Puppy Seems Aggressive.. Normal?
September 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
My 3 month old cockapoo has been biting a lot ( I know that is expected of pups of course) but he growls and bites pretty hard. What is some good ideas for training him not to bite and be more gentle? I know he must grow out of a bit of it but is there something I can do? Thank you!
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Some things that helped me with my mouthy Shiba Inu puppy:
1. Hand-feed him
You can try and teach him some bite inhibition. Hand-feed him some kibble one by one. If he bites too hard while trying to get at his food, yelp in a high pitch, and ignore him for a few seconds. Then start feeding him again. This way he learns that biting hard can hurt humans and when he does that, the food and attention stops. Hand-feeding is also good for bonding and establishing your leadership.
2. When your dog has his mouth on you, it is important NOT to jerk away. Jerking away will cause you to get scratched. More importantly, sudden and quick movements may make your dog think it is a fun game and reinforce his biting/mouthing behavior. At worst, quick movements may instigate your dog’s prey drive and cause her to get aggressive. Instead, stay still and either give a No command or yelp as a puppy might do to his litter-mates when they are playing too rough. I use the yelp for puppies who are still learning and for accidental biting.
3. Yelping will startle your dog and cause him to release his mouth. Quickly follow that up by redirecting him onto a toy. You don’t need to shove it in, just put it there for him to bite on. When he starts biting and playing with the toy, praise him and play with him.
4. If your dog persists and keeps biting on you even, then stop interacting with him and ignore him.
5. If your dog amps up his biting and tries to bite your leg or clothes when you are ignoring him, then say “time-out” and remove him to a time-out area (a safe but boring room, e.g. laundry room). Leave him in there for a couple of minutes and let him out. If he starts up again, non-mark him (ack, ack), and say time-out and put him back in time-out. This time lengthen the duration to about 10-15 minutes. Note that if your dog stops the biting behavior, make sure to praise him a lot and give him good treats. Keep this up and your dog will learn that certain behaviors get him rewards while others get him into a boring room with nothing to do.
Don’t EVER let your puppy mouth you. Ya, it is cute as a puppy, but just wait until it gets older and starts biting really hard.
Google “bite inhibition” and get some good ideas to help train him. Sometimes my aussie tries to mouth me, and if I yelp and turn my back on her, she stops immediately.
He is just playing with you as if you were a puppy also. To correct this, just walk away from him anytime he gets too rough. Always play with him using a toy, and not your hands. Some people “yelp” when the puppy bites them too, but I think you can do without saying anything at all…
good luck
If your puppy keeps on biting, grab the skin on the back of his neck and give him a little shake. His mom would so the same if he bit her. You are the alpha dog in the house, put him in his place.
anytime the puppy does something aggressive, make sure that you let him know that this is not ok, i used to hold my puppies mouths closed and said NO, none of them nip, it seemed to work for me
That isn’t aggression so don’t worry about that. Do worry about a lot of leash training to establish boundaries and show the dog that biting isn’t okay
puppies like to play is all, try rewarding good behavior with treats and if they are being too agressive hold their mouths closed and tell them firmly no, but dont be mean with them
your puppy is just teething just give her a chew toy, good luck!