Biting and Growling, does this pup need a muzzle!!??!!??

[Ollie's Mom]

Ollie is 13 weeks old and have been biting and growling at us since we got him at 8 week!  He will sit and go "down" (for a treat) but 15 seconds later he is back to jumping up, growling, biting. It hurts! I want us all to bond and enjoy him but he's making it very difficult. My kids are 8 and 10 and, put it this way, my son took Ollie out in the backyard to play with him yesterday and all Ollie did was bite his legs so my son put him in the garage "time out" crate. Ollie just barks his head off when you put him in there. We've tried ignoring him (stand still and look away) BUT he just keeps biting. We've tried the time out crate and the barking just grates on your nerves, it sort of works to distract him w/ a toy or treat and making him sit but he's usually back at it withing 30 seconds.  He growls if we try to pick him up and snuggle.  Even when he naps he's away from everyone and it just makes me sad. I wanted a nice doodle to play with, pet, brush (he also hates being brushed, acts like I'm stabbing him).  We start training at a pet store this Friday but right now I am just frustrated and my husband is BEYOND frustrated (is talking about trading him in!). Which I don't want to do but I don't want him adding stress to the family either!

[Laura and Angus]

I can totally understand how you feel! My puppy Angus is 14 weeks and we have been dealing with a lot of crazy puppy behaviors. Below is a link to a website that made me feel a lot better - feel free to browse around. We have been using these strategies for the biting for the past few weeks and, although Angus still gets pretty rambunctious and "bitey" he has really begun to control himself when we tell him "No biting" in a firm voice. We still occasionally have to do a "time out" in the kitchen, but we only put him in there for about a minute or two before allowing him to come back out. Sometimes he ends up right back in there a minute later, but usually by the second "time out" he has calmed down and is better able to listen and play safely. 

This site helped us at our wits end: 

http://www.fidosavvy.com/puppy-behavior.html

Just a thought, you may want to consider a "time out" location closer to the family - e.g. a bathroom or kitchen area that is puppy-proofed ... put some toys in there. The time outs should not be a punishment, but more a teaching and calm down area - we always make sure Angus has a couple toys in the kitchen during a time out. It's more to say, "Hey, if you bite we don't get to play.." in order to teach that biting is not an acceptable form of play and also to get a much-needed chill out (for both of you). 

Hopefully reading about how normal the crazy puppy behaviors are will help you all as much as it did for us. We're already much calmer puppy parents :) Good luck!!

[Deb's Yarrow and Schatzi]

These are normal puppy games. This way of playing is perfectly acceptable in the canine world. I thought Yarrow was a viscous little land shark for the first few months. I had holes in my clothes and band aids on my fingers. It was never her intention to hurt me. Every time she opened her mouth, there were those razor sharp baby teeth.
I'm sure you'll get plenty of support and advice on DK, as I did. From the unholdable, unpetable puppy, Yarrow has grown into the most loving, affectionate snuggle puppy. You have to let go of your expectations of a docile creature and work with a load of patience. My most helpful motto was, 'a tired pup is a good pup'. Basically, if she wasn't sleeping, I had to get her out to burn off the puppy craziness! Most helpful are play dates with other puppies. They learn best from each other how rough is TOO rough. Good luck. My kids are all grown up. I can only imagine how much more difficult it is to raise a puppy with young children who just want to cuddle him.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Deb, as usual, nailed it! These are common puppy traits. It's what puppies do to keep themselves occupied in the Canine version of our world. The puppy training classes will help, but all of your family will also need to learn how to handle the " puppy crazies". Tiring him out...in non-agressive ways, will help. Like the throwing of a ball, as opposed to getting him riled wrestling with a toy.
Puppies are a lot like kids. Good manners are taught...they just don't happen. Patience, training and consistency, are key.

[Laura and Angus]

I agree with the exercise too! We try to get our guy out to run around in fenced in areas and lots of walks! There's also the mental energy of a very intelligent pup, so doing lots of shorter training sessions to give an outlet for all the smart doodle thinking they're doing!

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

A few things to mention here:

1.  Dogs find hugging an act of aggression.  Dont hug your dog.   As for snuggling at this age well that wont happen until many months from now. My dog was over 3 when he decided that we werent a game and that we sleep and snooze together and he thought joining us might be great. Until that time, he choose to get some deep sleep on the floor.  

