Our 10 week old working cocker puppy is nipping, barking and lunging at us. 75% of the time he's lovely, but seems to get very aggressive at times.  Trying the yelping and ignoring technique but he still lunges and nips.
Please can someone advise, he's broken our skins few times today.
Is this standard he'll grow out of it behaviour and what can we do?

Thanks
Sarah

Sounds normal to me. How do you react ?

I personally never react to this behaviour & I've never had a puppy that continued to nip etc as it is non rewarding. When they stop the behaviour I reward the puppy with some inactive play. They soon realise that nipping etc is unrewarding & stop even trying.

Everyone has to be consistent with the reaction in order for the puppy to learn. All my dogs are working bred & have high drive just like working dogs of other breeds.

Thanks for replying.

We have been trying to yelp like his mother/siblings might do and turn our back on him but this seems to make it worse, the worst nipping seems to occur when we turn our back on him.
It usually starts from a gentle play, he might just be sat on our lap and he just starts to nip and bark, I know he's very young but I'd like to can this before he gets bigger and stronger..

Oh dear what you are doing is making it rewarding. In the litter puppies learn by using their mouths & adults( including their mother)will allow a lot of nipping etc & not react to it, it it becomes too much or the adult gets fed up the adult will get up & move away. It's not until they reach around 6 months that adults will start to "tell off"

When he starts to nip etc simply stop interaction immediately & reward when he stops

I've done the non reaction for all the puppies I have had being advised by an experienced shepherd many many years ago that this was the way to go especially with working dogs.

By reacting in any way that interacts with the puppy makes it rewarding even just saying ouch or no etc. Ignoring(& moving out of the room if you cannot not react to the pain) doesn't reward the behaviour & is what adult dogs do

You need to be very persistent and consistant over how you handle this. I also find totally ignoring is the best policy. I spent quite a bit of time standing in the corner, arms crossed and nose pressed to the wall until my pup stopped being such a pain. If she was too ott then I walked out of the room for a short time and left her alone. If she started nipping and biting when I came back, then out I went until she finally cottoned on that if she didn't play fair then she didn't have my attention. But you need to repeat, repeat, repeat with out fail until they finally get it.
Also bear in one that an overtired puppy can be its own worse enemy and it may just be best to pop them in the crate with something to occupy it's jaws like a tasty chew or a filled Kong to lick out. After a snooze they seem to return to being nice cuddly pup until the next time.
Puppies are often worse in the evening from round about 6pm for a couple of hours.

It does get better

Ok, that's great advice, thank you for taking the time to reply, this is quite a learning curve!

Thank you for the reassurance
'It does get better' need to hear that!

We have been doing it wrong, fortunately not for long so new technique will start tomorrow.
Interesting that you say 6pm is a bit of a trigger time, that is what we are oberving.
Really appreciate the advice thank you!

As suggested, with some puppies, yelping only brings them back for more "yipee, I'm getting a reaction".   If you watch siblings in the nest, when one attacks another, the one being attacked will probably yelp but also TURN AWAY.  It's the turning away that matters ....... and in humans, that is best copied by ending the contact.   Apart from trying not to get the puppy quite so worked up/excited (hard ), if this happens, end the playingm, stand up, say No Biting! so hopefully the puppy understands about unwanted behaviour, take the puppy out to empty and back to where he sleeps.  Leave him to settle down for a nap - and you really should be using a crate so there's no possibility of him chasing you and nipping from behind.   As puppies sleep lots, after some complaining he should settle down for a nap.

Puppies need to learn there will be consequences for actions, good or bad.

Just one concern about what's going on, which is pretty normal for puppies, this is a Cocker and some Cockers (usually solid tans) have what's called Cocker Rage.   Breeders are aware of this, and should be making sure they stay away from lines that do have this problem.   Hopefully this isn't what this is about!!

http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=64170.0. This is a useful article to help understand who to deal with this as well as why it's necessary for a pup to learn bite inhibition..

Cocker rage is very rare and some contend it was never as common as claimed sounds like a normal puppy who needs to mature and learn appropriate behaviour impulse control as do all dogs .

Well I must say your advice this morning so far has worked a miracle! No repeat of what we've been experiencing! Can't thank you all enough!

To think we'd been making it worse and puppy was delighted with the yelps!

Learning everyday
Thank you all great forum!

How lovely to have such positive feedback after very useful advice given.
This is what makes this forum special.!
Especially after recent negative comments to some posters.

Just to add we also have a (show) cocker and had exactly the same problem in her early days. I also found it helpful to remove any temptation, I used to wear a dressing gown in the morning but all the dangly bits were like a rag to a bull so I switched to tight legging and fitted top. Equally covered toes with tight socks as she had an obsession with toes! No shoes with laces just plain slip ons, so all the fun stuff with tags and bits to grab on was confined to her toys!

My sheltie does this and she is 2!!
I have never managed to stop it. My daughter has a new puppy doing the same. She got a little squirtybottle which stopped it. Lo and behold when I tried it on the sheltie, she stopped.
Louise

Using fear to train dogs is unacceptable to me. Would never have worked on my oldest who loves water being aimed at him from hosepipes or anything else, he has to be put away if I try to use the hosepipes as he tries to grab the water as it comes out. Perhaps you never tried long enough with reward based training with your dog.

This is a tiny splash of water and ideally she does not know where it comes from associated with NO!

Tiny splash of water from a squirk bottle & a human word ? How does that teach her that nipping isn't rewarding ? Sorry but using a squirk bottle IS aversion training, belongs along with chokers, pinch collars, rattle discs etc in the dark ages of dog training.

There are different methods of training and positive-only method is not necessarily the best nor is it suited for all dogs/situations.

Fwiw puppies are disciplined by their mother, and dogs are disciplined by other dogs if they overstep the boundaries. There is nothing wrong with it providing discipline is used correctly.

Isn't this a case of using the right method of achieving what you want, for the individual?    For sure, if I was too heavy with my Bassets, especially the boys, I could 'crumple' them.  I've never gone for the bottle squirting method, mainly because by the time it's to hand, it's too late   With mine, it's more about applied psychology - making them think what I want was always their idea.   Coupled with prevention/avoidance which tends to promote positive correction.

As said, I prefer the ending contact approach re mouthing.

I have used so-called choke collars on some of my hounds, those who needed more control than others and USED CORRECTLY there should be NO choking.   Pity these were ever called that.  I prefer 'slip collar' myself.   I also showed mine on fine collars like that, or martingales.  But of course, by the time they went into the ring, there was no pulling/tugging.

Fwiw puppies are disciplined by their mother, and dogs are disciplined by other dogs if they overstep the boundaries. There is nothing wrong with it providing discipline is used correctly.

If this is aimed at me, I have never seen an adult spray water at a puppy nor shout "NO", they use natural correction which doesn't include chains or other aversive items & some simply use body language with no physical contact at all.

> If this is aimed at me, I have never seen an adult spray water at a puppy nor shout "NO", they use natural correction which doesn't include chains or other aversive items & some simply use body language with no physical contact at all.

Please tell me where my my post you are quoting did I say that mother dogs spray water at puppies or use chains or items? What a ridiculous reply.