Hello everyone,

I have now had my beautiful new Golden Cocker Spaniel, Toby, for two weeks, he is now 9 weeks old.

He is settling in very nicely and has bonded really well with Malcolm and me.

We have however a really big problem with his biting, he does nothing but!

He will, on very rare occasions lick but then he starts snapping and biting and chewing straight away. When you tell him ‘NO’ he now shows his teeth and snaps back and barks at us. We have tried tapping his nose, making a sound with a rolled up newspaper or clapping our hands but he carries on. We also praise him when he chews something he is allowed. Someone told me to hold him by the scruff and gentle shake as this is what his mother would have done but he immediately answers back. It has now been advised to me to hit him with the rolled up newspaper!

What should I do? I know this is puppy behaviour but I feel that this is excessive biting and needs to be stopped a.s.a.p.

Please can you give me some advise about what to try.

Thanks very much

Nicky xx

You're right, this behaviour has to stop asap, but I do not feel that any hitting with newspaper will do any good - it will probably make the situation worse, particularly if he is as argumentative as yousay.:(

What situation is it that causes him to bite you? Are you playing with him, and if so what kind of game? He may just be getting over excited in which case just get up and leave him until he calms down.

If he is just biting for the sheer hell of it, I'm going to suggest what was recommended to me and worked incredibly quickly. Get some Bitter Apple or Bitter Lime (from your vet or a good pet store) and spray your hands liberally. He will find that you taste foul! That may be all that is needed. If he continues, have the bottle handy and spray the tiniest bit on his tongue, at the same time saying 'No bite'. As soon as he stops, praise and give him something he is allowed to chew. He will soon get the message. If you don't like the idea of giving him a spray onto his tongue, spray below and in front of his snout.

Hi Nicky

I also have a Golden Cocker boy and you sound as if you are in exactly the same position as me 8 weeks ago. Morgan was constantly biting and if you shouted at him he shouted back. If you told him 'No' he bit harder. I sprayed water at him, and shook cans of coins! In a way he saw the telling off as a game and joined in whole-heartedly. I did a search on this site and found something that worked and it's very simple. When Morgan bit, whether it was during a game or just during his mad 5 minute (you know, when they're just looking for trouble:-)), we would put him out of the room and say "out". Cockers are very much people dogs and being alone in a room for a couple of minutes (I have found) is enough reprimand.

Morgan is 19 weeks old today and I am not saying that this has turned him into an angel but he is much calmer and when he gets very excited (which still happens about a zillion times a day!:-)) I just have to say "I'll put you out.." and he calms down enough to distract him with something else to do.

I hope you get on okay. Living with a puppy is such hard work at times, especially when you aren't sure what to do for the best, but the majority of the time it is just great fun.

All the best
Shirley

Morgan

Putting him out of the room away from you is a very effective method if "no" isn't working. They want to be with you so being separated is something they don't like. The moment he bites say no - if he doesn't stop pick him straight up saying a very firm no and put him out of the room - just for a couple of minutes. Be consistent with this and he will get the message and ease up. This behaviour is very very typical of any pup of this age. You must remember to give him lots of praise when he's playing nice - but often with puppies so young, we humans don't recongnise the signs that they've either had enough or are about to nip etc. Learn to spot those signs and stop the game or settle him down - basically change the activity and you'll avoid the nip iin the first place.

Quite often men and boys encourage puppies to play rough. I don't know if there is any of that here - if so it must stop now as you are giving confusing messages to the puppy. Play rough with him and he'll expect to play rough back.

Using a paper is, imho, not apt for one so small and young. The larger breeds, maybe, but you are likely to create either a fear or attack type recognition of newspapers which could cause you problems in the future. Be firm and stubborn and he'll learn. He's only a baby. Cockers are stubborn and will answer back if they get the chance. Show him now who's boss and things'll be easier.

hth

Pam n the boys

I think you would need to be extremely careful with that spray Jean, if any got into the pups eye it would be excruciating and the naughty little begger doesn't deserve that :) I always used Shirleys method myself as she says it seems to work very well with cockers and mine soon moved on from this stage.

I agree Isabel, you do have to be careful, that is why I advocated spraying it on oneself first, and emphasized below the snout if stronger measures were needed.