So bottom line, picking him up and snuggling is just setting him off by exciting him or maybe even offending him.

2.  Biting, growling, jumping are the most common complaints we get from new puppy owners here on DK.  It is common as the sun shines and it passes in the next several months.  This is puppy play.  This is how they play with their littermates: Bite, Growl, Pounce, Jump, Bite, Growl.......... It's cute-not. Not on your arm.  But its common and normal.

Give this pup some time outs and walk away. Take a deep breath.  

DO give as much exercise as possible. One great thing about these dogs are that they are retrievers.  Take this difficult time and go wear him down playing FETCH

Here is one recent discussion along with a few videos.   

Your dog is playing. That's how puppies play. It is normal but not so nice when it happens to you, We get it  :)

Buy several Antler Chews. Another reason dogs bite is that they are teething. In addition to teething it is nature that makes puppies bite. It is as natural as sucking in infants. YOU CANT CHANGE THIS!  

Another discussion: Biting Us

Hugging Dogs: Why they find it as an act of Aggression

[SK & Hudson]

It will get better...seriously. Hudson, our f1b goldendoodle will turn 2 years old this week and your description of Ollie's behavior sounds just like our Hudson in her first few months. The biting is obnoxious after a while, but Ollie is still learning to redirect the teething pain and how to interact with you. When Hudson would turn into a monster and do her zoomies (even after an hour long walk!), the biting was the worst. You want them to get the energy out, just like a 5 year old human shaking their shakies out, but I found the "no biting" and giving myself a time out on the other side of the gate or door with my back turned and arms crossed seemed to help Hudson understand that biting made me unhappy and I wouldn't play with her if she did that. The "kisses" command has also helped her to turn into a sweetie pie when she was nipping as a puppy. When they are doing something you don't want them to do, distract them with a command and praise so they will learn what actions you do like. On the biting note, your puppy is likely teething and could use a good variety of chew toys, but just make sure you don't give it to Ollie right after nipping...that would make you feel better to distract the biting quickly, but you would give Ollie the wrong impression that you get a toy for biting. Try a split antler, bully sticks (they smell and make sure you don't get a tendon, they get eaten too fast), frozen toys, carrots (don't let him run off to white bedding or a couch with it), or ice (ice can be controversial, some note that it can cause digestive spasms). Also, Hudson hated the crate with a passion. She would get histerical and chew through anything we put in or on the crate, so we quickly realized crating or time out in a crate wouldn't convey the message to her and we would just get more frustrated. Giving ourselves a visible timeout for her (ignoring her basically after a stern "no biting") seemed to convey that message to her instead. Then when she would start biting during play, we would say " no biting", which (i like to think) she associated with being left out and ignored. Once Ollie is old enough (I think 6 months or a year old), I'd recommend a citronella bark collar (about $35 on amazon). It catches Hudson in the act of barking and she gets thrown off and stops immediately. She does associate the collar with quite time now, and if she wants to say something she just let' out a quiet whine. I also still struggle with brushing Hudson. She leaps back as though we are fencing, and if I brush her, she tries to eat the brushes. The eating the brush part is my fault for letting her nibble on it when she was a puppy when I first started brushing her. Now I put peanut butter on my toes and let her lick them while I bend over and brush her (that also helps for applying Frontline to her neck). I also wish i had spent more time practicing putting a muzzle on her and associating it with a treat. It would have been so incredibly useful for grooming her (which i really can't do myself anymore) and more importantly, for ear drops for infections. Once Ollie is vaccinated and ready to mingle with other dogs, get him socialized asap with dogs that are older and behave well. I swear that every time we leave Hudson with a puppy sitter through DogVacay.com that has a well socialized dog and they themselves are trainers (you can search for people who train dogs), she comes back even more obidient. The puppsitting is great because she learns from the behavior of the pack and a trainer in their home that reinforces the good behavior, we get in a nice weekend trip or vacation, and we come home refreshed to a tired dog. Anyways, keep up the consistency and know that it will get better. Just remember that anything you teach them now or let them do will be difficult to reteach later (like Hudson eating the brush). If you ever feel like trading Ollie in, do reach out to us, we'd love to give Hudson a little brother.

