so confused, frustrated

[louie's mom]

i've read "puppy whisperer", "the loved dog", "training your puppy"..etc...
each book says different things. we've never had a dog, let alone a puppy.

my 10 week old bites us (mostly my 10 year old petite daughter) and will not stop. we pull his nape of his neck, yell OUCH, walk away, put him in time out...and everything else they suggest. he still will not stop. it's made my daughter cry she gets so frustrated. SHE wants to be with him, but he makes it impossible.
do you think he's an aggressive dog? is this a puppy-phase? are we doing something wrong?

any suggestions on what we might do. perhaps real owners of 10 week old puppies will have more realistic advice.

very appreciative!

[JenSully]

We have a 13 week old puppy. A few weeks ago she was a big time nipper, especially with my daughters (5 and . We took the advice of a dog trainer we had come in. Everytime she nips, we say a firm ouch and then EVERYONE leaves the room so that the puppy can not see or hear us. We stay away for 15 seconds and then come back in like nothing happened. In essence, we are disappearing. So, we do that process when it's her hardest nips (which really aren't that hard). If she just puts her teeth on us, we say ouch and get up and walk away. After a few days of doing this every.single.time, she's drastically decreased her nipping. It's been great, especially for my daughters.

The other BIG thing that our trainer told us was to not let the children sit on the ground to play with her. They must stand or sit on a chair or sofa. This way the kids are not at her eye level and equal to her litter mates, who should is more likely to nip.

Hope that helps!

[Mel]

I'm so sorry you are having a hard time
we went through this with Spike...he was 11 weeks when he came to us and he nipped at every chance with my two children aged 7yrs and 3yrs.

It sounds like you are doing the right things, we also did the loud "NO BITE!" and would redirect him to a chew toy or nylabone. They are teething like crazy around this time and he would 'mouth' everything.
Spike would nip and hurt the kids whenever they tried to play with him, he would also nip at my ankles when i walked away from him. We just kept on with the loud reprimand and my children were not allowed to sit down on the floor or be lower than Spike. I made them sit on the couch or on the bench or stand up over him to pet him.
I also tried to keep the kids calm around him (not easy) he gets crazy when they are crazy and will jump up and nip them.

Now at 7 months we still have the odd nip but it's the jumping up that we are working on now. Things are much better since he lost his baby teeth, he is chewing less. We DID have an incident a couple of months ago when Spike growled and snapped at my son - drawing blood on his hand ....he was chewing on a bully stick and my son went to stroke his head. Spike must have thought he was about to take the bully stick away...he was very obsessed with bully sticks so he no longer has those or any other 'animal' bone. We haven't had any problems since but i am still very cautious.

Try using a kong or nylabone or one of those teething toys that go into the fridge first...have your daughter give it to him , make him sit first and gradually he will learn that she gives him fun things. My children feed Spike, they ask him to sit and stay which he does then after they have placed his bowl into the crate they release him by saying 'go eat' then in he trots. That little routine helped to assert their position and gave them more confidence around Spike.

Good luck and keep us posted

[louie's mom]

thank you for the advice.
we've had louie for 2 weeks, and then had to leave for the weekend...leaving him with a neighbor girl who stayed at our home with him. we don't know how much she played with him, or how long/often he was put in his kennel. we were thinking that maybe he's frustrated himself...and a bit angry with us! also, we aren't sure how diligent she was with her training.

i'm trying not to get frustrated myself, but it's quite difficult. i'm so sad we had to leave him for the few days we did!!!

[Daisy'sMom]

It's probably just a puppy thing. Your puppy is still very young and is teething. We always used the command "no bite" and said it very loud and firmly. Just be consistent and with time your puppy will learn. Our Daisy did the same thing. We did eventually switch to the command "off" for almost all things and now to this day we still use "off" and she knows! We use it for everything, not just to literally get off the couch or whatever. We use it to get her stop barking or chasing, etc. We really don't have any issues anymore though. So my point is, be consistent and firm and give it time.

Oh, and I have two young children (8 1/2 and 5 yrs old). The #1 thing from day one of Daisy coming into our home was that the kids were taught to not play on the floor with Daisy. Puppies will think whoever is on the floor with them is a littermate. I found that to be very very true! So keep that in mind. But even still, if my kids would run Daisy would chase and nip and tug at their clothes. For us, it was a puppy phase and she's totally outgrown that and doesn't do it anymore.

