Hello,

Can anyone give me advice on my 11 week old boy pup, He keeps on biting me when i tell him off, his reaction is to bite me on the arm or whatever he can get hold of, the other day becuase i bent down to growl no he jumped up and took a chunk out of my lip. I think maybe he is asserting him self becuase he knows i'm telling him off, it happens once a day atleast but most of the other time his is lovely, people keep advising me saying, smack him on the nose, scruf him, tell him no egnor him (hard to do as he bites the back of your legs as you walk off) what we are doing at the moment is telling no (really telling him no) then putting him in his cage and egnoring him, but all his does is go to sleep. I really want to sort this out as not only does it really hurt but i am afraid he will do it when his older. Can anyone please tell me what i'm doing wrong, all ideas welcome.

I have a year old retriever who used to do this at that age.  I was advised to firmly but kindly press his tongue down against his teeth when he did this, just enough to make him release so that he realised it was wrong.  Hated doing it the firt few times but it soon stopped him.

This is not at all unusual behaviour for an 11 week old pup :) As you know, they all nip and bite and it takes time to stop them. He won't have stopped at 12 or 14 or even 16 weeks in all probability.....

My pup was highly reactive and very "bitey", and i used several combined methods to help her understand biting isn't acceptable behaviour. Some dogs respond to an "ouch" yelped, but i suspect yours may be like mine, who decides owner is the new squeaky toy of the month <g>.

I basically distracted and rewarded with a toy - so if she came towards me in excietment, i would wiggle the toy and slowly she actually started to choose to grab the toy rather than me. It was fascinating watching her make that decision in fact! :) I also either left the room immediately (very calmly, so no reaction at all for her to have manipulated) or put her out for about 2 minutes. Thus the behaviour has a consequence. To make this easier, it may be necessary to put the pup on a house lead or it may decide to play "chase".

It does take a while, and there may be an extinction burst, where the behaviour gets worse for a short period.

Hth a bit
Lindsay

Thanks you guys i will try both ideas, i'm glad i'm not on my own as i really thought it mite be something i was doing wrong,and  are relived that it is his age. Another thing he does is he askes to go outside to go to the toilet as well as me putting him out after dinner play etc.. when i do let him out he normally does go but of late goes outside and grabs whatever he can stones, moss, dirt and proceds to chew it then not come when called or intised with treats, which then ends in me running around outside in the wet in my slippers trying to catch the little monster. I was going to take him out on his lead outside to the toilet to get him used to the lead but when i did this last night he wouldent go to the toilet and ended up doing a puddle inside. Any advice. (sorry about my spelling its a bit naff!!)

Lol, mine is 13 months and he still loves to dig and chew stones etc...

The joys of Golden Retruiver ownership!

He also loves digging holes in the grass and digging up flowers....

Worth it though!

Tracey your pup sounds just like my 16 week black lab in terms of biting and eating stuff in the garden. I think as people have said it will eventually get better but in the meantime loads of patience is needed! Hector is generally starting to bite less but still has worse days when we wonder whether he will ever improve for good. The only thing I would say is that I think getting him used to his lead would be better done as a separate activity not linked to his toileting, cos you don't want to put him off his housetraining :-) Good luck!

Its so nice to know i'm not the only one with puppy problems. Harvey (thats the puppys name) is having a puppy trainer come and see him on Sunday for two hours then on the 16th he starts puppy training, i hope this will also help with the biting as it will keep him busy, he can already sit, come (when he feels like it) and last week i tought him to give paw. ( I read up and did it by clicker training) It really does work, i'm not doing anymore though until his training becuase i don't want to confuse him.

Thanks for all you advice and support please let me know anymore info as Harvey welcomes it with open paws.

Tracey,  Did you mean you tell him off when he bites you or he bites you when you tell him off?  Probably a bit of both.  Anyway whichever, it's probably best to try and avoid telling him off.  I always advise puppy owners to stay positive and look at things from the dog's point of view.  If you are having to tell him 'no' and it is causing him to get cross with you then he may be following your lead.  It is far better to teach him what you DO want him to do than what you DON'T want him to do.  If I was doing something and you said 'no' I still wouldn't know what it was you wanted me to do and I might try something else and get it wrong again.  Sometimes puppies will learn to do things that we don't want them to do because it get's them attention - as you have discovered already with the stones in the garden.

I urge you to ignore the 'smack him' and 'scruff him' advice because it will just give him another reason to bite you.  I have several dogs of my own that were untrainable according to their previous owners.  One in particular responded to negative training by eventually biting to defend himself.  (last week he won his first red rosette in agility :)  :)) So none of my dogs are ever told 'no' as a command or as part of their training.

