Hello there, i've posted here before and i'm still having problems with my GR, Bailey. He is now 14 weeks old. At 11 weeks we took him to a 'puppy party'. There were 6 puppies of varying ages and breeds, and they were allowed to run wild for an hour. Although i had been told to find a more organised class, there were any that weren't fully booked for the time being. i was fully assured by the puppy party leader however that letting the dogs do their thing was the best thing possible for Bailey.

  I now really regret taking him :(
  There was an extremely hyper cocker bitch, who would yap and yap, and anything that went in her way would get nipped. She seemed to take a liking to Bailey and would not give up on him. Bailey would try to run away but she'd hold on to his tail.
  Eventually Bailey was cornered and he lashed out, baring teeth, snarling and lunging for her. This was not normal puppy play, and as he pinned the cocker down he kept snarling, growling and would go for her if she tried to move. I tried to move Bailey out of the way, but the leader warned me i'd get bitten if i intefered, but eventually she pulled Bailey off by the scruff of his neck.
  Since then, Bailey has met another well behaved young cocker in the street, and he attempted to attack her too, for no reason. He has also attempted to pin down a staff and any other dog which is smaller than him.
  On walks, if he meets another bigger dog, at first he is ok, but he holds a very dominant stance and will attempt to mount them if they stay still long enough.
  On top of this, he has started to growl at us if we attempt to take a toy, or anything away from him :(
  I'm extremely upset, as is my husband and children. I know this will get worse if left as he's only 14 weeks. if anyone could please offer us reassurance or advice, i'd be very grateful.
  Jasmine

Jasmine,

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience - as has Bailey!  I'm no expert on puppy parties but it seems that Bailey's been a bit scared by it and is now reacting out of fear.  Hope an expert comes along soon to help you out.

Joe :)

Who the heck are these people running these 'puppy classes' 
               What happens to a pup in the first 12wks of their lives 'will make them or break them for the rest of their lives'
Prevention is better than cure and I do hope that you are not the same person who was advised against these classes:(   I feel for you and would like to help but I think you would be best with 'hands on' with a behaviourist, cos if you get it wrong now you will not cure him. I'm sorry but I would like to give the 'party leader' a piece of my mind

tcarlaidh, they are run by a chain of veterinary surgeries, and it would seem that every puppy which goes through their doors is advised to attend for their own pups sake.  :(
   I didn't realise they would be so unorganised and how detrimental they could be :(

Puppy parties are "The Thing" these days but quite frankly they are fraught! So much depends on the people running them. My local vet has one run by a vet nurse. From that you would believe that it must be ok but I ask you, "What makes a vet nurse an expert?" She may be but it is not part of the vet college syllabus. There is so much risk attached to them that I personally would not take a puppy of mine along. I suppose it's just being big headed but I figure I can do a better job of socialising my puppies.

OK, I know there are some very good ones out there but there are also some poor ones just as there are good and bad training classes. The problem with puppy parties is that because of the younger age the potential for damage is so much greater.

Regards, John

The other problem with these puppy classes is 'how the pups have been reared'  if not socialised correctly the pups will have no social skills with other pups, hence what happend to Bailey. I once went to one at my vets with a pup that I had reared, she was forward going and wanting to play but I noticed a Jack russell pup reacting badly to the others. It turned out that the Russell had been taken from his siblings at 4wks old cos the breeder couldn't cope anymore!  My vet was of the name idea of 'leave them to it'....  well I left them all to it and walked out with my pup in my arms.
I hope that you can sort Bailey out, take him out often and always be aware of what may happen. Pups go through a fear stage at 12wks and unfortunately he was in a crucial stage of development when this happened.  If he were mine I would bombard him with posative experiences.  You need to meet dogs like mine who will ignore his behaviour so that he learns that it is not necessary defend himself.
Keep us posted Debbie

Oh dear.  :( 

Puppies do need to learn to interact with other pups and dogs but putting a group of pups together, some that obviously lack social skills, and letting them get on with it is fraught with danger.  I am trying to imagine a bunch of 5 year old kids locked in a room together with no adult supervision!!   I always have adult dogs present if pups are interacting off lead under my care.

Bailey will need a lot of help from some well adjusted, sociable dogs if you want him to be okay around other dogs now.  Does he get to meet any dogs off lead when you are out or do you always keep him on the lead?

Sally

Poor you :( must be very upsetting. About the growling when you try to get the toys.. could he possibly be getting too dominant over his things? i heard that  if you stand over puppies and put your hand in the food whilst their eating it should make you the dominant one because you are above him and if he bites your hand on purpose you take the food away. I'm not sure if this works but I know someone who did this with her puppy and it worked well. Maybe rubbing your scent on the toys might help? Hope it all goes well.  

Sorry Sarah but if you stand over a puppy and put your hand in his food you deserve to get bitten and if you then take the food away as punishment you will make him guard it even more next time.  It has nothing to do with dominance, he is just a puppy saying that's mine, don't take it away from me.  If you have to interfere when they are eating then add something tasty to the bowl.  As for toys, best not to take stuff away from a dog but teach him to retrieve and give it to you on command, especially a retriever. :)

Sally

As the others have said, what Bailey needs now is plenty of positive experiences, and this could be something as simple as walking past another dog in the park and the dog ignores him ;)  Some exposure to other dogs in a training environment, so long as it's controlled, probably wouldn't do him any harm either - and would do your confidence the world of good.  Go to www.puppyschool.co.uk/uk_train.co.uk for a list of trainers hand picked and trained by Gwen Bailey.

Sorry Sally but I dont have a puppy. This is what I heard from a friend and it seemed to work for her.

'S okay ;)

Thankyou all for your comments.

  I have been taking him to the park in the hope we'll meet some nice dogs. Unfortunately, he is now nervous and fearful of any dog which barks, be it at him or not, he will immediately go to run behind me. This is not agressive barking i'm talking about, but any type and be it directed at him or not, it doesn't matter.

  Other than that, he is much better with older, calm dogs. In fact so much so, that when he gets really involved in play he'll try and run after the other dog, which is why i have to keep him on a long lead.

He is extremely intelligent though and due to him being so highly food motivated is incredibly easy to train. He knows sit, down, roll over, paw, stay and understands where he is and isn't allowed. It's just a shame though that the bad experience he had has left him so nervous of other dogs :(

When you're in the park, and a dog barks and he runs behind you, what do you do? It is best if you completely ignore him - don't comfort, reassure, joke at him etc. Just act as if you haven't heard it and pretend your pup is playing happily a few feet away from you. If you give him any attention when he's acting scared it will train him that he is doing the right thing ...
:)

Hi Jeangenie,
                 No i don't reassure him, though it's so hard not to ;)
  It's scary though, some of the advice i get when i take him out. Apparently i should be feeding Bailey (14 weeks old) once a day only, use a choke chain and give him a 'good hiding' if he does something wrong!! :rolleyes:

Hi jasmine, The person who told you to use a choke chain sholud wear one himself then maybe they wont offer bad advice qiute so freely.

Some people, eh? :rolleyes: I remember a while back, someone assuring me that only pedigree puppies were fed more than once a day because they were spoilt!