys and bones-no furniture, shoes, etc.

I DO remember saying what a calm pup she was that first week and someone gently said, "Oh…just wait."  :) They were right!  Once they get comfortable they DO come out of their shell and get a bit sassier, but it's all been fun!  Good luck! 

[Kelly & Zoe]

Very lucky indeed!  Sassy is the perfect word - like teenagers...

[Jen W]

I don't know that you're ever in the clear.  At 14 my months my puppy decided for the first time ever to chew through drywall.  But at the same time she suddenly gave up other naughty habits like chewing the remote control.

More than you knowing what you've got, make sure you're consistent so he knows what he's got in a leader.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

LoL..oh to be so naive! ;)
It's like saying my teenager is out of middle-school, so am I safe?
Obviously, some pups are better than others, but at sometime or another, they will all act up.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Exactly, Ro.

[Debbie Daniels]

my puppy came home at 6 weeks and nipped and was mouthy from the first day ... your on the right track , every dog is different, I didn't think my hands would ever clear up and one day she just stopped nipping, same as with potty training, i use to always watch and worry that she would use the house, when she turned 4 months it's as if she turned it off ~ enjoy him for the way he is now , don't worry about what might be bc it just might not be !