As for the picking up stones, retrievers will pick up things, it's what they are bred for.  You need to encourage him to retrieve so that anything he puts in his mouth he will bring to you.  If you tell him he is good every time he picks up something and reward him for bringing it to you, it doesn't matter if it is his toy or a stone or your shoe, far better that he gives it to you than runs off with it, swallows it or chews it up behind the sofa.  Okay so you don't want him to pick up the stones but chasing him when he does will encourage it.  Once he has mastered the retrieve then you just reward for retrieving the things you asked him to and he may stop with the stones.
I hope your puppy trainer is using positive reward based methods.  If so I'm sure she'll back me up on this.

Sally

I have a 17 week old black lab, Alfie, who was (and still is occasionally) a mad biter!  We started puppy training when he was 12 weeks and the improvement in his biting and general behaviour is much better.  He was rather snappy when taking food, toys etc but we have taught him 'leave it' which has improved both and also the biting.  Our puppy trainer also suggested we needed to let Alfie have some off lead time with an older bitch who would show him who was boss.  We have now been walking him with our friends 13 year old lab who has well and truly put him in his place!!  He is now becoming a mild mannered puppy who knows how to behave rather than a completley hyper one!!  I spent the first 4 weeks we had Alfie with scraches and cuts over my hands (one so bad I had to have anti-biotics to stop infection) because he bite so much but even in the last few weeks things have improved hugely.  Agree with the smacking thing, just not the right way to go about it.  We too have been taught by the puppy trainer that 'no' is not a good command to use but instead ask the pup to do something positive eg sit, down, when they are doing something they shouldn't.

I like the idea with the retriving stones etc.. I'm hoping my trainer will help me with this.
I personally do not belive in smaking and never did it! Yet it is confusing when people tell you diffent ways to cope with biting. Sometimes i don't even have to tell him off, last week i was lay on the sofa, he was playing on the floor he suddenly stopped ran up and grabbed my arm which i then had to prise out of his mouth, growled no which made him worse so i agree that it does have a negative effect!. What do i do then he bites me to get him off ? I trying pushing his tongue and he doesent like it yet he still comes bake for more.
The puppy trainer only works on a reward basis, so i also hope he can point me in the right direction. My parents have a dog and my inlaws to be have a dog so i hope when he meets these after his second injection they mite put him in his place, yet his is already bigger than my parents lasa. I will try the command thing today when he is doing something wrong and let you know how i get on.

As long as the family dogs are well and vacinated you can introduce them to him before he has finished his jabs.  It is just places where dogs whose health and vaccination status is unknown that should be avoided, after all if you already had a dog wehn pup came you would not be keeping them apart.:D

My goldie (dog) came home to an 8 year old collie bitch.  He used to try his luck with her and still does sometimes but shes definaltly top dog!  They love each other now and spend most time curled up asleep together.

My main piece of advice would be to try and chill and enjoy pup!  I seemed to spend first 6 months worrying and now I look back and wish I had just relaxed and enjoyed it.

I had a private trainer for about a month and then dog classes.

Mine has just completed his gold kennel club certificate but he can still be a little bugger when he wants, but overal he is a loving, gentle giant.  Enjoy! 

I will let them meet each other then (oh i'm quite excited) Paddy (inlaws dog ) met with Harvey in my arms but i dident put him down.
I am enjoying him more and more each day and i am getting to see his character as well now, he is very lovely apart from the biting, when he is asleep he makes me laugh as he snores like an old man sometimes and the hipcups make me smile, and now i have taught him to give paw every time i go to give him his dinner all he does is hold his paw in the air (the clever sod!) so all in all he is a smasher!

I will persist with the advice given and let you know how i get on!

Thanks

A well adjusted adult dog can be such an ally over this issue with a pup.  The older dog can teach him that biting hard is not on, and get the message home in a way that the pup wil understand.  It can help you to watch the dog and at what point it tells the pup enough is enough. 

This applies to once the dog and pup are comfortable in each others company of course.

Tracey, you may want to get yourself a copy of "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey - lots of kind, but common-sensical stuff in there and takes the pup owner into adolescence..... ;);D

Lindsay

Hi Lindsay,

Already got it! My trainer advised me to get it. It's good but sometimes he hasent got all the answers to my daft questions!!

I would advise anyone who is getting a puppy to get it though as it has a lot of info!