And hope the snout stays still ;) :D

<<<Someone told me to hold him by the scruff and gentle shake as this is what his mother would have done >>>

This is very unlikely to be what the mother would have done.

More likely is:

She would turn around - snap her teeth next to pups ear (if it was lucky) and gone something like G-roRWw and this would take under a second. There is nothing gentle in it, it is Fast, Noisy and generally very effective. The pup is shocked and momentarily scared.

If pups continues she would repeat but the noise and snapping last slightly longer. Very rarely does one pup do it a third time in that session although it may do it again later when it forgets.

Christine

Funnily enough Christine I never saw my cocker bitch do this with any of her three litters (although I don't doubt some bitches do :)) she would put up with quite a lot of rough play and then just vacate the area, perhaps if she was in a kennel environment for instance and could not get away she might have done I don't know, she is not above giving a warning snarl to boistrous youngsters she meets out walking but her puppies certainly all left our home never having experienced this. I would be interested to know if that is the usual manner with cockers if any other cocker breeders would like to comment, perhaps that is why some people complain of the unruliness of cocker puppies - lack of parental control ;):)

Most of our bitches have disciplined their pups in the way Christine describes - it's very fast & very loud & usually the pup at the receiving end runs off screaming (even though no physical contact has been made with him/her) - they then come back to "Mum", sidling up to her & licking her face as if to say "ok, ok, you're the boss" All our litters are reared in the house so I don't think this behaviour is related to the bitch's environment. I have never seen a bitch take a pup by the scruff of the neck to reprimand it - I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I just haven't seen it :-) Some bitches don't even have to growl at a pup that's pushed it's luck a bit far, they just give a very hard stare which gets the message across - fascinating to watch. Just occasionally, we've had a gentle, diffident "Mum" who just walks away when her pups get OTT, but I find pups from such a Mum are often gentle & submissive themselves so not likely to be particuarly unruly (well, no more than you would expect from a normal baby pup anyhow :-) ) Often the common factor with owners facing problems with "unruly" pups is that they are new to puppy training & when you're a newbie, it's hard to know what is & is not normal & it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, whereas people who've been there & done it before, know that eventually things will get better though it takes a lot of hard work along the way :-)

I agree with you Jane.

I have had one bitch who was a great disciplinarian, and her mother let the pups walk all over her. The latter would seek to get away from her pups when they were a pain, the former made a point of staying with them, and using the hard stare, low growl, or quick snap approach.

The daughters litter was a lot more settled, even though there were 9, as Mum rarely disappered on them, so no clamouring for her when she left or they could see her, but not reach her, which was the case with her Mum.

Hi

We had the same problem with our border collie when she was 9/10 weeks of age. We tried different ways of stopping the biting/mouthing/snapping but in the end the only thing that worked was when my husband got her by the scruff - pined her to the floor (as gently as he could - but enough to scare her) and growled at her - from that day she has stopped all the snapping (unless she is teased or my husband is playing to rough - and then he stops straight away. I thought it looked too hard when he did it - but it worked!

Linda

I had exactly the same problem with my Bullmastiff when she was young. I found that squealing very loudly, folding my arms and turning away, completely ignoring her for a couple of minutes worked very well. Within a week she had stopped snapping at my ankles. My 13 year old daughter refused to demean herself by doing the same and as a result Ellie continued to bite her ankles for months.
Jan

Unfortunately when I tried this on my Malamute puppy he thought it was a great game :D

Melody

I had the same problem with my westie when he was about 16 weeks old, we actually had a "fight" with each other he was trying it on wanting to be the "boss" but I was just as determined as he was that I was going to be the boss", I got him by the back of the neck and held him down ( we were on the sofa) one hand on the back of his neck and the other on his back, he was growling and baring his teeth at me, but, the way I was holding him, he could not turn his head round, and all the time I was saying NO in quite a loud voice, this must have lasted at least 10 mins, then all of a sudden he stopped the growling, so I said to him in a quiet voice, good boy, be quiet, I then released my hands, and he started licking me, and I was still talking to him quietly, and ive not had this problem with him since and he is now 8 months old, he can still be wilfull, but again he is a terrier, and you have to let them know who is boss in the house, now if a stranger had come into my house at that time they would have thought, good grief I would not have a dog like that as he really sounded as if he was going to bite me, but, as I said before "he was trying it on, wanting to be the boss".