[Kathryn Clark]

I SOO hear you here! I wondered if we'd gotten gypped with our bitey, growly puppy. I was so worried about it I had a trainer come to our house to help. That was a LIFESAVER! Within thirty minutes of observing our routine, she'd figured out he hated being touched behind his head, hated being picked up (which we have to do in our three story house to take him potty 10x a day!) and hated being touched when he needs to go potty. Her tips were avoid doing all the things that make him growl like picking him up to go potty (we put him on a leash and take him down safe stairs he can navigate), let him approach us for snuggle time (which he does a lot now!), when he's sleeping and we need to move him, coax him out with treats first, etc. One of the things that helped was to give puppy massages every day. After two days of this, he was much more used to letting us touch him. With regards to the biting when playing (we have a ten year old too so I know how hard that is), if he bites we say "AH AH!" and leave him by walking away to an area where he can't get you and ignore him for about 15 seconds. He still hates being touched behind his head, which makes it hard when every single stranger wants to pet him in public and he tries to bite them.  But at 13 weeks, he's much improved and I think it was having that trainer recognize where the specific issues were. It was totally obvious after she pointed it out. And the sleeping away from you happened to us too but just last night, he woke up, found me in the house and came to sleep at my feet! For us it was worth 120.00 to have the trainer help us figure it out! We're still working on training our ten year old to be around him though. That's a work in progress! Good luck!! 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Kathryn, have your doodle's ears checked for an infection. It may be nothing, but often when a dog doesn't want you to touch behind the ears it is because the ears hurt.

[Kathryn Clark]

Hi Nancy! We did check for an ear infection and anything else that might bother him back there. I suspected it might be something along those lines but he's completely healthy. I suspect perhaps he had a traumatic incident or was handled badly before we got him. He's doing much better even a few days after I posted this. A stranger was able to stroke his head this morning while his tail wagged!

[Tracey & Spike]

OMG!! You've just re-told the exact same story many of us on here have lived through. You are not alone!. My dad was thisclose to taking Spike to the SPCA. I'm not even joking. Thisclose. He was convinced that Spike was a vicious violent monster.  I was in tears. Finding a good training school and advice on here saved our lives. Literally.

The biting, jumping, growling etc are all normal. Spike was famous for sitting like an angel then BOOM! Psyco dog. He'd do anything to get a rise out of us because to him we were "playing". If we were to yell or try to grab him the game became so much more exciting.

What helped us (like others have mentioned) was to have a time out area in another room.. but close enough that he could still hear us. In our case we used and still do use the kitchen. We have gates to block it off. When Spike goes into demon mode we very calmly remove him to it. No yelling. No screaming. Just quiet calm removal. At first we used a houseline on him at all times so we could grab that to get him. Now we keep the house line handy and have him sit, put the line on and then remove him. The kitchen area has never been used as punishment. Just quiet time outs. We always keep chew toys there along with his bed. Not to mention his food and water are there as well so the kitchen is more like a den.

Time outs never last long. But there were some nights where he was in and out of them so frequently I got tired myself!

It takes patience but you will work through it. Our demon pup days aren't that far in our past but it seems like a distant.. nightmare... Spike is now 10 months old and is a TOTALLY different dog.

Another thing that helped? Since your guy is probably teething.... have LOTS of chewy stuff. Spike LOVES the heck out of the nylabone dinosaurs and galileo's. He will chew on those for hours on end. Another favorite? Our pet store sells small nylon ropes. We soak them in water and keep them in the freezer. We pull them out as needed. Feels great of a teething mouth :)

Be patient. Be calm. You WILL get through this!

[Marie + Marshall]

THANK YOU for this post. I have a 15 week old male GD. The same stuff in our house. Except he likes to sleep near us. Other than that, very similar behavior. I have tired EVERY single technique on the biting (and sometimes growling) and nothing has worked yet.  He has ripped several of my PJ bottoms, a couple good shirts and my arms looks like I'm abused. I live with a bottle of bitter apple right near me. Not the cute, cuddly pup I envisioned..But I love him to death. Thank for all the responses...it gives hope!!

[Laura and Angus]

I hear ya...as tough as it is, just continue being consistent with your responses and rest assured that they will decrease and ultimately stop. Anyway, that's what everyone says and what we're banking on in my household :) Hang in there!!