Aggressive play

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Hello fello doodles! Yeti is one of the sweetest little guys I've ever met about 50 percent of the time. When we play (usually includes tugging on a toy or fetch) he sometimes gets overly aggressive. I don't believe it to be mean spirited, I just think he is a puppy who wants to play with us. Sometimes he will bark and then charge at us biting at us a bit and boy does it hurt. Has anyone had experience with this behavior and was able to get it under control?

Things we have tried:
Yelling/screetching ... Usually results in yeti staring at us like we're crazy and then back to play
Frim NO
removing ourselves from the situation
Standing like a tree with no eye contact
Time out in kennel

We are trying to teach him how to calm down with not so much luck thus far. I don't usually mind rough play but I worry he will be too rough with a child or elderly. Sometimes we can get him to stop biting if we say "kisses" however this usually takes a couple minutes for him to calm down.

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Just one thought. We never played tug with our doodles until they were older and we knew their temperment to be calmer. I'd say they were over a year old.

[Kamela & Beckett]

Lots of trainers say not to play tug of war with puppies for this reason. Our Beckett could be quite the handful when he was a pup. While we didn't do this, many people here use "time outs" in the crate. Put him in his crate with a Kong or something for a few minutes and let him out when he's calm. (We didn't do this b/c between work and sleeping at night, we felt our pup was already in crate enough). You can try placing him in another puppy proof room for a few minutes with no interaction (like maybe a gated off kitchen). While this won't help with biting, when Beckett got super wound up in the evenings and wouldn't settle down after having been exercised, had play time, etc. we would put him on a leash and place his bed and a chew toy or 2 at our feet and ignore him until he calmed down. Not being able to race and run around often helped him settle when it seemed he was just overstimulated. The good news is, Yeti will outgrow this. Beckett was wild as a puppy, some days it just seemed exhausting to deal with. At just shy of a year now, he is much calmer and a joy to be around!

[Judith and Addie]

You can play tug of war with Yeti and do training at the same time. Here is a link to a way to do it.

http://www.clickertraining.com/node/3620

A couple things to keep in mind with puppies, and dogs for that matter, is that yelling/screeching and  firm "no" are not going to really get you the behavior that you want.( If your pup is like mine - Addie is a fearful dog - he may become aggressive with the negative training. ) If your puppy nips or even touches your skin when playing tug of war, or any game,  the first thing I would do is stop playing, and walk away with the toy. I also yelp a little or say "ouch". If he is getting over-excited, a brief stay in his crate so that he can settle would probably help as well.

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Thank you all so much! So far this morning we have NOT played tug and he has been much better. Not perfect but an improvement for sure!

[Dee & Chappie]

I agree.   We generally don't play tug of war, but once in awhile we will with a rope toy.   When I get tired of that, I will tell him to drop it, and won't touch it until he drops it.   Then I throw it again, he returns it, and I'll play a little tug for a few seconds before I ask him to drop it.    Mostly play fetch and catch with him.   Good luck.  

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

We are going to stop playing tug with him for awhile at least. He loves it but gets too crazy afterwards. I can't wait for him to be able to go on a walk so when he wants to play hard we can take him on a nice long walk to wear him out. We set up a little area that is yeti proof so we can put him in time out for a couple minutes. I swear he never tires haha :)

[Dee & Chappie]

Well he is just precious.  Chappie is 7 months old, he is a mini, weighs 20 lbs, and 15inches high.   That will be his adult size.   He is rather calm as puppies go, certainly likes to play but when I am busy, he will just lie down and sleep.  The "new" things he is doing is barking at any little noise outside.   No yapping, a real big boy bark.   Then he stops.   When people come to the door, I have started putting the leash on him, so it won't bark, it seems to work, but there is one person who comes ( a woman) who he barks and barks at.   She is very nice person, and the only thing I can figure out, is that she smokes and smells of tobacco, and he doesn't like it.   After about 10 minutes he warmed up to her, but it was actually embarrassing.