Our 9 week old puppy is snapping and biting, the kids mostly, when they play with him, especially first thing in the morning when they get up and greet him. He doesnt do it to me or my husband. I have told them to say NO in a loud voice and put him to bed and ignore him for 5 mins after doing it. The rest of the time he is adorable.
2007-05-31 22:12:59 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Dogs
All normal behaviour. The key is consistency. If he's bad, yelp. Don't say "no". If you say "no", you are encouraging him. Yelping like a dog does teaches him that he is hurting you, soon he will realise (providing you yelp everytime) that you are very sensitive when he has his mouth on you & will stop. The ignoring him & stopping his playtime is good, though. Keep that up. Puppies do not learn straight away, it takes time. He's nine weeks old! How long have you had him, a week or just under? You are being overambitious if you expect such a young puppy to learn that fast. If he is treating everyone differently in the house, it may be down to everyone in the house treating him differently. Supervise your children & ensure that they uphold the rules that you & your husband set down else they will undermine what you are teaching the pup.
2007-06-01 02:35:01 · answer #1 · answered by loveisokay 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When you want a dog to stop a behavior you need to isolate him and not look at him or speak to him. What you are doing is attention, Negative attention is still attention and dogs prefer that to being ignored. He will continue to snap and mouth. I do not know how big he will get but hitting and holding will not stop the behavior. He will indeed bite and you will probably have him put down. He could easily really hurt a child or a senior. I am 75 and I could not visit your home and do family members have tots or infants. Violence breeds Violence. When he does anything wrong or unwanted put him in a room that is no fun. like a hall or small empty room. where he can not get into trouble. Bathrooms and garages are too much fun. It is a time out or cooling off time. May be you will need a large empty crate with a blanket over it. You have taught him that you will only go on not really playing and not really letting him know that you dislike his behavior. You are using different methods and none of it really tells him" I will not tolerate that." You must isolate and ignore. And it must be in a place where he can not see you to make eye contact. Holding and bundling is great to calm an overactive confused dog but a calm order or quiet command that is a special command not used for anything else is what you need to teach him. Come, Go, Back, Up, Leave it, are examples of commands. He gets a treat as he does the command soon he will do the command to get the treat or a hug or good boy or lets go.
2016-05-18 03:31:14 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it's just mouthing then it's normal. What I do with a new pup that does that is to 'yelp' then stand still and don't look at the pup. The yelp is what another pup or his mum would do if he got too rough, that's the language they understand. If it isn't mouthing and the pup is being aggressive it's a different matter and it could be that he has had enough of the kids and is trying to tell them so. It's important he has somewhere to go when he doesn't want to play and that he his left alone when he goes there. I know how difficult it is to let kids know that, I've brought up kids and dogs for 27 years but now is a great time to teach them both. You are doing the right thing by telling them to ignore him but a yelp may work better than a 'no', give it a try.
Good luck
2007-05-31 23:06:15 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I presume you mean that the puppy is 'mouthing'. I'm afraid that this normal. You do not say how old "the kids" (sic) are but here's my advice.
When the puppy starts to mouth a child get the child to clench his fist and let the pup mouth that. When the pup is doing that the child takes his hand away and feigns being hurt by giving a loud yell (of Pain!) A big Oooohhh!
The reason for this is, when that pup was feeding from it's mother and got a bit over-zealous and nipped her she would scream at the pup right in it's face and the pup would get relegated to the less productive teats as the other pups moved up to the more productive ones. They remember this.
I say again that this is normal behaviour for a pup and is easily overcome.
Good Luck to you all
2007-05-31 22:36:43 · answer #4 · answered by Collie 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They must ignore him when he does that, as you said. Stand still and stop showing any interest to him. It is important, because he thinks this is a game, and if humans respond to it, either by playing either by snapping him or running etc. (which is also play to the dog)he'll do it more and more. He must learn not too, because when he is old it won't be so pleasant with the big teeth.
2007-05-31 22:23:26 · answer #5 · answered by cpinatsi 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
bigfatsnake68-
Shut up that had nothing to do with the question,stupid.
Anyways, When the puppy bites make a high-pitches yelping noise and that will let the puppy know that it's playing too hard because that's what it's littermates would do.
Good luck!
2007-05-31 22:32:29 · answer #6 · answered by roflcopter 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try filling a spray bottle with water and when he jumps us or bites spray him with water it will shock him but not hurt him. The kids will love it too but only do it when the puppy is being naughty.
2007-05-31 22:23:44 · answer #7 · answered by Brian H 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hes just expressing affection they cant put their arms around you and their teeth is the only way they can hold on to you cause they love you , hell calm down hes just trying to keep your attention as a baby does when it cries , believe me I d rather have a dog 40 times over than a child and I think one day so will you
2007-05-31 22:19:19 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
when our puppy was about that age, we would use a spray bottle of water, and every time he did something wrong, we would give him a little squirt in his face. you have to do it only when you catch him doing it, if , lets say, he pooped on the floor, and you don't see him in action, spraying him will confuse him, because he wouldn' t know why he's being sprayed. worked for me. good luck.
2007-05-31 23:37:18 · answer #9 · answered by chercinbob 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
give your dog an alternative...a chew toy....I know the biting is cute now but you have to think...will it be cute when he is fully grown. replace his bad habit with another one a chew to should work just fine. make sure your kids give the puppy that as well...otherwise your puppy will think its OK to chew on people!!!
2007-05-31 22:25:19 · answer #10 · answered by j 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