Good luck, it will get better and easier!

[louie's mom]

Thank you daisy's mom.
When we left, Louie was doing great with the routine, and wasn't so aggressive. When we returned today, he was a completely different puppy. I have been so discouraged, and sad because if it. I'm hoping we can get him back into routine again, and manage this behavior somehow. Mt daughter cried when we were gone because she missed him.... And she cried this afternoon because he was biting/nipping at her so much. No matter what we did, didn't do, or said would calm him down.

Knowing that this is "just a phase" makes me feel a bit better. I certainly want all to feel good again!!!

[deepnite10]

Toby has always been very submissive..and sensitive to the tone of my voice..so i have to very careful to always use my normal tone of voice..

since a very young age i knew that Toby s future was going to be in therapy work..he s very submissive to people and other dogs as well as being very gentle with smaller dogs and children..at the same time i began taking class s in dog behavior..

much of what you ve described would be normal..dog grow up being even keeled..or as Caser Milan would say *balanced* as they get older..

dog have to be dogs..and its difficult to get them to be human in a home..they like to chew, mouth, bark..and alot of other stuff that s normal but, very annoying..and is some cases dangerous when small children are involved..

mouthing can be mistaken for aggressive biting..this is where a pup learns the strength of his bite..they do this with their litter mates, their mom and when they get home..they do it to you and family members..

all dogs with higher instinctive intelliegence are going to exhibit these traits..they have to taught that its ok to be a dog..but, there are time s and places that those behaviors are not allowed..rathering than saying no..say stop..*its ok to be a dog..but, not here, later*

[becka]

Louie's mom, I've written elsewhere on this forum about Sadie's biting issues, which are all now in the past. If you do a search on the site for "puppy biting" you should be able to find a lot of useful and supportive information. Bite inhibition is a learned behavior, and you may have to employ a variety of methods to teach it. I know it can be really scary and frustrating when it's going on, but it is fixable and it will pass.

[Ace's Place]

This brings back memories. I'm an adult and Ace did this to me, but only me and not my boyfriend (no kids in household). I too learned not to get on the floor with him. Used the word "Gentle" a lot to try and teach him bite inhibition and also used the baby gates to put Ace in the kitchen when I just couldn't take it anymore! I also did practice JenSully's technique of ignoring Ace for a minute while he was in the kitchen, then would let him back in the living room and he would reenter the room much more calmly. I can tell you that at 8 months of age he has been over this for awhile now - it just takes patience and commitment to always keep teaching them. I also do believe that adequate exercise, while hard at only 10 wks, does a lot to lessen frustration as he gets older. I kid you not that one day early on in Ace's life he was literally hanging off my jacket sleeve by his teeth. I was practically in tears wondering if I could manage him. I googled and read every post on aggressive dog and talked to the dog walker about it too. She reassured me her dog went through this phase and also thought perhaps my dog was smart and testing me. Puppy class helped alot too - he learned commands and I think he was less frustrated as a result. It was a form of communication we shared. Sure enough, he is such a good boy now at 8 mos I am almost in disbelief that he had me in tears so many nights. Now its mainly joy, laughter and a teensy weensy bit of naughty thrown in. Hang in there.....

[Brigadigit]

Snappy little alligator phase! That's what I call it. My sweet dog who is just about to be 2, who can mouth and play with you forever and never chomp down, when she was a baby, OMG! I thought I had the WORST dog ever. Those needle teeth don't make it any better, I thought she was an aggressive little monster who just wanted to eat me lol, and at 10 weeks your dog hasn't even started teething yet. And NOTHING ever worked, no, spraying the bitter apple stuff, pulling the hand away, ignoring her, she'd chase me down and bite my feet if I ignored her haha. Yelling NO at her would cause her to look at me, then nip at me again haha.

However, you have to remember, he's a dog, and that's how they've been playing with their littermates. You just have to teach them now it's time to play nicely. Pulling your hand away and yelling ouch works, EVEN if you think it's not because he comes right back and attacks, just keep doing that and saying NO. Over and over and over. If he gets too crazy and worked up, nap time/time out! Teething too, anything they can chew on, but to save yourself some money, ice cubes/frozen baby carrots, work wonders.

[lindamarie]

Snappy little alligator phase! That's what I call it.

GREAT description!! We probably can ALL relate!