Should I be concerned?

[Monica And Cooper]

Hi guys, I need some advice here. My pup is almost 10 weeks old. The other day, he was laying down and my son went to pick him up. He was not sleeping, just laying down. He growled at him and turned to bite him. He is a mouthy guy and nips a lot. He growls when biting his toys...... All typical puppy behavior, but this was different. I momentarily held him by the nape and gave him a quiet but firm "NO". He retreated to his crate. I am wondering if this is cause for concern. I did not realize a puppy this young could show any signs of aggression. Has anyone had this happen? How should it be handled? And does this imply he may be this way as a full grown dog? Advice please.

[Anna Lara]

My puppy, Willie, did something similar when he was about 14 weeks. I gave him a puppy chew which he took to his crate to proceeded to enjoy it. My 23 year old daughter went over to the crate, laid down beside it in order to let him and he growled at her. I immediately told him "no" very sternly and took the chew away. At that point none of us paid him any attention at all for a little bit. I returned the chew and proceeded to pet him with no problem. We have made sure that periodically when we feed him that we put a hand in the bowl and pet him while he is eating. We are in no way puppy experts, this just seemed to make sense. We may have handled this incorrectly but it seems to have worked!

[Missy]

congrats on the puppy! 

This is typical dog behavior.  When they don't want to be bothered, they will do a warning growl but then snap if the growl didn't work. 

I think you did the right thing by letting your pup know it's not the right behavior!  The actions of the dog going to crate tells me he just didn't want to be bothered!!

When our pup was that young, and it was bedtime, he didn't want to be picked up.  I didn't want him to think that he got to do his way by growling, so in those times where I wanted myself to be leader, I would put my hand over his mouth and pick him up. I never give a command and allow the dog to disobey. (give an inch, they take a mile)

These little guys are still learning about the world they live in. They have to learn there are different times for things. And not knowing how old your son is, maybe teaching your son and dog at the same time concerning boundaries.

Our dood loves children, but he gets tired and needs his rest too.  I make sure he always has a safe place to go: crate, bed, or a different room depending on location and level of kids.  We had a couple of instances with young kids getting snipped at (no broken skin) and I had to train the dog this was not appropriate behavior.  I know to watch for signs the dog wants to be away from the children. Even now at 2 yrs. he goes and rings a bell to alert me he is done! These dogs are smart, but they can't speak, so it is up to us to learn what they are trying to communicate!!

It sounds like your pup already knows the crate is a safe place. Make it available and train him to go there when he needs a time out. This is a great age to learn all of this. And train the kids the crate is off limits!

The other topics could be a factor, but not knowing the age of your son may be irrelevant.  Maybe your son is not picking up the pup properly and the dog doesn't like it anymore.  Or maybe your son and pup had some sort of incident and the dog got hurt, which would make him leary of your son. (especially when he is tired)

I think you did the right thing.  I do not think your pup is aggressive.  You are right that you need to deal with this now!

My opinion, but realize I am not a professional, just my personal experience.

[Laura and Angus]

I also wanted to share that with what you described it's hard to know the motivation. Little puppies growl and nip at each other during play (this is how puppies play and interact) and it may just be that he thought your son was coming over for a play session. This is how little puppies engage others in play. You can definitely let him know at any point when this behavior is not appropriate, but I puppies at 10 weeks are likely not "showing aggression." This is just how they interact ..even when they are calm. If you ever watch videos of lots of puppies together they growl and nip and chew on each other and climb all over each other. That being said, you decide in your house what is and isn't acceptable and it's your job to teach puppy this....so you can definitely say "NO" to any behavior and that you want to extinguish and separate yourself from puppy for 30 seconds or so (our trainer always says no eye contact and no talking to our dog for 30 seconds after disciplining an inappropriate behavior). 

I also wanted to mention that our puppy Angus is a year old now and still (he's always done this) growls to himself when he's chewing on toys. He's very talkative, so sometimes he does some growling or kind of half barking. We never saw it as an aggressive behavior..but as a puppy he was VERY high energy and so we often had to do "time outs" in the kitchen when he would act inappropriately or would get too overly excited. You might want to designate a spot in your house for a "time out" when you need a separation between you all and the puppy. 

[Katie]

Well, since my pup is 14 weeks old I dont have a lot of experience but from what everyone is telling me this is normal puppy behavior.  I can assure you my puppy is / has been doing the same thing. 

Laura had a good idea using the time outs.  I'm goint to try it as "no" and redirecting isnt working for me.

[Laura and Angus]

Our puppy is very strong-willed and high energy. We literally tried everything during his "bitey" stage, but time-outs worked the best for us. It helped us separate for a few minutes to calm down and refocus and it helped him to calm himself. Sometimes he'd come out and have to go right back in for a minute or two, but usually by the second "time out" he'd come out calmer. It's certainly worth a try! We were losing our minds during the bitey/teething madness. ALSO! Ice cubes or frozen carrots to chew on were a great puppy distraction. I wouldn't give your puppy more than one or two frozen carrots, though, since they are really fibrous and may make your puppy have to poo.

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

I'd have your son do some leadership activities with the pup too, so he sees your son as another leader in the family. Things like: feeding him, training for a wait, training tricks for treats, etc. It could help their relationship and build a bond so that when Cooper sees you son approach, that instead of growling/nip, he realizes that your son = good things! :)

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Just a couple thoughts to add. Our Maci growled a few times when she was very young when we would pick her up. But it was my husband and myself, not a child. For what it's worth now, we could do anything at all to her I'm sure. She is such a cuddler and lover, so things did change.
I think some might suggest your child not pick up the puppy now.

[Monica And Cooper]

Thanks everyone. All great suggestions. Hoping that he's just testing limits and that its puppy hood behavior. I know puppies are always nipping and trying to chew on you which is typical. It was just the growling and the intent to bite aggressively that had me worried.